Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

TeacherGal
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am

Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by TeacherGal »

I'm not sure how to word my skills and responsibilities as an elementary school teacher on an application. I'd appreciate people's suggestions here. I'll pick those applicable.
Reu
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:11 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by Reu »

Keywords would be:

Good behaviour management within the classroom, including awareness and enforcement of the school's anti-bullying welfare system.
Liaising with parents - including parent/teacher conferences - to ensure their children are given every opportunity to learn key skills both inside and outside school.
Ensuring the welfare of all pupils, including but not limited to ensuring medication is taken at the correct time (maybe? Not sure on the US system as compared to UK)
Awareness of Special Educational Needs in the classroom, including but not limited to autism and ADHD, to ensure every pupil can learn at a speed comfortable for them whilst not falling behind. This also includes differentiation of material, so that every pupil is sufficiently challenged in the learning environment (again, maybe? Not sure on the US system as compared to UK)

Will post again if I think of anything else.
TeacherGal
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by TeacherGal »

Thank you Reu. These are the type of answers I'm looking for. :)
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Inquiry

Post by PsyGuy »

Is this for an IE or DE application?
TeacherGal
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by TeacherGal »

This is for an international elementary school teaching position.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@TeacherGal

Than I would disagree in part with @Reu

1) Those sound nice, but many ISs dont have an anti-bullying policy (It implies there is a bullying problem) and in some ISs that type of behavior is tolerated because the parents are part of ownership or are affluent enough that their "monster" kids can get away with anything they want.
Strong behavior management is just a given.

2) This is also just a given, its assumed you will communicate with parents when your required too.

3) This isnt even worth mentioning either the student will be responsible for their meds and you arent even likely to know or a school nurse will.

4) Not really an issue in IE, and honestly you dont want to mention to a parent that their child might need SPED or SEN services, that kind of stuff goes on permanent records and good doom their childs future. There are parents that would be EXTREMELY offended if you suggested even in passing SPED/SEN issues. Whats more important in IE is English language learning and being able to address the needs of students at different levels of English Language Acquisition.

Id focus more on:

1) Instructional Delivery that is challenging but engaging.
2) Focus on Nero-Kinesic activity in lessons.
3) Whole Child Learning and Growth
4) Reading Development
5) Collaboration with specialist ITs.
Reu
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:11 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by Reu »

Agree to disagree, but to flesh out my reasons so that TeacherGal can make an informed decision:

1) Anti-bullying experience can show you know how to handle children bullying and in-fighting amongst children. Even if the school outwardly tolerates such behaviour, you're not selling yourself to the parents of the monsters, you're selling yourself to the school, who will want teachers who can handle the monsters in some way. More than that, though, a lot of IS schools are actually moving towards anti-bullying stances/policies due to cyber-bullying and sexting - the prevalence of smart-phones and boys being more aggressively sexualised from a younger age are both issues in IS schools (the latter being a definite issue in Middle East co-ed schools, due to the cultural bias towards boys/against girls).

"Strong Behaviour Management is a given" - Yes, which is why mentioning it should be standard. If you don't throw out a line about it you'll look less capable than a candidate who does.

2) Again, a given, and therefore should be a standard line on the CV/Resume.

3) Large-scale trips/events have (in my experience) required a teacher or Form Tutor to handle medication for all children. It also shows willingness to undertake extra responsibilities, especially if you can put down you're first-aid trained, or are willing to be.

4) Again, you're not applying to parents, you're applying to a school. My experience varies between schools, but in my current position I'm teaching one child who all staff concede is very special, and several with varying degrees of either ADHD or autism/Aspergers, and the school is supportive of all the pupils, even though the parents of one refuse to concede to facts. Much can be done when knowledgable staff members coordinate amongst themselves, even when stymied by the parents. One school in the Middle East flat-out refused to accept mention of SEN, yet another one (in a different Middle-East country) had a part-time SENCO.

"Whats more important in IE is English language learning and being able to address the needs of students at different levels of English Language Acquisition."

This should be a given in International Teaching, and should be mentioned as standard. Something along the lines of "able to differentiate classwork for EAL pupils and co-ordinate with the Head of EAL to ensure that all pupils can understand subject content"

"1) Instructional Delivery that is challenging but engaging."

Should be standard in a CV/Resume, alongside "4) Reading Development" for elementary/primary placements.

"3) Whole Child Learning and Growth and 5) Collaboration with specialist ITs."

Both worthwhile suggestions.

"2) Focus on Nero-Kinesic activity in lessons."

A quick Google reveals nothing for this. Did you spell it correctly?
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@Reu

Sure we disagree.

1) This is IE students dont fight. In Asia the consequences of fighting with another student would be horrendous, it just doesnt happen. Even in the scenarios its does, any DT/IT should have basic behavior management skills, that it is assumed.

2) Maybe long trips require some notification, how often does that happen, maybe a couple ITs a year have to handle that and its not like you are a nurse you just ask little Jane if she took her medication, done.

3) Spelled it right.

Standard, common characteristics to the profession are not worth wasting space on a resume. I understand you want to highlight the ordinary.
Reu
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:11 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by Reu »

1) "Students don't fight". But they do get into physical altercations and physical bullying. A previous school I worked for in Asia had very aggressive behaviour (against an SEN student, actually) that escalated to the bullies hitting/swiping the pupil being bullied.

Also, another example: a school a friend worked for had Y7 boys involved in sexting. Sure, TeacherGal is elementary level, but Y7 is just the first year of Secondary, remember.

2) "just ask little Jane if she took her medication, done." Ignores the fact that in some schools teachers are - rightly or wrongly - tasked with handling medications, even if the onus of remembering to take medications is on the child.

3) Here, which of these things are you talking about, then? https://www.google.com/search?q=Nero-Kinesic
Reu
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:11 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by Reu »

Also, fyi - I didn't say "fighting", I said "in-fighting" - "hidden conflict or competitiveness within an organization".
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@Reu

Any IT/DT should be able to handle some boys being boys. Any IT/DT can tell a female student to put the phone down. Handling mediation is not rocket science this is something any and every parent does all the time, and their only qualification is that they are an adult, you dont even need to be a IT/DT to do that.

Again, you are highlighting the ordinary.
Reu
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:11 am

Re: Reply

Post by Reu »

PsyGuy wrote:
> @Reu
>
> Any IT/DT should be able to handle some boys being boys.

Holy sh...

Straight-up

1) If you think that children bullying and physically harming an SEN student or sexting/pressuring Y7 girls for sexual favours is "boys being boys", you're part of the problem, not only in teaching/schools, but in society.

2) If you think that the skills needed to deal with these issues, as well as talking about them with the offending pupils, their parents, and senior management, are "ordinary", you clearly have no idea what thought and diplomacy goes into such matters. If you think sexting is going to stop by telling a "female student to put the phone down", you have no experience dealing with such things, so don't pretend you do. Your attitude would only allow girls to feel pressured into doing things that, in this day-and-age of "informed consent", are foul.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@Reu

1) If you think year 7 boys arent going to use a little physical negotiation to resolve disputes, you dont know very much about young boys. I know theres no sexting if theres no phone, its the same as the recidivism rate of capital punishment, its zero.

2) Yes they are all ordinary, its standard training for the teaching profession. If you cant handle behavior management what did you learn in your EPP/ITT program?
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Skills and Responsibilities of a teacher?

Post by Thames Pirate »

To go back to the original question, I don't know that this stuff is really all that valuable on a CV. If there are special duties you did that stand out, sure, list those under extra stuff, but most of the rest should be standard teacher stuff. So yes, list committees or extracurricular on which you worked, but beyond that it's mostly a waste. It might even look like you didn't have anything else.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Discussion

Post by PsyGuy »

When IT resumes have bullet points that read as is they came directly from a general DT/IT job description it looks like filler for stretching out an unremarkable resume or trying to reach the end of a page. General behavior management, addressing medication schedules, attentiveness to SEN/LD/SPED, communicating to parents are all ordinary tasks of a general education IT/DT. Might as well include marking assignments, planning lessons and attending meetings, its all typical ordinary tasks.
Post Reply