Using & Teaching Educational Technology
Videos for professional development: What do teachers REALLY make?
By Terry Freedman
Sun, 10 Jun 2007, 18:46

This is a video of a live act, a video response to another humorous presentation about how not to use PowerPoint. It's an interesting video, but where might you use it?

Well, it's pretty passionate stuff, about the difference teachers make. Reading the comments, it seems that it's similar to promotional material used in teacher recruitment. I can see how it might be used in that context, and perhaps also it might come in handy in careers evenings aimed at older pupils considering their future direction.

But would any of this make a difference, to anyone or anything? I'm inclined to think not, especially for a UK audience, where we tend to understate everything. I quite like the current crop of advertisements on TV here, with punchlines like:

"Work with people who don't have all the answers. Teach."

What made me go into teaching? The passion of one teacher, in a college. We were nearing the end of our two year course, and he said:

"Oh well, another crop of students in September."

"You must get pretty bored.", I said. "Teaching the same thing year in and year out."

His eyes took on a mysterious glow.

"No, Terry. Every year is different, because every student is different. That makes the subject different: no two courses are ever the same."

I knew in that moment that I wanted to be a teacher.

There are more videos about teaching, including one about ICT teaching, on the Training and Development Agency's website. These are not so "in your face" as the YouTube video.

You can also find this and other videos collated at http://comingofage.ning.com

© Terry Freedman Sun, 10 Jun 2007