It was my late uncle- an English teacher and Deputy Head- who at the outset of my career told me it takes five years to become a good teacher.
And it was about day three of my PGCE when I learned that there’s no such thing as a good teacher- “only an improving one”.
So who was right?
Both, of course! You can reasonably expect that five years of full-time teaching should make you a competent practitioner. Competent but not accomplished.
In fact, I’d suggest that our progress as teachers hits that ‘competent’ plateau sooner than year five. As trainees- of whatever path- we’re well looked after. Mentors are appointed, formal and informal, and there’s enormous goodwill and expertise available. Once we’re up and running, that support and, more importantly, the good practice dialogue starts to tail off.
This may be the case in other professions. But unlike many other professions, our job as teachers doesn’t majorly shift every few years. We may teach some new courses, negotiate new classes, observe some new colleagues etc. but the bulk of what we do is established and, unless you move into middle management and beyond, that could be the track of your career up to retirement.
And going back to my uncle’s advice, what I do know for sure after five years teaching Classics is that each year zooms by ever faster and the opportunities for reflecting meaningfully, and improving, seem to grow scarcer.
It’s a funny sort of correlation between experience, which is always building, and practice, which can happily stagnate.
So what’s the solution?
Well, Quinquennium is going to become part of the solution: a pin board for constructive thinking and a way to connect our community and share all the great teaching practice out there.
This blog is going to pose the key questions and seek out the problems, challenges and opportunities we face as early career Classics teachers. In guest posts, reviews, interviews, in the comment sections on every page, we are setting out to crowdsource some of the solutions and reinvigorate ourselves for the next quinquennium of our careers.
Write for us, subscribe, and let’s see where we can go.
