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Do our Parents really know our Teachers’ genius?

I visited my local butcher shop this morning (apologies in advance to my vegetarian friends out there!) to quickly grab some meat for our family’s favourite meal – the slow cooker curry.

Always determined to cook enough for us AND for some leftovers I ordered 1.2kg of diced beef.  The butcher said what butchers say “No worries, mate” and plunged his freezer-bag covered hands into the meat and dropped the product onto the scale.

If you’re like me, you watch the digital display on the scale with interest to test the vendor’s ability to estimate.  The display came up …. 1.200kg!  Not 1.205kg or 1.195kg … but EXACTLY 1.200kg.  I was gobsmacked.  “How on earth did you did that?!” I queried.  His reply was a matter-of-fact “All day, every day mate.”

I paid and left but this bloke’s face is now carved into my memory.  He’s the meat master.  If he tells me what to cook, how long to cook it, what to cook with it and what wine to serve with it from now on … I’m doing it.  His mastery in his field is now demonstrated.  I trust him about all things meat now.

It got me to wondering about how often we, as Teachers, demonstrate our mastery.  Ask yourself some questions, like:

  • How often do I reveal my genius, my skill to our school communities?
  • Have my parents ever seen me teach or resolve a student conflict?
  • Have I ever showed a parent my work program?
  • Have I sent an email to parents explaining differentiation?
  • Have I chatted with a group of parents in the car park about pedagogy?

Trust is something we seek in our relationships with others – whether that be with our butcher, our hairdresser, our plumber or our accountant – and trust is inextricably linked to mastery.  It’s time that our teachers revealed their mastery in a far more explicit way.

This is a critical first step in rebuilding the school-home partnership into something more hallmarked by trust and collaboration than the adversarial relationship so many schools are currently battling with.

Next free WEBINAR- Adam Voigt presents “Making Facebook Work for Your School”

At Real Schools, we are amazed at how many schools are still grappling with just how to use this communicative juggernaut to their advantage, rather than their detriment. I guess it’s about wanting to make it work for good rather than evil! And it definitely can be.

This webinar will show you exactly how … and how not to. 

By registering, you can expect to find out:
* how to set up and monitor a school Facebook site.
* the posts that work, that engage and that are safe.
* connecting Facebook easily to other social media platforms.
* drastically minimising the time required to manage a Facebook page (the great Facebook “hack” you’ve been looking for!)
* making Facebook a positive space and powerful marketing tool for your school.

This webinar is targeted at school leaders, administrators and teachers of all phases of learning.