Guerrilla Teaching

Revolutionary tactics for teachers on the ground, in real classrooms, working with real children, trying to make a real difference

Jonathan Lear

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781781352328
• eBook ISBN: 9781781352342
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Guerrilla Teaching is a revolution. Not a flag-waving, drum-beating revolution, but an underground revolution, a classroom revolution. It's not about changing policy or influencing government; it's about doing what you know to be right, regardless of what you're told. It's sound advice for people on the ground: people in real classrooms, working with real children, trying to make a real difference. Jonathan Lear's new book, Guerrilla Teaching, is packed with ideas to refresh teaching practice - combining direct teaching with creative child-led learning - and forge cross-curricular links to create engaging, motivating and fun learning experiences. Ultimately, Guerrilla Teaching is about making a difference. It's a book Jonathan Lear never meant to write, but it was just too important not to. Guerrilla: to be a member of an unofficial group of combatants using the element of surprise to harass a larger less mobile target. Guerrilla teaching: To put children, and their learning, at the heart of lessons. To embrace problem-solving and risk-taking in the classroom. To be adaptable and creative. To think about the skills and knowledge children will need in the future. To stand up and make sure children get the education they deserve (even if it means subverting the system!). Filled with thoughts, ideas and strategies that will help to develop creativity and creative thinking in the primary classroom, Guerrilla Teaching is for trainee teachers, new teachers, teaching assistants, experienced teachers and head teachers - there's something for everyone!

PART I

Starting a Revolution

Chapter 1

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS

Starting a revolution could be seen as a big step, and it would definitely be a risky thing to do without first doing some serious groundwork. To save time, I’ve drawn together (from literally minutes of research) what seem to be the qualities that are common to all good guerrillas.

In terms of recruitment, education has traditionally always been about qualifications. While some people might argue that we should be employing the most academically gifted and highly qualified people to teach our young people, others might recall the chemistry teacher they had at secondary school who, despite having a PhD, intensely disliked children, and couldn’t teach his way out of a paper bag.

I think it’s about time we cut out all of the uncertainty tied up with qualifications and instead, went for a much more robust system of personality cross-matching to see whether or not potential recruits have what it takes.

For starters, it seems that effective guerrillas fall into one of four types.

Thinkers, schemers and leaders

You like to plan ahead, and pride yourself on being prepared for any eventuality. Your organisational skills make you the go-to person in a crisis, and you’ve got a natty spreadsheet that’s got the whole staff’s tea and coffee requirements mapped out for ease of reference.

Militants, rabble-rousers and rule-breakers

You don’t suffer fools and you’re passionate about what you do. You’re a committed, all-action, no-nonsense teaching machine, and – though no one would say it to your face – there’s probably some borderline anger management issues bubbling under the surface there too.

Oddballs, mavericks and crackpots

You live life on the edge and love nothing better than flying by the seat of your (novelty) pants. Anything could happen in your classroom – and it frequently does. You continue to believe in unicorns, no matter what the scientists say.

Charmers, chancers and dreamers

You’re unflappable, resourceful and optimistic.

You can expertly wriggle out of even the tightest of situations with your charm, ingenuity and unfathomably great hair.

If you don’t associate yourself with any of the guerrilla gorilla types (did you see what I did there?), then guerrilla teaching is clearly not for you. Put the book down, step away, and go back to doing what you’ve always done with your pile of pre-prepared worksheets, run-of-the-mill pants and lacklustre hair.

If, on the other hand, you felt the warm glow of familiarity on reading these descriptions, then you could be just the kind of individual to make a difference.

Rather than strongly identifying with any one group (which, to be honest, would be a bit of a cause for concern), it’s more likely that you’ve got a little bit of everything in there – a potent combination of the best bits.

Perhaps you’re an optimistic planner and doer who’s open to moments of creative madness? Or maybe you’re a no-nonsense organiser with great hair who likes a bit of dressing up?

Regardless of your individual profile, if you’re in some way channelling the spirit of a guerrilla, then you’re well on the way to becoming just the kind of revolutionary our children need.

Welcome to the gang.

There ain’t no ‘I’ in team

As formidable as any individual guerrilla teacher would be, there’s no doubt that the business of starting a revolution is a group activity. There is no ‘I’ in team, and while, disappointingly, there’s also no ‘we’, we’ll definitely be stronger together than apart. Imagine a network of guerrilla teachers working subversively towards a common goal – a shared vision. We’d be unstoppable.

Now, before we get too carried away, we need to tighten a few things up. The beauty of guerrilla tactics lies in the ability to work with whatever resources we’ve got, no matter how ramshackle, shoddy or sparse they may be.

We can wait for as long as we want for things to change for the better, but while we’re doing that, we may as well get on with taking what we’ve got, however rubbish we might think it is, and turning it into something that’s amazing.

The best definition that I’ve come across for the word guerrilla goes like this:

To be a member of an unofficial group of combatants using the element of surprise to harass a larger less mobile target.1

There aren’t many things I can think of that are as large and immobile as our education system, and if there was ever something that was long overdue a spot of harassment, then this is it.

Like some strange kind of military duck, our job is to appear normal and calm on the surface, while underneath, we’ll be furiously causing all manner of nuisance to make sure that our children get the education they deserve.

1 I can’t find the dictionary that has this definition (it was online and quite a while ago). The closest I could get to a source is from here: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/origin-of-
guerrilla-warfare-history-essay.php. All the elements of the phrase are there but it’s not a direct quote.

Chapter 2

TURN LEFT FOR BOATS, TRAINS, ELEPHANTS, FISH AND CASTLES

There’s no point going guerrilla and causing a whole lot of trouble if we’re not entirely clear about where we’re going.

Not so long ago, while desperately trying to find a hotel deep in the heart of the Lake District, I was distracted by the most impressive road sign I’ve ever come across.

I didn’t know that this much excitement could possibly exist in one place.

I’d defy anyone not to turn left – it looks unbelievable. After I posted the picture on Twitter, it got a response from fellow teacher Jim Smith (@lazyteacher), who suggested that it’d be a great way of thinking about schools. If this was the signpost that pointed to your school, what five symbols would you include? What if the signpost was pointing towards the education system?

In the current climate, it might look a the top sign here.

But what kind of signpost would you want?

What do we want for the children we teach? What do we value? What is our vision of education in the twenty-first century?

If you’ve got a few minutes, have a doodle on a blank signpost and see what you come up with.

Without knowing exactly which symbols or ideas you’ve thought of, we can probably make some pretty safe bets. I would guess, or hope, that there are still some books on there. If not books, then some other symbol that represents knowledge. Even though I’m happy to accept the label of ‘one of them creative types’, I’m also a big fan of knowing stuff.

As for the other symb...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Toscanini and the Low-Budget Movie: A Foreword by Will Ryan
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Starting a Revolution
• Part II: Guerrilla HQ
• Part III: Ongoing Strategy
• Bibliography
• Index
• Index of strategies
• Copyright