From the Head of Curriculum Ms Victoria Kelleher
Because of my role as Head of Curriculum, and my compulsive need to overthink, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the practice of teaching and always asking the question ‘what makes a great teacher great?’ I have worked with exemplary teachers in Ireland and in Perth and I am always interested to figure out what makes them great. What I have discovered is the inherent sameness of great teachers, regardless of the context in which they are teaching. What I have found is that great teachers have more in common with each other than they possibly think. In fact, great teachers all possess the same characteristics.
knowledge or teaching skill. But we all know people who have tremendous knowledge but fail to communicate it: people who have, on paper, a great lesson, but whose students are bored or frustrated, or both! Students want teachers who they can trust will get them to where they need to be. Students want teachers who they know care for them. Students want great teachers. When we are being honest, we admit that great teaching often has less to do with our knowledge and skills than with our attitude towards our students, our subject, and our work. In my experience, great teachers all share the following characteristics:
1. Great teachers have a sense of purpose (and humour). 2. Great teachers have expectations of success for all students. 3. Great teachers know how to live with To prove the above statement, try to think of ambiguity. the best teacher you ever had. The best teacher I 4. Great teachers adapt and change to meet ever had was Mr O’Regan, my secondary school student needs. English and Geography teacher – no surprise I 5. Great teachers are reflective. am now an English and Geography teacher! Try to 6. Great teachers are comfortable with not remember what they were like, but more knowing. importantly, how they made you feel as a student. 7. Great teachers had great role models. Most Now consider the words of educator and importantly however, philosopher Parker Palmer: 8. Great teachers enjoy their work and their Great teaching is not about technique. I have asked students. students around the country to describe their great teachers to me. Some of them describe people who To add to our growing team of great teachers, I lecture all the time, some of them describe people am delighted to welcome several new staff to St who do little other than facilitate group process, and George’s who, I know, are great teachers: others describe everything in between. But all of them describe people who have some sort of connective Mr Damien Kerrigan – English/Literature capacity, who connect themselves to their students, Ms Courtney Fraser – Humanities/BME their students to each other, and everyone to the Ms Taryn Sephton – Humanities/Geography subject being studied. Mr Anthony Bochrinis – Head of Mathematics Mr Paul Smith – Mathematics When we talk about the quality of someone’s Mr Thomas Hatton – Science/Maths/Physics/ teaching, we often talk about their content Chemistry 5
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