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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010
In most of our school experience there was an amazing teacher - the teacher who changes our outlook on life, helped us succeed and whose lessons we will never forget. What made them that outstanding teacher and what are the tips and techniques and tactics that make some teachers really first class? How do I improve my skills? How can I get behaviour right? How can I motivate pupils who don't seem to want to learn? Carefully blending practical advice, real life scenarios and expert opinion this book will make any teaching career more rewarding.
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Praise for How to be an Amazing Teacher
Caroline Bentley-Davies has produced a significant resource to support teachers in reviewing and reflecting on their professional practice. Her approach is authoritative and practical and she explores in a detailed and systematic manner the incredibly complex range of variables that enable effective learning. Her focus on reflection in practice is particularly welcome and she provides a range of resources to encourage teachers to become more aware and robust about their own teaching. Her insights and examples ensure that this will be a highly credible and relevant resource for teachers committed to supporting and enabling effective learning.
John West-Burnham, Professor of Educational Leadership St Mary’s University College
How to be an Amazing Teacher does what it says on the cover. Caroline has provided a lifelong teaching resource that will give new teachers tools and techniques that can be used immediately, as well as giving more established educators refreshing ideas and strategies to build off their own best practice.
Her writing style is a delightful balance between engaging personalisation and clear instruction and example. I have already used some of her ideas and intend to keep it on that special shelf of books that are well read and well used.
If you haven’t got a copy, go and get one. If you have a copy, go and get one for someone else. They will thank you for it and so will their students.
Roy Leighton, educator, author and values consultant
Caroline captures the enthusiasm amazing teachers strive for, as well as all that is positive in this challenging and rewarding career. Full of highly practical suggestions and advice.
Sue Lane, Principal Teaching and Learning Consultant Peterborough Local Authority
An extremely readable and practical guide, made particularly accessible and useful by the personal approach of an excellent practitioner.
Nicola Copitch, Secondary Lecturer in Teaching University of Wolverhampton
A really valuable book for all teachers. This really made me reflect on my classroom skills again. I loved the section on ‘student voice’, which really focused on the students’ experience in the classroom.
Kate Lewis, Advanced Skills Teacher Arthur Mellows Village College
The value of this book is its focus on teaching and learning as a fundamentally interpersonal process in which dialogue and relationships are central rather than ‘off the peg’ techniques. Bentley-Davies presents a picture of teaching and learning as an invigoratingly open-ended voyage of reflective discovery which works best when pupils and teachers are in partnership and teachers are clear-sighted about their own strengths and development targets.
Carey Philpott, Head of the Centre for Excellence in Teacher Education, University of Strathclyde
Caroline Bentley-Davies provides a checklist of what outstanding teachers do that I wish I’d seen when I was getting started. The book is practical, uplifting and immensely reassuring. It reminds us that whilst brilliant teachers are awe-inspiring to watch, their skills are essentially learnable. Caroline Bentley-Davies’ book provides a canny mix of advice and opportunities for reflection on the journey towards being an outstanding teacher. The style is eminently calm and practical.
Geoff Barton, Headteacher, King Edward VI School
This book jumps off the page from the very beginning, grabs you and never lets go. Every chapter is a gem. Each has excitement, ideas, tools. What’s more, it covers the waterfront of everything that is key without ever getting bogged down. Caroline Bentley-Davies is Amazing. Read it as soon as you can if you want to appreciate and improve your teaching to gain maximum benefit.
Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/University of Toronto
How to be an Amazing Teacher
Make a Difference
Caroline Bentley-Davies
Acknowledgments
With thanks to: Beverley Randell, Caroline Lenton and all of the Crown House team for their expertise and patience. Special thanks to Natalie Packer, consultant, for her expertise. A huge thank you to all of the teachers who generously shared their strategies for successful teaching, particularly many of the teachers at The Deepings School for giving me my very first experience of the power of Amazing teaching – most memorably Mrs Julie Chapman, Mr Gerry Cannings and Mrs V. Poletti. Finally, to my parents for developing my love of learning, and most importantly to my husband, Ross, for encouraging me to write this book in the first place.
Contents
Praise
Title Page
Acknowledgments
Introduction: How to be an Amazing Teacher
Section I. The Skills of an Amazing Teacher
1. Why We Need to Foster the Skills of an Amazing Teacher
2. What Do Students Really Want from their Teachers?
3. Characteristics, Charisma and Classroom Climate
4. Teaching Outstanding Lessons and Learning from Other Teachers
5. Lesson Planning
6. Asking the Right Questions
7. Amazing Group Work: Making it Happen
8. Plenary Perfect
9. Handy Hints for Homework
Section II. Assessment for Learning and the Amazing Teacher
10. Assessment for Learning: How to Make it Happen in Your Lessons
Section III. Achievement for All
11. Everybody Counts: Dealing with Underachieving Boys
12. Ensuring the Progress of SEN Students
13. Teaching Gifted and Talented Students
Section IV. Solving Tricky Issues and Difficulties
14. Body Language: The Power of Positivity
15. Dealing with Difficult Classes
16. Dealing with Difficult People
17. Lifestyle Management: Time Management and Workload
18. Keeping Yourself Fresh and Interested
About Caroline Bentley-Davies
Further reading and resources
Index
Copyright
Introduction
How to be an Amazing Teacher
In most people’s school experience there was an amazing teacher: the teacher who changed their outlook on life, helped them to succeed and whose lessons will never be forgotten. Don’t we all dream of being that teacher? Like all of us, I started my learning journey as a student. I was fortunate enough to have a great many good teachers and some that were really special. They had that ‘amazing’ quality which meant that at the end of their lessons we would look at our watches surprised that an hour had flown by so quickly. We were engrossed and fascinated by their lessons, but also by the skills they had in fostering and nurturing us as individuals, encouraging us to challenge ourselves and attempt the seemingly impossible.
The successful teachers (and yes there were some that certainly weren’t, and I bet we’ve all had those!) seemed to make teaching appear relatively easy. They had a natural ease and humorous rapport with even the most difficult of classes (for one of my subjects I was in the second from bottom set – and in a traditional comprehensive, you can imagine that student behaviour could be challenging at times). It was only when I started teaching as a PGCE student myself that I realised that although we might think we have a natural aptitude for teaching – and the belief that some teachers are ‘born and not made’ – it really isn’t that simple.
I have since watched thousands of teachers teach lessons in schools across the country, from the inner city to the country idyll. Some lessons have been truly outstanding; others nothing short of terrible (for a myriad of different reasons). What I will say is that from each and every one I have learnt something, whether it is a crucial aspect of lesson planning, the best way to create a learning environment or strategies to coax an excellent answer out of a nervous student. However, as educationalists we must believe that an individual’s skills can be strengthened and improved – in ourselves as well as in those we teach.
My lessons were judged as outstanding when, as a young teacher of 23, the large comprehensive school I was teaching in was inspected. I was rather surprised by this as during the Ofsted inspection I had been teaching in the way I always had and in fact two students had been extremely disruptive in one of the lessons. I had dealt with them just as I would have done with any other disruptive student, so in some respects my behaviour management skills were outstanding – which allowed me to focus on the important job of teaching and learning in the lesson. However, other skills that an outstanding teacher possesses, such as the mastery of interpersonal skills, the ability to track and help students progress over the longer term and finally, but nonetheless importantly, the ability to make sure that everybody counts – including yourself – was a skill I did not finally master until much later as a head of department.
And I’m still learning! This book has been written because when I meet teachers or run INSET days they have a host of questions they want answered: What makes an outstanding teacher? How do I improve my skills? How can you get behaviour right? How can I motivate the students who don’t seem to want to learn? These questions not only come from newly qualified teachers but also those with countless years of experience, and very often senior leaders in charge of the quality of teaching and learning in a school. This book attempts to answer some of the most pertinent questions by reference to my own diverse experience of teaching as well as my observations of amazing teachers and all those that span the spectrum, from good to bad.
As a teacher, I keep up with a wide range of my ex-students and, as those of you who have been teaching for more than a decade will know, sooner or later if you have had a positive impact on your students you will be contacted through Facebook, by email or even memorably the fruit and veg aisle of Sainsbury’s: ‘Miss, I’ve become a teacher and it’s because of your lessons on photosynthesis/Charles I/Macbeth/equations!’ What I didn’t quite expect while meeting up with an ex-student, sipping coffee and tackling a huge slice of chocolate cake, was to be asked a huge range of questions about how to become ‘the best teacher possible’. My protégé’s pen was hopefully poised over her notebook. ‘What I want is actual rock solid tips …’ she urged. This book is the result.
How you use the book is up to you. However, there are a few guiding principles that underpin the way it has been written so understanding them will help you to get the most out of it. As you will realise on your quest to become an amazing teacher, learning is a dynamic process. Yes I know, like my ex-student you just want the failsafe guide to get the outstanding lesson judgement by Ofsted or know the top ten tips before you move on to your next job. You can certainly read the book like this: you will gain lots of tips and strategies to use in the classroom and it will provide food for thought and help you on your way.
However, learning is a process. To become an amazing teacher, for you, might involve changing some habits, learning some new skills or even (scary stuff) taking some risks. With this in mind, at key moments there are thinkingpoints. The idea behind them is that this concept is really rather important and you may wish to pause and reflect on it for a while. They highlight a key issue and ask you: Do you agree? Is this the case for you? Is this the sort of behaviour or rapport we would see if we peeked into your classroom? It should make you think and, as we know, this is how the best learning takes place.
Similarly, at the end of most chapters there are reflectionmoments. These encourage you to note down for yourself: What are the three things that have helped you in this chapter? What has caused you to think? What might you want to try in your lessons or in your approaches with students? It also encourages you to record a couple of targets related to this area. As research has shown, writing down our intentions is a key way of ensuring that they happen. It provides not only a written reminder but a commitment to try out some strategies, thought processes or teaching techniques that you have decided might help you. Then of course it is up to you to make the effort to try them, evaluate them and if they work (and remember not everything works first time – you will need to practise) to add them to your repertoire. There is sufficient space in each section of the book for you to write these down on the page directly but should you prefer it, or if the copy belongs to the school’s teaching and learning group, you may like to buy a small notebook and keep your intentions private. Either way, I do urge you to make a note of them.
It is possible to just dip into the book, particularly if you feel that an aspect of your teaching requires a boost and you have not got the time to read it through from beginning to end. Each section is a complete whole and it will make perfect sense if read in this way. Individual chapters likewise make good INSET reference material or are helpful as a way of improving one part of your practice.
However, the real intention was for the book to be read from start to finish. There is good sense in this, since it takes you on the journey of an amazing teacher. Section I looks at the key characteristics and skills of an amazing teacher and just as importantly students’ perspectives on this (they are not always the same as teachers’ views). Section II moves on to the practicalities or the ‘nuts and bolts’ of developing the skills of an amazing teacher, offering concrete strategies about aspects of lesson planning and delivery that can be readily translated into the classroom. Section III looks at some issues behind underachievement and the groups most usually affected by this: boys, special educational needs (SEN) students and surprisingly Gifted and Talented students. Finally, Section IV tackles some of the areas of teaching that can be problematic for all of us on occasion and deals with issues such as difficulties in the classroom, the need for positivity in dealings with students and the need for balance in our teaching lives.
This book is result of the thousands of questions, experiences and lessons. Keep open minded and try out some of the techniques described. Let me know what works for you – I’m always keen to know about your own tips and ideas that you think are worth sharing. Remember, like our students we are all still learning and it is the acceptance of this mindset and the willingness to take chances in developing new skills that sets us on the way to becoming an amazing teacher.
Enjoy!
Caroline Bentley-Davies www.bentley-davies.co.uk
Section I
The Skills of an Amazing Teacher
Chapter 2
