VIEWS & OPINION
An abundant supply Comment by PETER CARPENTER, TeacherIn
There are a great number of reasons why people become supply teachers. For some, it’s the flexibility that the job provides, for others, it’s the sheer variety that teaching in numerous different schools opens-up. In today’s recruitment and teacher retention crisis, supply teachers have never been in such high demand. However, schools often face difficult decisions regarding short-term staff due to increasingly tight budgets, and may find themselves choosing low-cost, yet unqualified, teaching staff. The supply teaching profession has a reputation as ‘a provision of highly qualified teachers with a broad spectrum of experience', and it is vital that this is upheld. One of the key reasons that we find that people elect to be supply teachers is the potential for their own professional development, working with a range of different students.
Networking is another huge plus. For supply teachers, it gives them the opportunity to meet a wide range of different subject teachers in a variety of schools. By striking up a conversation, they can receive advice and inspiration about the profession, leading to new opportunities, as well as picking up new tricks.
In any school, communication is a major factor, and for supply teachers, this is even more critical; the more they know about the school and the pupils they will be teaching before they arrive, the more settled they feel and the more effective the transition for the pupils.
Another key benefit of direct working with schools is in the amount of pay. By cutting out agencies, supply teachers will find themselves earning far more, as there are no fees or commissions to pay.
For teachers, our online service is free to register and we ‘hold your hand’ all the way to your first position. As Kirsty (a newly qualified supply teacher from Cornwall) commented, “I received an initial confirmation text clarifying the date, time and my pay scale, then a reminder text at the start of the working week. After completion of my first day I had a phone call from TeacherIn to see how I got on. I’d felt really welcome and that I had got subsequent work through it as a result.” We also ensured that Kirsty was full qualified and suitable for the school.
These direct interactions between the supply teacher and the school make all the difference for both the teacher and school, as Kirsty goes on to explain, “On arrival at the school I was welcomed by the head teacher, shown around and given a briefing. I had a lovely day and the school had made me feel really welcome”. Through this positive experience, Kirsty was asked to do more work with the school, providing her with more regular employment, while the school (and, of course, its pupils) had the benefit of a friendly face returning to its classrooms.
The goal of all supply teachers, is to support and foster learning, and the most effective way of doing this is to create an open channel for communication between the school and the teacher, making any transition for the pupils as seamless as possible. There are a number of benefits to being a supply teacher, and it is a hugely rewarding role, not just for the teacher, but also for schools, who are able to expand their network of qualified, reliable and enthusiastic professionals.
Controlling your classroom content Comment by GARY BRYANT, UK manager for ITSI
“Engagement” is a term we hear frequently when it comes to teaching and learning. It is a key factor that contributes to the achievement of students, as it’s no surprise that when young people are interested and committed to their lessons, they learn more effectively and perform better. But while engagement is so critical, it’s not always the easiest thing to measure and monitor. So how can teachers not only increase engagement in the classroom, but also see how effectively students are absorbed in their lessons?
Technology has had a huge impact on young people. Most students today will have grown up with computers, tablets and smartphones as a staple part of everyday life; numerous surveys reveal the substantial effect it has on education. From an engagement perspective, teachers can use images, video and other sources from the internet to increase the real-life elements of the subject, and also help different types of learners to grasp the topic. The nature of learning is becoming ever-more personalised in this way too, as students’ use of their own devices to access educational content. This allows for a much greater range of content, including interactive quizzes and assessments, or the ability to research their own areas of interest outside the boundaries of the topic. It is also interesting to note an evolution in the increasing blend of technology with traditional textbook learning. By using e-Book versions
March 2017
of the curriculum textbooks on student tablets or iPads, teachers can easily add additional digital content and notes to help guide their students through the topic; pushing the changes to their devices. This provides the best of both worlds. Not only will students benefit from the rich source of information provided by the textbook, but the use of digital enhancements helps in capturing their imaginations, giving them direction and really gaining their interest in the subject. Technology also provides opportunities for teachers to monitor how well their students are interacting with content. By linking the material for the lesson into a central system, teachers can see whether students are logged into the lesson material; how long they have had the content open, which assessments and tasks have been completed, and what their results were. This insight means that if students are using their devices, the teacher can monitor whether they’re on task on not; if someone has become distracted and not returned to the source text, an appropriate intervention can take place, getting the student back on track. The important thing is to maintain a balance between the foundations of curriculum information and the flashy digital materials available today. By linking the two together, it makes it far easier to control the content used by students, reducing the level of distraction while still providing an enhanced learning experience.
www.education-today.co.uk 19
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