Although most US teachers have now finished for the summer, here in the UK we’ve another half-term (c.7 weeks) left to go. Usually after a break I’m brimming with ideas that I want to implement and the enthusiasm with which to do it. This time I’ve got the former but not the latter. Here’s why…

1. Subjects

Although I teach some ICT (Information & Communications Technology), I teach mainly, over 90%, History. Whilst I love teaching History, I get frustrated at the compartmentalization of knowledge and skills. Have I tried approaching senior management to respond to things like the QCA’s Big Picture debate? Yep! But there’s no stimulus to change in a school performing well academically, is there? :s

2. School network

Our school network is abysmal. And I mean absolutely awful. Teachers can’t rely on it to access required documents on shared drives, some ICT lessons are spent with students completing meaningless paper-based tasks because ‘the network is down again’, and access to the Internet is at best sporadic. Can you imagine trying to be an edtech evangelist under these conditions? Can you even imagine teaching in the 21st century under these conditions? :o

3. Spoon-feeding

Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather have nice middle-class students to teach than rough and difficult-to-control ones (as in my previous school), but I do get sick and tired at times of their whinging. Learning is about discovery, about taking smart risks to find out new things. Unfortunately my current school is a bit of an exam factory and students expect to be spoon-fed so that they can get the grades they ‘deserve’. Unfortunately, this is an attitude shared by some parents and members of staff… :(

4. Interruptions

The last half-term of the year is seen as a bit of a fun by the students, as a time to take their foot off the pedal. But this is the time of the year when we should be consolidating learning, not swanning off on trips vaguely related to the curriculum. Learning should be fun, but that comes mainly from intrinsic motivation, not extrinsic ‘rewards’. All that ends up happening with the numerous ‘immersion days’, ‘curriculum enhancements’ and the like is interruption to teaching and learning. I don’t want to sound like a spoilsport, but we could eliminate homework if students actually spent all the time they’re in school on uninterrupted learning!

5. Career Progression

And finally, I’m frustrated by lack of career progression. Yes, I want to earn more money so my wife doesn’t have to work and can look after our 4-month old. But the main reason I want to move on up the ladder is so that people can’t veto my ideas and so I can have a greater impact on education. The brick wall I’ve come up against is lack of GCSE results from Year 11 classes. At my last interview the feedback I got was that both my interview and sample lesson were excellent. I won’t have any results until the year after next, because my current Year 10′s won’t have yet taken their exams when I’m applying for jobs next year. The teaching profession, it would appear, is still not a true meritocracy…

/whinge ;)

(Spoon-feeding photo from Sean Dreilinger, Interruption by lichtundschatten, both @ Flickr)