Teacher has more Questions than Answers
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Teacher: One woman's struggle to keep the heart in teaching by Gabbie Stroud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Teacher is a gripping account of working in the education system. Teachers are supposed to be leaders, however, they are simply dictated to at every opportunity and expected to blindly follow "policy" and "curriculum". More testing, less teaching. Education, the data-driven monster, eventually gives birth to NAPLAN. Standardised testing had offically snaked its way into Australia in 2008. (Although I believe there was a similar standardised test beforehand, Acer? It's before my time). We all know that standardised testing is the decay of modern teaching and learning, but none of the research is presented in this book. Michael Moore's film Where to Invade Next, has a great segment on this.
It is worth noting that Stroud admits she had no clue who the Minister for Education was (at least at one point early in her career) and mentioned nothing about the Australian Education Union. The union are against standardised testing. I would have liked to know if she ever was a part of the union, ever went on strike, ever asked for support from the wider teaching network, beyond her handful of teacher colleagues.
I was also curious about where she found the time to write her 2009 published novel, as this was not mentioned. She portrayed herself as a teacher that worked non-stop, apart from maternity leave. A simple paragraph on this would have sufficed. The writing itself annoyed me at times, for example she laughed and sighed words many times. "Yes," she laughed. And "No," he sighed. Wish it would have been more carefully edited.
Teacher is a brave effort in recounting the joy and pitfalls of the profession. The children she meets are familiar characters to any teacher. So glad this book was written - as a teacher I feel I have never read anything like this. Former, current and prospective teachers need to read this. Principals, parents and politicians too!
View all my reviews
Teacher: One woman's struggle to keep the heart in teaching by Gabbie StroudMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Teacher is a gripping account of working in the education system. Teachers are supposed to be leaders, however, they are simply dictated to at every opportunity and expected to blindly follow "policy" and "curriculum". More testing, less teaching. Education, the data-driven monster, eventually gives birth to NAPLAN. Standardised testing had offically snaked its way into Australia in 2008. (Although I believe there was a similar standardised test beforehand, Acer? It's before my time). We all know that standardised testing is the decay of modern teaching and learning, but none of the research is presented in this book. Michael Moore's film Where to Invade Next, has a great segment on this.
It is worth noting that Stroud admits she had no clue who the Minister for Education was (at least at one point early in her career) and mentioned nothing about the Australian Education Union. The union are against standardised testing. I would have liked to know if she ever was a part of the union, ever went on strike, ever asked for support from the wider teaching network, beyond her handful of teacher colleagues.
I was also curious about where she found the time to write her 2009 published novel, as this was not mentioned. She portrayed herself as a teacher that worked non-stop, apart from maternity leave. A simple paragraph on this would have sufficed. The writing itself annoyed me at times, for example she laughed and sighed words many times. "Yes," she laughed. And "No," he sighed. Wish it would have been more carefully edited.
Teacher is a brave effort in recounting the joy and pitfalls of the profession. The children she meets are familiar characters to any teacher. So glad this book was written - as a teacher I feel I have never read anything like this. Former, current and prospective teachers need to read this. Principals, parents and politicians too!
View all my reviews
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