Years 10 and 11 in today and so I had a very relaxed day. Gave my Year 11s a past paper and then sat in the Maths workroom, drinking tea and praying for more snow and sub-zero temperatures.
Someone asked me the other day whether my goal is to be a head teacher. When I said no, I got the sense that he didn't understand why not and therefore what is driving me to do this or indeed where the challenge is.
Right now, striving to be a reasonable teacher is challenge enough. My goal is to be a great classroom teacher, someone who the children respect and engages them enough to pay attention, work hard and do the best they can, maybe even achieving something they didn't think possible. Given some of the experiences I've had so far, it's a very tall order. The vast majority of the classes I teach are passive - not in the sense of being quiet and well-behaved (I wish), but in the way they approach learning. Most of them want you to do the work for them and if they "don't get it" then they give up and blame someone or something else for their inability to figure it out.
The reality is that they don't know how to think for themselves. My overriding memory of school was not having the option - you had to think for yourself. No-one was going to do it for you and if you "didn't get" something, then you kept trying until you figured it out. It sure as hell wasn't anyone else's fault.
