I have always been fascinated by an effective teacher’s presence; not just being present, but successfully holding learners’ attention and creating a classroom atmosphere which makes engagement, focus and inspiration possible.
Nothing pleases a principal more than walking the corridors of a school and witnessing, hearing and feeling teaching and learning in action in every classroom. We all recognise that atmosphere of positive engagement as the deliberately chosen and consistent daily tone of a great school. Any principal or deputy on walkabout can immediately gauge whether there’s that unsightly distance between the teacher who sits at the desk and the class left to its own resources. Yes, engagement, a teacher and a class in action, is music to the school leader’s ears.
Think of your own children and their teachers. A good teacher creates the calm and the ethos which makes continuous learning possible. The learners buy in to the teacher’s distinctive way of doing things.
Think of how fully a child embraces the unique relationship and individual attention of a foundation phase class teacher. Forged over the course of four terms, it’s a climate which makes a child feel a sense of belonging, recognition and calm which provide the consistency, the routine and the motivation to bring out the very best in terms of early learning milestones.
Sure, professional presence has lots to do with being fully prepared, organised and familiar with both the subject matter and the methodology, but how sad is it if a teacher fails to create this climate or to take personal responsibility for those all-important milestones? The opportunity, the benefit in terms of further school performance and eventual career and earning potential are severely limited or lost altogether.
Our schools have more novice teachers than ever. Can schools provide professional learning in building classroom presence, interpersonal skills and that critical connection with toddlers and teenagers?
The university has given them the training, but often the toolbox is only professionalised in the engine room, which a first full-time class most certainly is – as any experienced teacher knows. It’s coaching, collaboration, peer learning and personal commitment which turn teachers into professionals with the presence to perform in the modern classroom.
Education students do practical teaching weeks which are monitored and evaluated, but when that one teacher is chosen to join the staff of a first school, that school has the chance to support the novice to use both personality and body to command attention, to create a more harmonious, effective classroom and to strengthen relationships with learners.
It can be frightening to walk into a classroom of forty 15-year-olds as an inexperienced teacher, but it’s important to mask any anxiety with that necessary presence that comes with the right posture, good eye contact and a clear and audible voice.
I’m one of the shortest high school teachers in history, but I know how to stand tall in a classroom and to speak with authority. I work hard to remain calm and grounded; to move into the right spaces and to throw in those powerful pauses for emphasis.
I’ve learned to excel as a storyteller because much of the teaching of History and English is about enticing interest and excitement by slowly revealing a secret or creating anticipation or intrigue as I try to hold attention and to build an emotional response which promotes engagement and learning.
As a principal, deputy or departmental head, you have mastered very similar strengths. I hope that as I detail the skills you all know well it helps you to isolate and share them with those tasked with mentoring novice teachers. So many of them are articulate, lively and willing, but they need to build experience quickly. Nothing will help them more than a very supportive, collaborative climate and a school with a growth mindset which a management team makes clearly visible from day one.
But, remember, a school leader has a presence too – one that gives the school, its staffroom and its spirit a unique character. When a new principal takes over, that dynamic takes on a new dimension. The school may have systems and structures in place, but a new leader brings his or her own personality to leadership.
Yes, as principal, you have the capacity to bring vision, direction, motivation and style to the way teachers and learners feel, interact and perform. Do you bring out the best in those you serve? It’s a question which should make us all think about the way we face every day.
Till next time.
Paul
Coach/Mentor
The Principals Academy Trust
Kerra Maddern, ‘Use your body to create presence’, Times Education Supplement, 4th January, 2013
No: 11/24
25 July 2024
