Reading and Writing as Planning

Those who can do. Those who can’t, teach. What is it that English teachers do if they are not a reader?

Ann Rice, children’s office, said that teaching (in her very short career) destroyed her ability to write. The all-encompassing nature of teaching, the complexity of human interaction, demands much of the mind. To write requires great space in the mind to contemplate. And to write also requires time to read.

I have got to the point now after 14 years of teaching of being able to teach lessons with the intensity of expert planning, without the need for paperwork.

There was a time when I felt an amount of planning was given because then the lesson had some kind of legitimacy. There has also been a time when my planning was minimal, repeating what I did the year before, albeit slightly better. My plans, now, are to make my planning responsive and to really plan by reading the text and becoming more expert.

In my mind, every English teacher needs to read. Ideally, although the time isn’t really there (especially with a family), every English teacher needs to write. These two forms of practice should be outside teaching. Realistically, can these take place? And can they take place in an international school where there is often change?

I think so.