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Education & Science
WEESP – Stimulated by her reading environment to whom she occasionally told her stories, Noortje Doc from Weesp decided to combine her experiences as a substitute teacher. Of this Teacher without class the result.
Diary of a substitute teacher in primary education:
“Due to the fleeting nature of my existence, wandering from one school to another, from one class to another, describing what I experienced turned out to be a way to temporarily bond. I will never forget the children I show up in my stories, but for them I was just another passer-by.”
The book is a series of portraits of schoolchildren from the entire municipality of Amsterdam, recorded in the period 2014 to 2020. From bullying behavior to not having a good command of the Dutch language, Doc gives a nuanced picture of her work as a teacher. This book is available from Friday April 5 and is published by Uitgeverij Boekscout.
Never from class
For two years, the teacher cycles from one school to another without a class. Everywhere in the municipality of Amsterdam, education is struggling with a shortage of staff. If a teacher is ill, teacher Noor is called. Due to the fleeting nature of this existence, she never becomes part of the class, but the class is hers for a while.
There is a notebook on her table in which she writes down what she experiences with the children and describes the joys and sorrows she shares with them. She lets the legendary schoolmaster and writer Theo Thijssen (1878-1943) from Amsterdam look over her shoulder. Quotes from his books about education and schoolchildren describe situations from a hundred years ago. A lot has changed in the meantime, but a lot hasn’t.
About the author
Noortje Doc worked in primary education from 2002 to 2010. Before that, she studied Spanish and worked at the then Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam (now Wereldmuseum). She wrote teaching materials and stories for the exhibitions and guided the public. She traveled a lot, looking for stories. In 2012, Doc founded ‘Language on the Table’, offered himself as an NT2 teacher and registered with an employment agency as a substitute for primary education.
Book details: Teacher without a class – Diary of a substitute teacher in primary education (112 pages) by author Noortje Doc.
Publication date: 05-04-2024. ISBN: 9789464895322. Price: 18.99 euros including processing and shipping costs to the Netherlands and Belgium. Edition: Paperback
