...Knowing About Teaching - Purpose

I'm writing this in my temporary office: room 555 of the Aston Business School, Birmingham. (I've been given a neat little room, with the expected luxuries - tea & coffee, a tiny kettle, tiny soap etc.)  It's the venue for the Teacher Education Advancement Network (TEAN) Annual Conference.  The event is mainly attended by professionals engaged in teacher training and/or development of some kind.  This post is simply the result of my brief reflections on a theme which emerged during the conference... The Purpose of Teaching.
 
How would you answer, if I asked you about the purpose of teaching?

...Reflective Journals

I often recommend that teachers keep a reflective journal, to support their ongoing professional development. This brief post describes the What? Why? & the How? of reflective journal writing, and includes an explanation of the value of this particular approach to learning.

...Interview Strategy

We held UEL's Recruitment Fair yesterday. The day was organised to provide trainee teachers with all the information they needed to secure an ECT post by the end of their PGCE/School Direct programme. Having interviewed many candidates for training places and teaching posts, I was asked to contribute to a session entitled 'Answering Interview Questions'. This post shares a summary of the guidance I gave, a copy of the presentation I displayed (using Prezi), and a video I used to emphasize the need for decent preparation.

Rather than just dwelling on the questions that potential employers were likely to ask, I decided to discuss the interview process in broader terms and to provide trainees with a strategy for success. Apologies if some of the advice seems fairly obvious, but I've seen first hand the effect that a lack of forward planning can have on interview day... Get to work!

...Demo Lessons

I have written this post with pre-service trainee teachers in mind... Naturally, a key consideration for you during your training is likely to be one of securing a job (and a salary) by the end of it. However, as one might expect, many head teachers are reluctant to recruit new staff without first seeing them teach.

And rightly so. Recruitment itself takes time and money. And the stakes are high for school leaders for whom the quality of teaching is usually a prime concern.

Also, teaching is a complex, dynamic profession. It requires intelligent, flexible, responsive individuals to make effective use of a range of strategies for ensuring that the pupils in their classes make progress. By observing you teach a lesson, and witnessing your practical abilities, a potential employer is in a much stronger position to confidently make you a job offer.