I just watched a progamme that has me thinking muchly

[lizziec]

The programme invoved Clare Short teaching Geography for a week at a school in London where mum was a librarian years ago. I found it really very daunting. It was cringeworthy to watch her attempts to get the children under conrol and keep them there. What if I can't manage it? I bet I'll be crap at teaching. I could never, ever control 30 twelve year olds long enough to teach them history.

The real world is a scary place :/

And I have some thinking to do.

Comments

[barakta]

To be fair, Clare Short had no teaching experience at all and seemed to be all 'be my friendish' at the kids. She would have been much better to sit on the kids very hard for a lesson and then lighten up and be nice and inspirational once the kids know their responsibilities and all that guff.

I would say some of the best teachers we ever had at school were those who were very strict at first and then lightened up, after we knew what was expected of us. We usually knew that if the class misbehaved with these teachers we'd be put to work in silence or detentioned - however if we were generally good then these teachers would be brilliant.

Good luck with teaching, maybe you could find some teachers to let you sit in on their classes or something, or talk to you about teaching history....

Natalya

[slimeypete.livejournal.com]

My mum has a similar temperament to you and she does fine. She's mostly nice and mild-mannered but she knows how to turn on the heat when she's angry. She's also got a good, quirky sense of humour, like you. I think those are the three qualities that seem to make her such a good teacher - the friendliness and sense of humour mean the kids tend to like her, and if they do play up, she's capable of getting scary at them.

I'm sure you'll be fine. Of course it'll be difficult, cos teaching *is* difficult, but whilst my mum finds it very stressful she always says it's definitely worth it and she wouldn't ever consider chagning profession.