The story about the behavioral objective was so funny.
Same thing happened to me with my middle school math CT. I was teaching the
class. He had given me some test prep multiple choice questions to do on the
overhead with the class. They were really poorly written, cheap materials.
This one problem was written with something missing. Honestly, there was not
enough information to solve the problem. The students and I were all trying
to figure out this one problem. Finally, I said, do any of you guys think
maybe there is something wrong with this problem. Maybe they made a mistake
in writing it? Everyone was like, yeah, we think so too.
Then the CT said, no the problem is fine. I know how to do it. I said, oh,
great, can you show us. The whole class was like, please show us. I mean me
and the entire class were so into this problem. You know when no one in the
class can do the problem including the teachers, that problem becomes
interesting to everyone in the class. Even the kids who think they are
stupid and tune out want to pay attention now!
Then the CT says, no, we'll do it some other time. Let's do another problem
now. (That is when I realized that he had no idea how to do the problem
either. Laugh. He was just one of those teachers who always has to be the
smartest in the room and feels threatened in his power if any student ever
knows more than him. I know I am smart and don't feel stupid if a student
corrects my mistake or solves a problem before me. I think it is great. I
tell them, good noticing or great problem solving on that one. I used to do
puzzles and games in geometry on the overhead and never look at the answers
beforehand just so the kids could race me and beat me on it sometimes. They
loved it!!) So I was like, we are all dying to see it solved now. Please do
it now instead of later. And all of the kids were screaming, yeah, we want
to see how to do it. Show us. Show us! (How often can you get kids like that
in math.) He wouldn't do it. He moved onto another problem. OMG, he was so
uncomfortable. He said he could do it and got caught in his own lie!
I could tell that he had no idea how to do the problem. Seriously, it was
badly written and unsolvable. He treated me pretty bad after that for the
entire rest of my student teaching and bad talked me to his principal and
such. What an ego, huh! Laugh. But, seriously, it was worth it to watch that
pathetic fat head of a teacher squirm and get caught in his own lie. I still
laugh when I think about it. He was such a jerk.
Oh, you know how he was hired? Him and the principal used to work together
in the Navy--they were old buddies. And he had only been teaching for like
one or two years. He had not even passed all of his CSETs in math yet so he
wasn't fully credentialed. And they made him a CT?!!! What the...
On 5/08/08, Been there wrote:
> It was early in the second week of school. I returned to the classroom
> after lunch to find the CT and another teacher angry about a new school
> policy. My CT, who is the building rep for the union, was fit to be tied.
>
>
> So I asked what they were mad about (mistake #1) and my CT angrily states
> that the high school teachers now have to include "behavioral objectives"
> on their lesson plans. She stressed the second syllable of behavioral as
> though she thought this new directive was the stupidest thing imaginable.
> I remembered in my education classes that Bloom's taxonomy is now
> considered to be outdated since it's based on behavioralism and not
> constructivism, the new fashionable theory of learning, so I mentioned
> something about that. I was assuming she was angry because she disagreed
> with behavioral theory. (Big Mistake)
>
> After I spoke, it's like a light went on for her and she instantly become
> silent and started moving around papers on her desk signaling the
> discussion was over. The other teacher, who was a nice person, said "Oh,
> I love Bloom's taxonomy. Maybe this is just about that."
>
> My CT just pursed her lips and was in a foul mood for the rest of the day.
>
> When she fired me shewrote that I was knowledge deficient in 3rd grade
> math (yet I received a 180 out of a possible 200 on the Praxis) and on my
> last day she said she thought I could teach college. Go figure.
>
> Looking back I realize she didn't know what a behavioral objective is and
> she thought it had to do with classroom management, i.e. good behavior in
> the classroom. My statement about Bloom's Taxomomy exposed her ignorance
> in front of another teacher, and that was a mortal sin.
>
> My advice is to keep your mouth shut as much as possible.
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