#27 - True VIP's: The Teachers Who Transform Generations

Good teachers are defined  above! I  haven't words enough to praise them. 

But what about the others?  The ones who've experienced difficult pupils but haven't been able to help them overcome their difficulties?  They've lost patience and understanding with them, and the result can be harmful to both.  Who better to question on this  dilemma than the very teacher who inspired my Mimit! 

Hattie teaches music, piano and singing.   I've been struggling with both all my life, have had a string of teachers but keep giving up.  Hattie  encourages me  and for this I'm forever grateful.  However, I'm not part of a class of twenty-five or thirty youngsters, all thinking an hour's music lesson is a  good time to chat amongst themselves, or more likely, get your phone out and start texting.  

When Hattie did her training, around twenty years ago, there was emphasis on a very  important point.  'You had to positive.  The more you tell a child, or a class they're bad, they will be.  Tell a child he's good and he will be.  After all, when they come in you've no idea what's going on in their life at home.  Maybe they've had no breakfast.  Or perhaps abuse'.

The key, she says,' Find one thing the child can do that you can genuinely praise and encourage.  Find that.  The  change is transformational. You've given him respect.'

But there was another key Hattie learned in her teacher training.  'I'd write up on the board as they came in, Is My Lesson Worth Behaving For?  From the start this would cause a shift, helping pupils  to see their teacher in a different light.  

After all, as Hattie pointed out, 'It was rather like saying, if this hasn't worked for you today, perhaps I haven't prepared my lesson well enough, so it's not all your fault.'

Maybe getting the most out of our education is a bit more challenging than we're inclined to recognise?  The teachers themselves need the best training.  Parents need sharp antennae, because our  kids home environment will influence their learning and behaviour at school. 

However, being positive, encouraging, supportive at all times and in all places, is no easy task for any of us!  Besides, teaching and learning can be a  two way process.  

Although as far as the piano and I are concerned, it's a one-way, non-stop learning  project.  It's a jolly good thing I have a wonderful teacher!