Think Before You Teach: Questions to challenge why and how you want to teach

When was the last time you took a moment to pause and really think about your teaching? Think Before You Teach is purposefully full of questions: the openings of discussions to have, first with yourself and then, maybe later, with your colleagues. It doesn’t promise all the answers. And it doesn’t tell you what to teach. But it will ask you to think about why you want to teach and how you are going to teach. Arrive at school in the morning armed with a clear sense of why you are there and how you will have an impact on the hopes of your students. Regardless of government policies or school initiatives you remain the most important factor in the learning of your students. The students know it and they are looking to you for a lead. You are the key resource in the room; thinking about how to employ this resource is vital. Take a moment and give yourself that time and space to think. Teachers think about a lot on a daily basis: the curriculum, classroom practice, assessment, tests and exams, data, lesson planning etc. They think about Ofsted and policy and pressure. There are also the big things to think about. In a changing world what is our purpose as educators? Technology and the internet have changed the knowledge/skills debate. How do we equip digital natives for the future? What is your personal philosophy? To tackle these questions, teachers need hope, humour, imagination and motivation: Martin offers this in scores. For anybody thinking of entering the teaching profession, student teachers, teacher trainers, NQTs and teachers of all levels of experience. The book explores the various teacher training routes – School Direct, Teach First, PGCE – and the questions teachers should be asking about the path they have taken and their continuing professional development (CPD) needs. By raising questions about pedagogy, good practice, values and responsibilities, to name but a few, Martin encourages all teachers to become reflective practitioners and rediscover their passion.

About the Author :
Martin Illingworth is Senior Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University, consultant teacher with The National Association for the Teaching of English and Associate Speaker with Independent Thinking.Martin is a leading voice in English education today. He brings with him good humour, common sense and a passionate belief that what your students need is an education that offers them hope. Martin will inspire you to think about the education you offer.Martin is an English specialist with twenty-four years of teaching experience, both as classroom teacher and as Faculty leader. At Sheffield Hallam, he has responsibility for the training of English teachers on PGCE, School Direct and Teach First routes. He has conducted research in Toronto, Canada into teacher training abroad. He collated his findings into a short book Education in the age of the information super highway (2011) and published in The Canadian Journal for Education.Now more than ever, teachers need to hear some sensible voices in the sea of noise that education is generating. They need to see past the short term goals of children passing exams and schools looking good on the back of those results. The outstanding chasers need to think a bit more deeply about the challenges of providing a genuinely purposeful education for our children.In his new book, Think Before You Teach (2015), Martin asks teachers to reflect on why and how they intend to teach. 'An education of hope' is the offer that Martin extends, in inviting teachers to think about taking responsibility for what happens in their own classrooms.Martin works with schools and universities throughout the UK including recent appearances at The University of Nottingham, The Harris Academy in South London and at The National Primary Grammar Conference in Oxford (with David Crystal and Ronald Carter). He has recently returned from Cairo, Egypt where he delivered CPD at El Alsson School.With a mix of practical ideas and deep thinking, Martin's sessions remind teachers why they became teachers in the first place and inspire them to move forward refreshed.