bbcteaching

*Due to a number of factors, this  was the  world's slo west intervie w, taking 4 months from start to finish. Something big must have happened in that time, but I can't think  what. First tell us about yourself. I'm Stephen, officially 44 years old. I wanted to be a teacher aged nine (arrogance started young) when a hideous teacher wouldn't let me choose books from the mobile library after some form of event happened in school. I vowed then and there that I wouldn't ever deny someone a book. 1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren't a teacher? Twenty years on from graduating, I still *love* being in the classroom. You get to be insanely creative should you wish, and I love learning around my subjects to fill the curriculum with all the bits that were lopped off. In another world I'd be an author or inventor, but as a teacher I get to be both. - 2. What advice would you give for newcomers to twitter? In the sands of time, I can't reme...

-           First tell us about yourself. So my name is Kate Owbridge, previously Kate Gilmore. I am 50 this summer and have been teaching since 1993 and a head since 2004. I am very close to my siblings: brother, sister. I love my nephew and nieces, walking in the countryside and Inspector Morse. I was brought up in south London where I lived for most of my life, but I now live in a Kentish hamlet with my partner Gary, a retired PE Head of Dept. -           1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren’t a teacher? I wanted to be a fashion designer. I had all the ideas but I couldn’t sew well enough. Then I did work experience after my O levels in a Y3 class at a local school and I loved it. That was it. If I had my time again? I always think I’d do something more exciting, but the truth is, I love teaching. -           2. What advice woul...

-           First tell us about yourself.   I’m a year 5/6 teacher teaching in Oxfordshire. I’ve lived here for 2 years - I previously taught in Reading for 4 years. I love all things music (pretending I can sing, dance, play the piano) and particularly love musicals: my favourites are Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Half a Sixpence... okay, I can’t pick one I live with my fiancé and our 2 cats, Moose and Milo! (That felt very self-indulgent) -           It’s meant to be. Can we remove “pretending”? No we cannot ;) -           1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren't a teacher? I worked as a gymnastics coach for about 8 years. Even though my mum was a primary school teacher (she retired last year after 40 years!), she never swayed me towards it - I didn’t actually decide until the very last minute when doing my UCAS applications...

-           First tell us about yourself. We'll, I'm 33 for another week or so, born and bred in South London, but I've lived in Nottingham for the past 4 years now. My partner and I have been together for the best part of 13 years and our boy is 5 on Sunday, so it's lockdown party time! I've been teaching now for 10 years and have taught all year groups in some form (including supply) but most of my career has been in KS2. I was English Lead in my previous school but I've just moved to a PRU, so it's exciting times ahead! -           1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren’t a teacher? The original plan was to go into some kind of community/social work through sport. That was my degree and I was always interested in working with young people but that never really took off. I'd done my degree and was working in pubs when I thought I better pull my finger out and figure out wha...

Everyone loves a rebel. Where would society be without those people who are willing to stick their neck out and take a risk in order to challenge the status quo? Sometimes the way things are needs to be pulled, pushed and prodded in order to make things improve. Those rebels who are trailblazers, who go off the beaten track but beckon for others to follow are vital to develop society, technology, philosophy. At times, rebellion seems futile and society pushes back hard against those who are pushing against the way things are. But looking back over history, all the inventors, scientists, philosophers or faith leaders who have given us the big ideas have been rebels. Da Vinci, Newton, Curie, Darwin, Babbage, Einstein, Turing... all had to go against society and common beliefs to carry out their work for the development of knowledge and society. True rebels leave a changed society behind them, a new world with new ideas and new opening for future rebels to take advantage of. I wonder so...

Compassion is key at any point in our profession. Our main role is to educate but we are dealing with children so compassion should be a central value of all educators. Like Doctors, it is my belief that we should live by the phrase "First, do no harm" or "Primum non nocere". Every decision we make on an Educational or behavioural basis should be framed through the idea that we are focussed on benefitting our pupils' whole self. It  has long been my view that children only learn when they feel comfortable, when a child is under high stress then learning will not take place. This is no less important than right now, in the situation we find ourselves in now. Compassion seems to have gone by the wayside in recent weeks with the announcement about schools in England "re-opening" on the 1st June. The drive behind this, arguably premature, return to school has been framed around the educational impact upon pupils having already missed weeks of learning in...

  - First tell us about yourself. I'm 29 years old, a twin (people always think that's quite cool. It's always my favourite when they ask boy or girl and I say my twin is a boy. People STILL say are you identical? How though?) and I'm a teacher. I have been teaching for 5 years. I have been in the same school since I qualified. I have taught in Year 3 for three years and Year 2 for two years. I lead Computing, RE and the curriculum at my school. I have a huge passion for reading and writing. Picture books are my favourite things to share with my children. I haven't mentioned cats yet, so I'm sure you'll be happy about that... -           You made it so far... -           1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren't a teacher? I've always wanted to help people or do something that supports people. Growing up, I wanted to be a police officer - helping the community. I'm not entire...

Unity What an important word at the moment. Apart from the odd few… individuals… that seem to have ulterior motives, the current crisis seems to have brought us all together. There will always be people who seek to take advantage of times like this but on the most part my experience is one of drawing together. It’s interesting that it takes such an extreme situation for our true ambitions to be revealed. Every school leader I have spoken to, or read about has one clear focus: pupils and staff. The mention of academic success, lost learning and the like has been few and far between. The concern has been on the individuals. The word Unity is an interesting one. Within unity is the unit, which as a Primary teacher makes me think of the Dienes equipment that we use sometimes in Maths. A small, white cube which is easily lost and often turns up in the wrong places. The unit seems unimportant, but without it the larger groups can’t be made. Each unit adds up to a ten, which adds up...

-           First tell us about yourself. My name’s Dan, and I’ve recently become a lecturer in primary initial teacher education at Worcester University after 14 years in primary classrooms. I specialise in computing at Worcester and in my previous role dovetailed teaching computing across the whole school in the afternoons with having my own year 4 class in the mornings. I’m passionate about classroom management and developing pupil-teacher relationships and classroom climates (hence the gawky Twitter name ‘Classroom Whisperer’). I don’t get out much - even before the lockdown - and spend my time with my wife, two young kids and researching for my education doctorate at the University of Birmingham. Oh, and I play football badly and support a team that makes mediocrity an aspiration - Gillingham. -           1. Why teaching? What would you be if you weren’t a teacher? To paraphras...