My Experiences in Education

Let's start with the bad one first... His name was Mr Mac. (an abbreviation in order to maintain confidentiality.) He was old, surly, tall and 'old school'. He was my math's teacher. He would greet us by saying, "good morning boys, good morning wenches. Stand in line. Boys go in first." The boys always went in first. On one particular day after settling ourselves at our desks, he stood at the board and ranted at us. He rarely asked questions, or built a sense of rapport with the class, he just stood at the board, wrote lots of diagrams and then sat at his desk and told us to get on with it. So on this particular day, whatever he had been ranting about at the front I, on probably that one occasion and one occasion only, got it! But John sitting next to me didn't. And I took great delight in sharing with John the methodology so that he too could gleam a sense of satisfaction and say, "I've cracked it". I was loudly interrupted. "Wench, why are you talking?" "I"m just explaining to John how to do it, Sir." Then there was a loud and putrid roar of laughter from the front of the room. "Ha" he said. "The blind leading the blind." And that was it, silence fell upon the room and from that day on I didn't attempt to understand what went on in maths lessons because I thought I was stupid.

Now for the good one... My task to complete before the next session was to treat my students as a gift. I led a two day speech radio programme at the Roundhouse last weekend and what I presenced for the very first time in six years of teaching, was to treat my students as a gift. And so that I did. We greeted one another, we took time to get to know one another. I asked them all to prepare a short excerpt of their work to share with the group, to sit and listen to one another and create an open space where we could all contribute to one another. I shared a piece of my own work too. We worked as a team. We worked in partners. We set tasks and agendas. We asked them what they wanted to experience over the two days and subsequently re-drafted the outline for the course. We missed bits out, added bits in, flew by the seat of our pants. I worked with one of my past students, she was there to assist and I put her in the front seat from time to time and revelled in her taking the lead. She has grown enormously since we last met. On the second day, they were set a big challenge. It took a long time for them to find the best way to overcome this challenge, it had many twists and turns. We sat and observed and directed and input when we felt it was needed and let them go slightly astray too, only to see them find their way back. They were a brilliant team. In the partnerships or trios they then split into, more challenges arose. Mostly they lacked confidence, or were finding it difficult to execute their ideas because they didn't know pro tools very well so it limited their experience and ultimate output. They made LOADS of mistakes and with each one they learnt something really valuable. We celebrated them. At the end of the day we sat and listened through to their features and it was quite remarkable what they had produced. We were entertained, we evaluated and at the very very end, one of them said to me "that was the best four quid I ever spent." I left knowing I had been truly blessed by each and every one of them. They are a gift to me. And I to them.

Sue Bowerman