Smart Teachers?

I have a few routines that I love on a Saturday and one of them is drinking a cup of George Clooney coffee and diving into the weekend press. I love it to just for once not having to closely watch the time and first check if my lesson plan is printed out and all my materials are ready for the next fun learning challenge I have got in store for my lovely students. Saturday is the day that I can put on denim and that the 100% cotton Petit Bateau underwear and a warm croissant of the local bakery are all pure weekend bliss.  It is then that I am in weekend mode and can take deep breaths and empty my brain and catch up with the outside current affairs. Stallie then eargerly digest most of newspaper articels and loves to find out what others think about what is going on in the world.

So when I today was about to embark on that routine I did hear over the news that one of our former university rectors thinks that the teachers of our national are in general not highly intelligent and not equipped to future challenges. In that same interview he is quoted that he urgently calls for a educational reform.  On top of that he points out that the profession lacks a certain appeal/respect and he also says this in that same interview:In mijn jeugd was de schoolmeester een respectabel beroep van een zeer hoog intellectueel niveau. In sommige landen is dat nog altijd zo. In Finland hebben ze een toelatingsexamen aan de universiteit om leraar te mogen worden, en bovendien zijn alle leerkrachten er universitairen.'

Uhm, now first of all nothing in that interview is new. Nothing the very intelligent professor at rest André Oosterlinck says in that piece has not been said before. I can even tell you that I more then once have been called 'just a teacher' and I even have parents who question their children's career choice if they choose for teacher. My own father did.  I will never forget the day that I left for college to kick of my teacher training.  It did seem like I was already a dissapointment. Fortunately he did change his mind about that but I am quite sure that the teaching profession lacks some sex appeal.

I do agree that new teachers need more training and that their present studies do not cover enough what matters in order to survive the educational jungle. Theory and practice are still not in balance when teachers in Belgium are trained. Plus becoming a teacher takes time, effort and also patience. It is not because you have got the degree that it will guarantee you a carefree teaching career. In the 21st century so many things change and this with the blink of an eye.  At the time I decided to hang out one more year extra on the campus of my teaching college in order to specialize in special needs and it was only in that year I found out if I was fit enough to enter a classroom and suddenly realised that it takes so much more.  Yes, I did then over and over point out that a four year teaching training is perhaps a better way to train a teacher. In that one extra year I was granted the space and time to feel at ease and secure in a classroom. It was in that extra year that I turned into a 'up for battle' teacher.


But do I find respect? Do I consider myself intelligent enough? Do people look down on me? Do some people make comments about my profession? Do I sometimes feel like I have to defend myself when people talk about lazzy and dumb teachers? Do I have to point out that those vacations are a nice extra and did influence my choice at the time? Do I wonder if being a teacher in the past was so much eassier? Do I experience days that I feel like I am rather on a island instead part of a close knit  team?  Do I sometimes not feel always that fully equiped and prepared to face the next change that I am about to deal with in my class room?   Do I wonder what it must feel like to be a teacher in the Japan, the USA, Finland, Congo or in the Netherlands? Do I agree with most of what the minister of education says in the press about his educaitonal future plans?  Do I long back for the days that André Oosterlinck describes in his interview? 

Well,most of the above questions I can answer with:'Yes,I do.' But I am also willingly to say that I don't think it is fair to talk in such a manner  about my profession. Believe me there are many teachers out there who try to make the difference There a so many people out there in who in their classroom try to give each pupils and student excellent education.  Plenty of teachers are willingly to embrace change and try out new things.  I have seen so many things around me that tell me that there are enough teachers who are ready to give day in day out there very best.   And I am not just talking about the people who I work at my educational hot spot. No, I have seen so many excellent examples of good practice.

It does make my blood boil if I read such news articles because I take my profession very serious.  When I was at university I wanted in the first place use my knowledge inside of a classroom but I was one of the few in that lecture hall. Most of my fellow students had totaly different plans with their university studies.  I am not sure what it takes to make teaching a more appealing profession. Let us be honest it are not just teachers who are not that much regarded with respect. Yes, it is true that more and more teachers seem to think that teaching is not that their core business and that the red tape linked to it makes them rather feeling like a desk manager.  So it will not be that easy at all to just reform the teaching training .

The suggestions made By some specialist is first of all to get only the people who in the first place choose for education and also make them all trained specialist who spend at least 4 years in a learning and study environment. I am do agree that it was only in my fourth year of studies what I sometimes call my 'test phase-'year that I felt more confident to enter a classroom.  So yes, it would make sense to train future teachers longer but please do not do this in a confined & artificial spot. And yes, I have met some very courageous people who suddenly changed their mind in the 'private' professional world to become teachers. Brave people who did not go over just one night of thin ice.  The knowledge they drag into a room full of future world citizens full with future dreams is essential as well. But they also need time to adopt and they then find out that teaching takes so much more then putting together a animated power point presentation.

Nope, I don't have the answers when it comes down to reforming the educational professional world. I just know that it takes a lot more then just to make the training phase a bit longer.  It will take so much more and it will take more then just group together the students with the highest IQ who are willingly to transfer their knowledge into the brains of children.   Let us be honest we all have been students, we all have come across great teachers and less great educational talents...  Future teachers will have to face students,management, parents,society, a world that just has got very high expectations of them... but that is in every single profession/job the case.

But it would be nice if a 16 year old will be a more encouraged to take teaching as a serious career option.... and that is when many of us can play a very important part. A career path is a road that many young people embark on with very high expectations and it is the more experienced people (and that is Let us first of all stop using less respectful language about any profession and it would be nice that journalists also think twice to put a more profound heading above a newsarticle. And any newsitem deserves a well thaught of headline.

PS: In case you wonder if you are 'smart' enough to be a teacher and you speak Dutch then try to answer the following 92 questions that in 2012 about 1000 student teachers were asked to answers. I know my score and no I am not going to share that one out here.  But it was enough to make me smile... A smile comparable to the one I see on a student when I hand them back a high grade.
http://www.knack.be/nieuws/bent-u-slimmer-dan-een-leerkracht-doe-de-test/article-normal-104419.html

Dancing No Matter What....

It is April and April fools day has just chased by and I got out of unharmed besides a few stickers that were attached by a some very eager students who wanted to show me that they did dare to challenge me.  Yes, they got a few laughs out of me...

I have not been around in this space for quite some time. Was this intend or rather coincendence? Well, honestly I can not tell... The car accident did trigger something strong in my mind and on top of that did my 40th birthday also seem to be the beginning of a very excicted but at times also hectic 41st year.  The world has been treating my kind for the last few months and even tough that I do seem to be cursed car wise because last week my new car (and it is one of my dream cars that I drive now) got kissed by a Merc. It was not a happy encounter but fortunately I was on my way to the that one person who seems to calm me down by the power of his hands. 

Still, today I did reflect about something that I hardly have not mentioned again and that is if I miss my old job and if I am content with what I have got instead what I am longing for. Yes, the wish list or the bucket list is still around in my mind.... But some things did change in my life for the better.  That I two years ago did send in my CV in the hope to find a new educational challenge was for me a very crucial moment in my life... It was almost like now or never...

The now is still the now and I have to be honest that I do have days that I do long back to that one special spot where I took my educational baby steps and where I did learn so much from others. Yes, there are days that I am quite curious to know how everybody is holding up the fortress while I am running across the campus of my new educational hot spot.  Sometimes voices of my former co-workers echo in my mind while I trying to come up with a new lesson plan or sometimes I even try to imagine what one of them would have said or done if they would be in my situation.  They are still in my mind and mentally they even walk along with me when I face certain challenges.

The thing is that the last year and a half my life has changed in a very profound way. What I have found out about myself has made a bit different to the teacher that I used to be but perhaps other around me already did know this about me. More then once people did tell me something about me that did take me by surprise. A few weeks ago a very good and someone who also knew me when I was a high school student myself and not passing all the test and exams I took in my life used that one word that defines me in a very profound way but also makes me feel so fragile at times. 'C, we are talking here about passion... what you have for your profession is passion...' and she looked at me with her typical face and her sincere smile.

Passion, that is now one of these words that I love in many ways because yes, I do try to bring it out in whatever I do. Not that it always works but at least I try.... Not that the world I face on a daily basis always agrees with me. Yes, I am fully aware that there are certain forces at work out there that are rather hard to battle and that I am only a tiny spot on this globe.  But hey, I have made a few pledges to myself and to some people that care about and even love no matter what. Plus there is something else that for the moment keeps me up on my toes and very busy.  I still believe strongly in the instinct that life will give me in return what ever I invested in it.

So far 2014 has been for me a very emotional rollercoaster one with some unforgettable ups but also rather painful and harsh downs.  Stallie still is fully aware that her dark side can pop up at any second and GERD has still it is sour way to communicate what she thinks about my well being. But my nails, ladies and gentlemen, my nails those seem to be hanging in there. Yes, I am winning the fight with my urge to bite into them when I feel like I am about to hit a wall or when I seem to be running out of juice. One look at that result (and the finishing touch of a beautician who is very strict with me) that I managed and the patience I already had put into those nails kept me back of doing what I normaly would do...

But somethings were a bit more challenging and I am not just talking about turning 40 and facing that fact that I am mortal and that from now on some things will go down hill. Not that seems to be the easy part. It is more trying to stay in balance with myself, my job, my family, my social life (including my social media or dare to call it virtual life) and some things that I care about.... One of them is dancing and that is not that easy.  Stallie needed to find back why she in the world ever decided to go back to that ballet studio where she would be every week challenged by her ballet teacher but also by her mental state and her motor skills.

Out there in front of a mirror while my feet tried to make coordinated movements with my arms, knees I did seem to face my biggest challenge.  Tuesdays are a killer when it comes down to work, photocopying, running, breathing, teaching, smiling my way through lesssons with less willingly individuals who suddenly disagree with learing a new language or keep up my respectful posture when one of students thinks he/she can tackle a literature course without keeping up his/her reading. Tuesday is my ultimate rat race and then I try to beat time in order to make it to Leuven and jump into my black leotard and slip into my ballet shoes.  The moment that I drag myself into that room full of mirrors I feel like a zombie who would rather crash into couch and hide under a duvet. Getting the picture here...

This year my ballet teacher challenged me and he was after perfection.  In a few weeks I need to pull out every single move I have in my body and move synchronized on a stage.  He is after fairies and he does hope  that we can show grace, elegance, style and be smooth.... This talented ballet dancer/chorographer has got a great vision that he tries to come alive on stage.  Well, Stallie did screw up big time the last few months. Right and left constantly got messed up in my mind.  Stretching my toes and my turn outs were nowhere to be noticed. Even classmates suddenly noticed that I not always easily react to change.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, one look at Stallie out there and you would see that she is going in overdrive...

Yes, I almost wanted to give into that one force that I has pushed me out of the ballet world. The one force that then will then take possesion of me. The thing is that this lady wants to dance and not just dance one hour a week.  I now even will start to make dance movements while I am out on the street.  Yes, life should come with background music!  So it is not that I don't want to dance anymore but it did seem that my body and my mind were after a dance-break.

Well, my ballet teacher did not grand me that break. His face said it all when I told him that I just had other things on my mind instead of dancing... Instead he tried to point out something to me that I was trying to ignore. Something that I deep down know he is so right about. Something that dancers are fully aware. Something that makes you long for the next dance step even if it hurts. Pain and dancing not always seem to fit in my mind but perhaps I always did up till now picked the eassier way out of the ballet studio when change was around the bend. I had done it before and I knew exactly what it would cause me. Honestly I have not intentions to go back to that place because dancing there has got no air time....

His words and body language I did copy clearly. And when I that night walked out of the ballet school there were certain words that still echoeing in my mind.  Pain on stage I have never ever experienced it. I am not talking about the physical pain here because I even encounter that when I am just tackling a routine lesson.  The dance instructor was aiming at a different kind of pain one that I hardly ever given a spot in my dancing world.  Why? Because I just couldn't imagine them both cooperating and coexisting.  So the week after I stood there and my mind was in overdrive and my body did seem to have a harder time finding it's balance and I just ruined most of my piques.  Half of time I did seem to run of breath or was a count too slow. But I have not given in and thank the lord this  last week it did all look it a bit more decent.  Did I again feel more at ease and did I feel more like a dancer...

Next week I need to be ready mentally to get on stage and not feeling that 100% at ease but being able to push out for about 3 minutes all my balast and just dance. It might hurt and it might not feel that natural but I already have experienced in the last few weeks that what my ballet teacher is after does make sense. It is not even rocket science but I guess that it took a 5 minute speech of a dancer who has gone through a lot more then I ever did but hey, I have got a job, a family, my mental health, a laundry basket that resembles the Himalaya, a never ending to do-list and I have to be honest dancing was not a priority on there the last few months.

So I had to get back in there and tyring to refocus on what matters inside the walls of a ballet studio. And believe most of the tings that I have mentioned here above don't. There is no space for those. But there is so much that is allowed in.  That it took me a strict ballet teacher to point it out to me. Because I had for few minutes forgotten all about that one particular saying that does matter in the world of dancing and even in general:'Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass... It's learning to dance in the rain.'

A big thank you to my ballet teacher B who managed to keep me in check!!!!  Sorry that I lost that dancing feeling/loving feeling for a minute or two...