[#quoteoftheday💬] “If you don’t train them, don’t blame them!” This quote was first made famous to me by a colleague at a Cambridge conference last year. 🤓💭 I chuckled when I heard it. (I also thought - that’s a pretty good catch phrase, #UncleLen would love it 😌).
Criticism can be the start of a dangerous blame game - and I can think of few professions that are criticised as much as #teaching.
Here are a couple of my own thoughts on this quote (I welcome you to share yours):
💡This is a possible starting point in an educational context, when considering issues a team is having with meeting a school wide goal.
Have all teachers on board got the skills and been adequately trained for the task they’ve been put up for? They’ll surely need the right tools for the job at hand.
And while there are many facets to teacher development and school improvement, considering the training needs of your staff is a practical starting point.
Just like every student needs to be taught in alignment with their own goals and development plan, every single team member needs personalised training that they can apply to their teaching, school and career goals before pointing blame at them.
💡 Secondly, we can think of students in a class: I often hear "they don't listen!"...It's likely you are also struggling to be heard, in this case.
Is there some practical training you can give your students to help bring their attention to you when they're all together or absorbed in an activity?
It's a great idea to refresh and switch up simple things like 'calls for attention' throughout the year to help harmonise classroom dynamics before blaming students.
💡Thirdly, since LinkedIn can be a place for powerful personal development, and you are probably reading this by yourself, I think it’s a nice invitation to look inwards upon reflecting on this quote:
🧐 Is there anything you’ve been criticising or blaming yourself for not being able to do well? Can you identify a missing or under-developed skill? How could you turn any ‘blaming' into ‘training’?
💡To me, this quote is about: #personaldevelopment #training #schools #teachers #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #learning #growing #schoolimprovement #teachertraining #teamdevelopment #mastery. How about you?
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P.S: Nominations are now open for the #DedicatedTeacherAwards 2023! It’s a chance to show #teachers some #appreciation 💛 Click the link to find out more:
📣If you or your school is using Cambridge resources, and you’d like to talk to me about training to help maximise how your teachers use those materials, feel free to reach out by direct message - let’s talk 🙋🏻♀️
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