Broadened Curriculums, stronger relationships and more enjoyable teaching

Background

I recently took the decision to move schools, this has been a difficult process for me and the final few weeks at my school exposed some emotional ties I didn’t even recognise I had with colleagues and students (more on this in a later blog).

The one event I’d like to highlight is a visit I took to my school’s production of Evita. After telling my year 11s it would be unlikely that I would be going to their prom for various reasons I promised I would go watch the school production which many of them performed in.

On This Night of a Thousand Stars

I was fortunate enough to be able to help talk to a few students backstage before the production, instantly I knew there was something not quite tangible in the air: something, for lack of a less clichéd term, magical.

The look of excitement on the students faces was invigorating, the anticipation was mounting: makeup was being applied, hair fixed, lines rehearsed, nerves raised and consequently settled. I left the backstage and took my seat unsure what to expect, the only school performances I have ever encountered were often a terrible affair, ill attended and devoid of real passion or (in many cases) talent.

The Art of the Possible

Right from the start I was truly blown away by the entire performance: the costumes, the music, the atmosphere, the production, but most importantly the students.

I was awe-inspired, dumbfounded and bamboozled! Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that students of this age could produce something as truly wonderful as what I was witnessing. From start the finish the students had truly put on a fantastic spectacle, one I would happily pay to see again at a higher cost than I did.

High Flying, adored

The obvious stars of the show were magnificent for sure, but for me the students who really stood out were many of minor characters. Students I teach regularly and never get to see in this light. Students who often appear shy and introverted were, in front of my own eyes, blasting out their tunes to a packed crowd with a beaming smile and a supreme level of confidence.

And they were all adored for it, during the intermission I overheard several conversations to the similar effect of amazement. Many of the parents and other students in the crowd put into words what I was struggling to at the time.

A New Argentina

I have always defended the extra-curricular activities that students partake in blindly: I’ve always known that there is a reason for these things to exist and defend vociferously students rights to a broader education beyond the classroom.

After seeing this performance, I am now surer than ever that the arts, like all subjects, deserve the respect that is often denied them, and should not be discarded so readily in the pursuit of the narrow and academically rigorous curriculum. 

The music team at my school had put in months of work alongside the students and it was truly a fantastic spectacle, one I am very glad I saw before I left my school. And it allowed me to glimpse into another side of students lives. One which helped me build relationships further with my students before leaving them.

Actions are more powerful than words

When I start at my new school after Easter, I am determined to put what I learned from this experience into practice. I think that student-teacher relationships are one of the single most important things to be developed at any school. It allows us to see them for who they are, to help them when they fall and celebrate with them when they succeed.

This is what the job is about. This is why I love it. And this experience is one I will cherish forever when looking back at my time at Swavesey Village College.

To any new aspiring teacher, I’d say the following: Use any opportunity you can to see students in as many ways as possible: go on trips; participate in extracurricular clubs; watch school plays and performances; talk to them about their lives.

It really is worth it.