Act Like a Teacher: An Ultrapractical Guide to the Classroom

By Verona Wauchope

What I have aimed to do in this book is to share real-life teaching and learning issuesthose basic but most important tools, information, and knowledge that you need to be successful in the classroom. Think of this book as a handbook, a reference for everyday teaching, and refer to it as often as you need. I have outlined some of the observations, experiences, and points of view that I have found to be very important when working with teachers, students, and schools. I hope it strikes a chord with you too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543401899

Verona Wauchope

Verona is a former teacher and school principal with over 15 years of educational consultancy and coaching experience, and an indiscreet number of years as an educator. She began her career in Early Childhood Education moving then into Special Needs Education, later making the transition to High School Teaching in the Science discipline. She was a Teaching and Learning Executive at Curtin University in Western Australia and was involved in multiple educational research studies and publications. Verona has a passion for refining the techiniques of data analytics in schools and enjoys assisting educators in improving learning opportunities for students and being the best they can be. Verona holds a Masters degree in Education (Lingusitics/ Special Needs) having completed her Thesis in Bilingual Education in Germany. Verona is currently completing her Doctorate in Law and Education.

Book preview

ACT

LIKE A

TEACHER

AN ULTRAPRACTICAL GUIDE

TO THE CLASSROOM

VERONA WAUCHOPE

Copyright © 2017 by Verona Wauchope.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2017910703

ISBN:                 Hardcover                               978-1-5434-0191-2

                          Softcover                                  978-1-5434-0190-5

                          eBook                                        978-1-5434-0189-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/28/2017

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

763196

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The Cold, Hard Truth!

Chapter 2: The First Gig

Chapter 3: Put a Lid on It!

Chapter 4: Face the Day

Chapter 5: Starting Well

Chapter 6: Sweating Over Your Unit/Curriculum

Chapter 7: Dealing with Students!

Chapter 8: Some Common Misconceptions

Chapter 9: The Three Cs: Colleagues, Collaboration, and Counsel

Chapter 10: Parents

Chapter 11: Teachers Bullying Teachers at Work

Chapter 12: Half a Degree of Separation

Chapter 13: Your Next Move!

To my wonderful Dan, and our six beautiful children, Brooke, Kurt, Matt, Luke, Jed, and Dominik.

You make life such an interesting journey, and I learn something new from each of you every day.

And to Clive, Pete and Tom, the most brilliant teachers I know, thank you! xxx

PREFACE

I am a teacher. That’s what I do. I am also a sociologist. That’s my discipline. I watch, I learn, I think, and I ask questions. This will always be who I am.

Many times, I have wondered why so much educational theory is bad sociology. Where is the connection with the practical application of good teaching? Why are the educational psychologists not interested in what good teachers actually do? And if they do become interested, it is only to formulate a very prescriptive viewpoint or some complex theory that will not help you to teach!

Why are there so many books on politics and theories of education? Do we care when we are dropped in front of a lecture theatre of 300 adolescent first-year university students—or, worse still, thirty year nine students—what the politics are? We need strategy, and we need it yesterday!

There is one area of psychology that I am very interested in more than any other, one that has helped me to understand and make sense of why we do what we do. That is the psychological theory that originates from the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (A Theory of Human Motivation).

Maslow believes that humans are motivated by their needs, predetermined in order of importance. For example, when the basic needs of human survival are met, such as air and water, humans look to fulfil the next level, such as nourishment, shelter, and warmth. When they have achieved all physiological needs, then the focus is on a higher level, the social needs: friendship, intimacy, and family. Needs of self and esteem are then sought to be fulfilled. The need to belong and be valued by others is generally a normal human desire.

Self-actualisation is the final step or motivation in Maslow’s hierarchy. This is the motivation to look introspectively and ask, ‘Why am I doing this? What do I want to achieve? What are the possible outcomes for me?’ This, of course, manifests only when the needs at the lower level are met.

If this is how it all works, and it does seem to make perfect sense, then why are we trying to teach our educators grand theories of educational psychology? Does this not seem a little backwards in the hierarchy of human needs? Do teachers need to know why before they learn how?

What motivation is there for a graduate teacher to learn, in great depths of knowledge, about the sociology or politics of education?

Would it not make sense to share with teachers that tacit taken-for-granted knowledge of teaching and help them apply it to their discipline and to unlock the mysteries of motivating students, dealing with problem students, plagiarism issues, responding to students with mental disorders, coping with parents, assessment strategies, teaching a class, other teachers, and taking a lab or a tutorial? These are the physiological needs of teaching.

Why then do we put them at the top end of the pyramid, the highest level in the hierarchy of needs? Why do we learn about these basic needs of survival in the classroom only when we get there?

What I have aimed to do in this book is to share real-life teaching and learning issues—those basic but most important tools, information, and knowledge that you need to be successful in the classroom.

This book is a book