Klass 9A part II

Yesterday the second episode of Klass 9A was broadcasted on swedish TV. Here are my thoughts after watching.

As I started out as a fresh teacher I got a mentor asigned to me at my school. She was an older colleague with a lot of routine from working with the 7th to 9th graders. We met every two weeks or so, and the subject to these meetings was that I should have somebody to ask questions about, as a matter of fact I don't really know what the purpose was. She never visited in my class - so she couldn't see what I was doing or how. We didn't talk about lesson plans or reviewed lessons. I wasn't invited to visit in her class - so I couldn't see what she was doing or how. And as I am watching this second episode I am thinking that it would be beneficial if all the new teacher had:

• an experienced colleague visiting in class regularly. 
• an experienced colleague looking at the lesson plans, the theme plan, the semester plan.
• an experienced colleague that you could visit and learn from.

I know that we do this in a web2.0 kind of way, and I am very thankful for everyone in my growing PLN. I also think that it would be very nice if somebody was there f2f as well though. I am curious about how it works in other parts of the world.

One of the coaching teachers, Stavros Louca, said something that I really liked as well. He said that there are no stupid students, but there are unmotivated and uninspired ones. This is something that I have been thinking a lot about. How do we motivate and inspire our students? There are some things I think are essential:

1. We need to be motivated and inspired
2. We need to have learning materials that are motivating and inspiring
3. We should be using more of a problem solving approach to the learning subject (whatever it may be)
4. We should help the students set goals for themselves and help them find out what they need to achieve them

I think that the most important thing is that we, as teachers, never should try to hand over the responsibility to the students. It is, as Stavros Louca says, the teacher's responsibility that the students understands and learns. And, no, I am not saying that the students have no responsibility whatsoever.