'Once a teacher, always a teacher'.
I am certain at a point in your career as a teacher, someone may have used this to describe you though not necessarily as a compliment ! Indeed , it is often difficult to draw the line between our profession and our personal self. Being a teacher is our identity and we carry it forth in whatever we do, how we act and how we speak. In short, being a teacher becomes us whether we like it or not and whether we realise it or not. (On this note ,I do have to admit finding the 'teacher-esque' voice very effective in telling the neighbourhood kids off when they misbehave.)
Nevertheless, we are not just classroom teachers FOREVER. We often take on a diverse range of responsibilities and some of this may involve being leaders, administrators, mentors and specialists which may not even involve any classroom teaching commitments.I sometimes think our multifaceted profession defies any justifiable explanation within the time limits of a cocktail introduction.Try explaining what you do to a layman and you'll find yourself itching to list your never ending rainbow of daily functions ... which after 5 thought seconds lead you to surrender and simply answer the question ' So what do you do?' with..... ' Actually I er..... okay..I'm a preschool teacher'.:) You know you do a lot but really how do you explain it all?
Perhaps using the word 'preschool' before 'teacher 'immediately sets a less than important image of the profession by virtue of the playful setting itself. Think about it .....what if you said' I'm a teacher of early years' or ' I teach foundation years'. It does sound a lot more significant. So let's go to another popular variation .....' childcare teacher' ... pretty much doomed from the outset don't you think ?
So what am I saying here?Well, if corals can build an island over time, I reckon we can change our image too. No matter how we try to sell the idea of preschool teachers as professionals, I think we first need to take a good look at ourselves and ask if we project that and if we ,in all sincerity, work in a professional manner.Quality frameworks can only do so much to show quality but there is that commitment to professional integrity that only we (as a community)can uphold.
So how do we do this? Being a professional is not all about work, it is a mindset.In my observation, good teachers are interesting people.They read, they like to think and are interested in how the world works. They have found a way to be happy and that spills over to their work in the classroom. It isn't rocket science yet we haven't found a way to achieve that
sensibly without inflicting more stress on teachers in the process.Reinventing the profession without addressing teacher needs is like refurbishing a house with leak. You can only expect more plastering over time.
And on that note, as much as I agree early years teachers are not highly paid, I don't ever believe we can find a number that is 'enough' without sacrificing something else in return. No, we teachers have a different scale of success that we use to measure our work. I don't even think you can capture that in a rubric :) Reinvent your mind teachers, we do future work here.
“It's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
I am certain at a point in your career as a teacher, someone may have used this to describe you though not necessarily as a compliment ! Indeed , it is often difficult to draw the line between our profession and our personal self. Being a teacher is our identity and we carry it forth in whatever we do, how we act and how we speak. In short, being a teacher becomes us whether we like it or not and whether we realise it or not. (On this note ,I do have to admit finding the 'teacher-esque' voice very effective in telling the neighbourhood kids off when they misbehave.)
Nevertheless, we are not just classroom teachers FOREVER. We often take on a diverse range of responsibilities and some of this may involve being leaders, administrators, mentors and specialists which may not even involve any classroom teaching commitments.I sometimes think our multifaceted profession defies any justifiable explanation within the time limits of a cocktail introduction.Try explaining what you do to a layman and you'll find yourself itching to list your never ending rainbow of daily functions ... which after 5 thought seconds lead you to surrender and simply answer the question ' So what do you do?' with..... ' Actually I er..... okay..I'm a preschool teacher'.:) You know you do a lot but really how do you explain it all?
Perhaps using the word 'preschool' before 'teacher 'immediately sets a less than important image of the profession by virtue of the playful setting itself. Think about it .....what if you said' I'm a teacher of early years' or ' I teach foundation years'. It does sound a lot more significant. So let's go to another popular variation .....' childcare teacher' ... pretty much doomed from the outset don't you think ?
So what am I saying here?Well, if corals can build an island over time, I reckon we can change our image too. No matter how we try to sell the idea of preschool teachers as professionals, I think we first need to take a good look at ourselves and ask if we project that and if we ,in all sincerity, work in a professional manner.Quality frameworks can only do so much to show quality but there is that commitment to professional integrity that only we (as a community)can uphold.
So how do we do this? Being a professional is not all about work, it is a mindset.In my observation, good teachers are interesting people.They read, they like to think and are interested in how the world works. They have found a way to be happy and that spills over to their work in the classroom. It isn't rocket science yet we haven't found a way to achieve that
sensibly without inflicting more stress on teachers in the process.Reinventing the profession without addressing teacher needs is like refurbishing a house with leak. You can only expect more plastering over time.
And on that note, as much as I agree early years teachers are not highly paid, I don't ever believe we can find a number that is 'enough' without sacrificing something else in return. No, we teachers have a different scale of success that we use to measure our work. I don't even think you can capture that in a rubric :) Reinvent your mind teachers, we do future work here.
“It's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
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