‘I better give you advice on what it takes to be a teacher’

Well, you decided to go into teacher training. I guess this means I’m your favourite parent – after all, I inspired you to become an English teacher like me.

Looking back to when you and your younger sister played teacher, I think I better give you some advice, or at least let you in on some secrets, on what it really takes to be a secondary schoolteacher.

You have to know and love your subject. This is a basic requirement.

How can you teach something that you don’t love?

With this comes the understanding that you are an expert in that subject. Don’t forget that you have a degree in English. Read widely. Reading books, watching films, going to plays, is now considered “work”, so don’t listen to anyone who says you don’t work during your time off.

Pedagogy, how you teach, and classroom management happen at the same time. We all teach in our own idiosyncratic ways. It’ll take you years to find out the best approach for you. Experiment with your pedagogy, but you should be able to go into the class with just a book and teach. Use technology if you want, when you want, but never forget the simplicity of reading, talking, writing.

You will spend five years working out the best way to teach. Then you’ll realise that you still haven’t a clue and, after another five, you’ll realise that you have to keep changing and adapting to whatever group is in front of you.

Ignore teachers who tell you, “This is the only way to teach” – they’re egotists and should be disregarded.

[ Interviewing Gen Z teachers: A candidate told me I was in a bidding war for herOpens in new window ]

This is the first real secret: be willing to abandon one approach if it doesn’t work for a particular cohort of students. This is because it is not about you, it is all about the student. And I’m using the singular on purpose. It is not about the student body, but about the individual student in front of you.

A teacher’s role is that of a character actor there to facilitate the protagonist’s plot, their six-year arc. We will be forgotten, only story fragments will remain, told and retold until the truth disappears to be replaced by myths. But that’s all we ever were in the first place; mythic creatures, unseen in the real world, only existing in context, in the other place, the place the hero must travel through.

Our job is to create a safe place for them to explore and experiment, for them to push against and challenge. To do this we must respect each one continuously. If a student gets in trouble, deal with it. But your respect for that student must remain at 100 per cent at all times, no matter the circumstances.

If they don’t show you respect, if the manners aren’t present, then deal with that immediately.

Pause. Remain calm. Assess the situation. Explain the repercussions of their actions. Follow through.

You have to follow through. If you don’t, their respect for you will vanish.

You should be friendly, but you are not their friend.

Have a reason for everything you do, whether that be discipline or pedagogy.

Ask for help. Don’t just suffer through a class and then another and then another. Talk to someone.

I still look for advice from colleagues.

Don’t just sit behind a desk, move around the classroom.

You should feel safe at work; take care of yourself.

Eventually, you will be comfortable with the subject, you will manage the class in your own style, you will be delivering the curriculum. But that’s only getting through the job.

[ Back-to-school issues: the best starting age, PE problems, school refusal and teenage vapesOpens in new window ]

Empathy is the key to being a good teacher. Get to know your students. Watch them as they come in the room, as they interact. Over time you’ll see them for who they are and will be able to act accordingly. To be a teacher you need to scan the class to make sure each student has the space to be themselves, to express who they really are. You are not programming automatons; you are helping people develop.

You never know what is happening in a student’s life; always treat them with great care and understanding.

Show the students that they are getting better. Not by giving them a number, a grade, but by showing them the work they produce is better, has value. Celebrate their successes.

The CAO has nearly destroyed second-level education, turned it into a six-year competition, turned students into consumers. With your natural empathy, your love of your subject, your fervent belief in instilling agency in students, you will be able to fight against the CAO virus and help reveal the possibilities within each student, show them how great they are, show them that they can achieve, show them that they are an individual entity, one worth celebrating.

Show them that because their voice matters, they should respect other voices. No one voice or opinion should dominate.

You know that I love my job. You get to help people during a formative stage in their lives, as they go from 12 to 18. You watch them mature – hopefully not too much – and then they leave. What a privilege.

PS: Don’t let your mum know that I’m your favourite. That’s our secret.