Teaching Journal

So i have gone and got myself on a course. I admit i am not good at
courses, i dont think i am much of a student. i get distracted easily
and cant be bothered to do my homework. i wouldnt want to teach me.

This course though i have to do if i want to carry on teaching. All
rules have changed apparently and anyone who teaches adult basic skills
will need to have a cert ed by blah blah. See - it's attention to
detail that lets me down.

i love my job. i really enjoy teaching adults. People gasp when i
tell them i work in a B cat Lifer Centre and almost all my students are
murderers. Like it makes a difference. Do i have a screw in the room
with me? No. Do i have CCTV just in case a nutty murderer decides to do
me in? No.

i am sorry to disappoint but it's no different from teaching adults
anywhere. I wasn't expecting it to be the same. i was nervous when i
first went into prison as i didnt know what to expect. i thought the
inmates might be freaky weirdos with evil glints in their eyes.

The course i am doing now is the 7407 part 2. A city and guilds
qualification in teaching adults. Luckily (or not depending how you see
it) our employer is sending us on the course once a month at another
prison, a young offenders or YOI. All the other students on the course
are prison teachers already which means we have common experiences and
this is a very good thing. I tried to do this course before but had to
attend one evening a week miles away from home and i couldnt do it
all.

i am going with two of my colleagues. A fair few people on the
course feel pressed into it and reluctant. This must be awkward for the
tutor but is interesting because it's a situation we find ourselves in
as tutors all the time.

Education in our prison is part of the sentence plan of each inmate
and targets are set up to Key Skills 2 on Sentence Planning Boards
(SPB's) and so we find a fair percentage of chaps arriving in the
education department because they have to. Often they have had poor
experiences of education in the past. Many of them left school without
formal qualifications and many confide they have fried their brains
with drugs and booze. A massive percentage of them are identified
through screening as having high dyslexia indicators. So we get plenty
of students who come in not wanting to be there.

i have taught there in my present job for three fifteen week terms.
The first term was a blind panic, trying to find out how to do it, what
was expected, where everything was kept and which members of staff knew
what. The second term was easier and this term i have hit my stride. I
am known to the men now and have got a name for myself in there. God
knows what it is but i get very little trouble.

There are particular problems associated with teaching in a prison.
Each person in your class has clearly got some very difficult history.
Some may have particular problems in relating to women. There are
frequent tensions between inmates over matters which the teacher can
hardly imagine. The men live in a community where there is little
privacy, little autonomy and few choices. However, all these things
aside, there is also the matter of teaching them and getting them
through their exams.

It will be interesting to see how the 7407 affects the actual
business of doing just that.