Better Teacher or just different, has time moved on and moved the job for the better?

I’ve retired, 26,000 lessons and finished, and now it’s time to  clear stuff away and reflect upon the world I absolutely loved.

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s there was no internet for schools as such, no video and not much in the way of copying ( Banda at best, OHP if a wealthy school). I loved teaching Chemistry but every lesson I wanted to bring my subject to life. How great it was to teach Chemistry – all curriculum subjects have advantages and disadvantages – ask PE staff how everyone tells them their job is great on sunny summer days as they set off in shorts to teach tennis, though no one says bad luck in the cold, grey, windy, frosty or grotty days of autumn when the gym is used for mocks. I had chemicals and unusual apparatus for practicals and demonstrations. There were tales of poisons, explosions, medicines, materials, from soaps to alcohol from amazing discoveries to problems to solve. We could do magic with solids and liquids; use that special fume cupboard or make a small firework, talk gunpowder and make amazing colours or metals from powders or tiny beautiful crystals grow – in fact much of that were part of the reasons I chose the subject to study for 4 years in the first place. And yet I constantly searched out better proper Chemical stories. I felt these would help young people understand more be more curious, apply their skills more and be hooked into doing my subject after Year 9, or after Year 11 or after Year 13…..and many did. I practised, rehearsed, fiddled to get things to work – though sadly didn’t have a book I only found after 35 years of searching Professor Fowles Lecture Demonstrations in Chemistry …oh oh oh if only!

No internet, but also no videos, occasional TV but do you recall 80’s TV Science? “Tomorrow’s world” and well that’s about it. So everywhere I looked it was picking up of booklets and leaflets it was magasine or newspaper articles. If it was a conference then grab as much of their publicity literature…and frankly there were not many conferences but there were ASE events and RSC events as a starter. The joy of my Mother sending me an article carefully cut out of her newspaper folded in a letter “ you might like this?” . How right she was.

Then craft this information into my lesson, there wasn’t much chance to photocopy, maybe the odd expensive OHP but we could read it or share it or at the least I could do what all teachers do well – tell a good story. There were even the odd articles with scientific errors for my pupils to discuss and correct. BUT I had to think – will this help , will it bring more knowledge, better understanding, or maybe we can use this to see if they can apply their knowledge….maybe even might make them do some of that ubiquitous ‘wider reading’ – I sense these questions helped create good lessons, or turn good lessons into great lessons.

Preparing lessons, delivering lessons, getting feedback from marking was and still is, the bread and butter of the basics of good teaching. It was in the 80’s and 90’s and maybe still so. Marking was (and definitely still is) a slog – but the teacher learns what pupils don’t know and what confuses them and what is well understood – but frankly I got that from marking about the first 5 books the other 25 or so just reinforced that. The interesting and challenging part for me was as a new teacher through until I retired as a head still teaching in 2017, the favourite was preparing. I spent hours preparing – as my ITT tutor used to say every good one hour long lesson needs an hour prep and reflection and an hour of marking. In time it doesn’t need an hour my bare bones of a 4^th year CSE Lesson in 1981 would be used every time I got to that part of the syllabus for 36 years – but I promise almost every year be it O Level, GCSE, double triple or single that lesson got better and the advent of the internet promised even better and  it delivered a richness and an opportunity to really bring to life to really help understand and apply knowledge and motivate.

Of course this “even better” improvement accelerated as resources improved. The internet brought modelling brought video, 3D images AND access to frontier research therefore does even better than my mission to “Bring Chemistry to life” back in the 80’s and 90’s. In 2017 I was challenging students to look at what Nobel prizewinners wrote and said…..not just the favourites of Chemistry specifications Rutherford and Haber BUT those of modern greats, less well known names but incredible discoveries and my endless challenge -please be the first Nob el winner that I taught! (PS that Nobel site is my favourite!)

This is epitomised for me in a favourite KS4 lesson- the group 1 metals – Lithium, Sodium Potassium. Haz-cards always limited the lump when adding that piece of sodium to water. A sluggish looking soft, cuttable, grey metal, slimily covered in its oil from the bottle. ONLY USE the size of a grain of rice but ask any Chemistry teacher and they’ve been heckled in this lesson “Oh Sir, add a bigger lump” or “show us Rubidium or Caesium” ….and so in 2023 we can. There is a great video of adding Caesium to water and an even better one of the quite wrongful addition of sodium to a lake a huge quantity around 9  tonnes off the back of a lorry, into a lake back in 1947. You can even see Professor Poliakoff explain and show many many elements. Now if that doesn’t bring Chemistry to life! Though I suspect that the live view of a little lump of grey metal fizzing around carrying an orange flame or purple one before exploding  – these are what will be remembered. Sorry Biology colleagues who dipped out and showed a video it’s just not not not the same. BUT then further Lithium we know is in all those batteries and my old tutor – take a look at his discovery and comments – the Nobel winner John B Goodenough. So the joy for me as I annotated my lesson notes and next year might be even more excited to deliver those new ideas even just for a few minutes of a lesson.

I have to add then that the advent of the inspirational Salters’ Chemistry A level in 1992 written as a set of Chemical stories and each written by three groups : academics, industrialists and school teachers – managed by a great team at York University Holman, Pilling Burton et al and resourced to innovate. Had I ever made a polymer that conducted electricity? Had I modified a penicillin? Did I know the difference between a winter and summer petrol blend? Along with the opportunity to meet industrialists, academics and many great teachers from all around the world. I could go on but this project transformed my teaching, our school and many, many students prospects.

In any long career do those lessons we teach year in year out do they improve? Did they find a rich vein of interest and motivate young people?…….or were we driven by assessment results and “just learn this”. Yesterday we did page 45 so today we do page 46 “Yawn”. I really think not. Don’t get me wrong assessment, exam results were important to me and my students. After all qualifications open doors [ and Chemistry opens some significant doors like medicine and scientific research] and opportunities. By contrast with rumours that Primary SAT assessment has led to many pupils who really don’t love reading, I hope my careful planning opened doors to the wonderful world of scientific discovery.

So were we old teachers better or just different….I’m beyond appraisal, you be the judge. Comment below.