Organise

There isn’t a teacher anywhere who isn’t organised. Some are more organised than others. Experienced teachers with plenty of miles on the clock are organised. Beginning teachers are also organised, but their organisation looks different from that of their more experienced colleagues.

It’s also personal–no two teachers organise themselves similarly. When I began teaching, I spent hours digging through syllabus documents, writing lesson plans, and assessing. I was organised—until one principal who looked through my work told me I was doing it all wrong.

They gave me several examples (ones they had used with some success) to convert me to their ways. I displayed some obstinacy. Well, quite a lot of stubbornness, now I reflect on it. As a young teacher, I was prepared to listen and accept guidance. I wasn’t ready to be a cookie-cutter doing everything as it had been done.

I wasn’t prepared to use another person’s methods and shoehorn them into my own.

Your organisation and classroom are yours. Your relationship-building methods belong to you. Your expectations are different from those of the teacher in the next classroom. How you engage your students is particular to you.

The way you foster growth is unique to your teaching style. Like a writer’s voice, teaching style is unique. Foster it, nurture it, own it. Above all, be organised around it.