Why We Need More Male Primary School Teachers

I spent Thursday night at 9pm glued to BBC2 watching their School season, more specifically Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys.

It highlighted what is a real worry for me the feminising of teaching and the lack of male teachers in our primary schools.  According to a recent piece in the telegraph am only make up 12% of of the teachers in primary schools.

As a mum of two boys I find this a worry statistics and would love for my boys to go to a primary school where the teaching mix was much more appropriate to the society we live in.

We are lucky in the Maxi has a Male teacher for Year 1 and also had a male teacher in Preschool, but there are no more male teachers at the school and there are no male teaching assistants at all.

Why are male teachers important?

I often though that the reason boys and girls were different was due to their upbringing, but being a mum to two boys has been a real eye opener for me. I realise that they are completely wired differently and need different things to girls and I feel that we need to take this in to account when teaching them.

Boys need positive make role models, they need to be able to let off steam.  They need their differences to be embraced, but to be made to learn like girls.

Anyway back to the programme, what struck me so much was that they boys were really engaged, they interacted to Gareth and they were happy.  They were not stuck in some apathetic state.

I spent some time on twitter too and it was amazing the number of people who all agree that we need more male primary school teachers and that boys need a different approach to girls.

I am so looking forward to the rest of the program on Thursday.

Teachers Gifts 2010

Maxi made mugs for his teacher and teaching assistants.  We used porcelain paint from my stash and some 50p mugs from Morrisons,  He used his finger and thumb to make prints on them, which we turned in to pigs, beas, a caterpillar and flowers.

Mini and I made lavender bags for his Preschool teacher and the teaching assistants using fabric that Mini and Maxi had previously dyed (tutorial to follow).  Mini picked the ribbon from my stash and sat on my knee to help sew (I use the term help very loosely)!

The cards were super easy to make, we punched heart shapes out of tissue paper and used a paper brad to hold them on the card.  I then printed out "Thank you for helping me bloom" and the boys stuck them on to the cards.

Childrens Craft Showcase - Gifts for the Teacher

The end of the school year is very nearly upon us here in England, so I have started to think about teacher appreciation gifts for MaxiMads wonderful Reception teacher and her assistance and for Mini's Preschool Teacher.

I am a firm believer in child made is best, I don't want my gifts to be expensive, just used and made with love.

So I have a selection of things that we have made previously for people that would make great gifts to say thank you to a teacher.  

Handpainted Cups

This is what Maxi made for his teachers last year and will be doing again for his current teacher.  Click on the link above for a tutorial.

Tea Cup Candles

We gave all the teaching staff these for Christmas and they were a huge hit.

Childs Drawing and bookmark

Mini has drawn a picture of his teacher and I am busy turning it into a wonderful bookmark.

Painted Plant pots

This was what we did for mothers day, but would also make a great teachers gift too.

Stamped Bags

 We made these for Nana and Grandma for Christmas, but would be easily adapted.

Please fee free to link up any other ideas you might have or any crafty makes you have been busy with.

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Crafts for the Teacher

The Eldest MiniMad had his last day at preschool (nursery) on Friday and he has really enjoyed the time he spent there and I so wanted to tank his two teachers for the fantastic time he has had. He would run there on a morning and not want to leave when I collected him 2 hours later.

I know many people do not agree with presents for the teacher, but it was an effort to show the appreciation I have for them and also the fact that I entrusted them with my Perfect First Baby.

MiniMad never does any arts or crafts at preschool, I guess that is due to the fact that we do them all the time at home, so I decided we would decorate a cup for each of the teachers and fill with hot chocolate and herbal teas.

It is really easy as he just uses his finger and I embellish with a pen, so we did pigs, flowers, butterfly's and bees.