What is it that makes a teacher?

I have a friend who has recently moved here from Australia. She came with her partner as he (like many) is part of the Christchurch rebuild. She is a teacher and wants to find a job

Now this isn't uncommon most people want to work. But I know the hurdles she is going to face. The issues with registering herself to be a New Zealand teacher and Nova pay hassles and not to forget that she has no knowledge of the New Zealand curriculum.

I have posted before about my issues, frustrations and share annoyance about the whole thing. Hence why I suggested she came and volunteer with me in our team. That way she can slowly get to grips with how things work in New Zealand.  It’s what I did and from there managed to get relief work then a job.

Talking to her it got me thinking. Does understanding a certain curriculum make you a better teacher? Most schools she handed her C.V in just to do relief work seemed to change their tune when she said she was an Australian trained teacher. Not one school queried anything else just the fact she wasn’t trained here.

So is knowledge the only thing that makes a good teacher? I always recall a University professor of mine telling me that excellent grades don’t always make a ‘great’ teacher. What you can put on paper isn't always the same as what you can do in classroom.

I believe that if you’re a passionate teacher you can teach anywhere. I don’t think having knowledge of a certain curriculum actually proves how good you are as a teacher. There is a lot of the UK curriculum I see here in NZ. I notice a lot of teaching ideas from over there have become popular over here. The Literacy/Mathematics shed, Alan Peat, Ros Wilson, Pie Corbett to name a few. On Twitter Chats you hear about ideas that other teachers are doing all over the world that are similar to those right here in NZ.

So does curriculum knowledge make you a better teacher?