Inspirational Teachers Inspirational Learners

A Book of Hope for Creativity and the Curriculum in the Twenty First Century

Will Ryan, Ian Gilbert

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781845904432
• eBook ISBN: 9781845907235
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is it that Inspirational teachers do differently? In short, they plan for their pupils to be inspirational. Many teachers who join the teaching profession do so because they were taught by inadequate teachers and they feel they can provide a far better and more exciting education for youngsters than they received themselves. Whereas other teachers speak with clarity of detail about stimulating and influential teachers who inspired their lives and now they want to do the same. This book is an examination of what our most inspirational teachers do in order to get creative and inspirational responses from children. It aims to put fun back into teaching, provide a framework for creativity in the twenty first century and act as a book of hope for the new curriculum proposals.

Chapter 1

Inspirational Teachers,
Inspirational Learners

The only time my education was interrupted was whilst I was at school.

Winston Churchill

The Prologue

It was 1993 and the early spring sunshine was streaming through high Victorian windows as I walked into the classroom. Skies were blue, trees were turning green and the birds sang. I was feeling positive because I thought I was turning the corner in my second headship. At last, I thought, the school was on the way up. I moved towards a table with a spare chair and sat with a group of children. I turned to Jenny, a rather sweet eight-year-old with flowing blonde hair, and asked, ‘Tell me, Jenny, what are you learning about today?’ In gruff, flat Yorkshire vowels she replied, ‘Well, if you ask me it’s all a load of rubbish.’

The thing about working in primary education is that the highs can be very high but the lows can be very low.

The children were cutting out parts of diagrams from a pre-published worksheet and sticking them onto another piece of paper to depict the water cycle under the heading of ‘The Journey of a River’. The activity was relatively undemanding and there was little evidence of pride in what was going on.

I asked Jenny to explain why she wasn’t enjoying the lesson. She told me to walk to the end of the lane and look at the river because there were dead fish floating on the surface. She then told me that her grandfather and a group of friends (who were local miners) had in the past ‘clubbed together’ to buy fishing rights. They told her how they had racked their brains to prevent kingfishers and herons from robbing them of their investments. She knew about the boats that used to travel between the local coal mine and the power station pulling huge floating skips full of coal that would be used to generate electricity. She spoke of paddling and damming the small brook that feeds into the river. Then she told me how the river would eventually flow under Europe’s largest suspension bridge and into the Humber ports. She concluded: ‘We shouldn’t be doing the journey of a river – we should be doing the story of a river.’

Those thoughts stayed with me for many years. I learned so much from her comments and further researched the idea of using an emotional hook to engage pupils’ learning. I started to explore the concept further and found out how the limbic system in the brain works in precisely that manner. I also spent much time considering the key elements that would be in Jenny’s story of a river. I pictured the group of enterprising miners and their need to think in order to seek solutions. I thought about how literacy and the arts could be involved and how the ‘story of a river’ would create a sense of awe, wonder and spirituality. As I did this, a new model of pupil creativity started to emerge in my mind that would be fit for the century we live in.

Time moved on. Jenny continued to point out the school’s failings to me. She was a ‘school council’ all on her own. Jenny moved to secondary school and I moved on to join the local authority’s school improvement service.

More or less fourteen years after that fateful day in Jenny’s classroom I was sent to a school with several newly qualified teachers to observe them teach as part of the borough’s monitoring programme. The head took me to the first classroom and introduced me to one of the NQTs, saying, ‘Will, may I introduce Jenny Cole.’ We both looked at each other and said, ‘Oh no,’ followed by, ‘We have met before.’ Both phrases were uttered in perfect unison. I was looking straight into the eyes of the former pupil who had seemed to invent the concept of student voice.

I asked about the lesson that I was about to watch and I was told it related to the journey of river. I was handed the lesson plan which had been downloaded from the internet. The session involved a diagram and the children sequencing sections of text so that they could piece together the story of the water cycle. In Ofsted terminology the lesson would have been graded satisfactory.

The thing about working in primary education is that the highs can be very high but the lows can be very low.

When it came to providing feedback, I reminded her of our conversation all those years ago and told her how I had learned so much from her remarks.

Without further comment from me, she said, ‘I didn’t follow my own advice then, did I?’

With the trace of a tear in her eye, she went on to say that she found the job so frustrating because her mind was full of ideas. She had wanted to take the class to different locations along the local river. She had wanted to take them to an abandoned warehouse by the wharf and sketch the disused buildings and then set an adventure story there. She had wanted to take her class of disadvantaged children up into the Pennine mountains to find the source of the river and feel the icy cold water as they paddled in the youthful beck. She had wanted the children to go to the river estuary before it flows into the sea, to watch the fish being unloaded onto the dockside and then to meet the crew of the lifeboat. She concluded that sometimes her mind was so full of plans that her head hurt.

I asked her why none of her ideas were possible and got the response: ‘I am not allowed. We have all been told that there can be no time for extras because we have to raise standards by 5% in English and mathematics. The literacy subject leader said the class couldn’t do story settings until next term. I was not able to go to the coast because the Year 6 class always do contrasting environments. I was also told the health and safety issues are too great and there would be problems because the parents wouldn’t pay the voluntary contributions. And besides, the leadership team told me that we all followed the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA ) schemes and there was no need to deviate because all I had to do was make sure the children covered the journey of a river.’

The constraints were too great. And while we are simply managing them we will not be inspiring young lives. This book is based on an analysis of what our most inspirational teachers do. So ask yourself these questions:

• When did you last inspire someone?
• Are you content with the answer?
• Do you feel the need to read on?

This is a book that tells you what inspirational teachers do.

The difference between a person achieving their expectations and exceeding them is inspiration

They say a good book should keep the readers guessing until the last sentence. Oh well, what the heck. I will give you the answer in the first paragraph. What is it that inspirational teachers do? In short, they plan for their pupils to be inspirational. This book will tell you about the wonderful things that creative teachers do to make such a difference to children. I often ask teachers why they came into their chosen profession in the first place. Many of them reply that they were taught by inadequate teachers who made them want to provide a far better and more exciting education for our youngsters. Others speak with a clarity of detail about stimulating and influential teachers who inspired their lives and how they wanted to do the same for others. I have listened to these people with envy – I have heard descriptions of inspiration that can put a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye.

So let us consider those unnerving questions that all teachers should ask of themselves: When did you last inspire someone? Are you happy with the answer? Because teachers should always be seeking to inspire young lives. If you want to know more then read on. This book will give you a model to develop inspirational teaching in your school or classroom that will make a genuine difference for the twenty-first century.

Me, fail English? That’s unpossible

How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?

This question, along with the heading to this section are just two of the many famous lines from The Simpsons. You may love it or hate it, but you cannot doubt its success. Over the years it has had a string of famous guest stars queuing up to be part of the show including Tony Blair, three out of the four Beatles, Elton John, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan, Sting, Buzz Aldrin and soccer star Ronaldo. The show has grossed over US$54,000,000. So why introduce the subject of The Simpsons at this stage? The creator Matt Groening was told by his teachers that his drawings and stories would never catch on and he should pursue a more solid profession. By contrast he was so inspired by his first grade teacher Elizabeth Hoover that she exists as a key character in the programme. She clearly spotted Matt’s talents at an early age and said to him: ‘I like those pictures and stories. Can I have them?’ Those simple words of encouragement inspired him and gave him the self-belief that helped him on a journey to riches and success. Teachers should never doubt their capacity to make or break lives.

It has been said that every person born has six significant talents. Two come to the surface quickly. The next two are brought out by other inspirational individuals who are often teachers. The final two talents are taken to the grave. Teachers have sometimes been very poor at spotting talent. Jilly Cooper’s school report stated: ‘Jilly has set herself a very low standard which she has failed to maintain.’ John Lennon’s observed that he was ‘certainly on the road to failure … hopeless … rather a clown in class and wastes other pupils’ time’. Lord David Owen’s teacher savagely wrote: ‘If I had to select an expedition to go to the South Pole he would be the first person I would choose. But I would make sure he was not on the return journey’.

However other school reports have spotted significant hidden talents. Jeremy Paxman famously asked Conservative politician Michael Howard the same question twelve times on a Newsnight broadcast in 1997. The answer to the question was simply either yes or no. On each occasion Howard tried to wriggle out of providing a direct answer. Many political pundits argued that the interview did considerable damage to Howard’s career. So what did Jeremy Paxman’s school report say: ‘Jeremy’s stubbornness could be an asset if directed towards sound ends.’2

The school of failures

But first of all, let’s pretend that you are a teacher marking your register. Is this the class from heaven or hell?

Imagine the following list of names being on your register: Simon Cowell, Richard Branson, Thomas Edison, Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera, Walt Disney, Sean Connery, Freddie Laker, Bill Gates, Rosa Parks, Snoop Dogg, Eric Hoffer, Michael J. Fox, Alan Sugar, Martin Luther King, the Wright Brothers, Jacqueline Wilson, J. K. Rowling and Judi Dench. Would you rub your hands with glee at having a class of such talent and capability or would you put your head into your hands in fear because of the awesome challenge you might face in extending these individuals?

The people listed above are all wonderfully successful and therefore potentially a source of inspiration to the rest of us. Some are great thinkers, some have a true sense of enterprise, some have great literary and artistic qualities, others have considerable spiritual and emotional intelligence. If we were to score them on the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 : Inspirational Teachers, Inspirational Learners
• Chapter 2 : The Curriculum is Designed Not to Cover but Uncover
• Chapter 3 : Some People Get Lost in Thought Because it’s Unfamiliar Territory
• Chapter 4 : Not Everyone Will Be an Entrepreneur, but Everyone Needs to Be Enterprising
• Chapter 5 : The Supreme Art: Awakening Joy in Creative Expression
• Chapter 6 : Emotionally Friendly Classrooms and Emotionally Triggered Learning
• Chapter 7 : Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts and Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted
• Chapter 8 : Inspirational Teachers, Inspirational Classrooms
• Appendix : Assessing Pupils’ Personal Learning and Thinking Skills
• Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Praise for Inspirational Teachers, Inspirational Learners
• Advertisement
• Copyright