Re: Ugh....the requirements are insane
Posted by Rodeo on 4/21/08
How many different programs did you call? I am in San Diego.
I called several different credential programs. I found
several that were 2 year programs. I found one that had an
accelerated one year evening program. I did that one.
Call around more. Maybe you will find one that is shorter.
But really. If I were you I would't want to do it. Subbing
is a lot different than teaching. If you think you can
reach every math student then you are being unrealistic.
Those few that still struggle with math or just won't do the
work it takes to learn it will still be there no matter how
good you are. It is a really frustrating job. I mean it is a
job where you will be blamed for any student who doesn't
have the ability or work ethic to learn.
If you teach in any school that isn't high performing then
your classes will be loaded with students who don't have the
math skills for the classes they have been socially promoted
into. Subbing a couple days and having some of them get it
and feeling proud about that is different than having
responsibility for teaching the state standards for a year
and having the students understand it enough to apply it
independently on a test or as part of more complex problems
later.
If you become a math teacher, you are now entering a broken
world of dysfunctional policies, districts, schools, and
administrations. You can never be good enough of a math
teacher to protect yourself from the dysfunctions of this
sick system or to overcome the sickness to make it really
right for the students either. If you want to go into math,
just do it with your eyes open.
It is like going into social work. You can't save the world.
You are going to see and experience a lot of nasty,
frustrating things so make sure you can handle that. A good
math teacher can't reach them all anymore than a good social
worker can stop all the babies on their list from being
popped into a microwave to shaken to death or whatever, if
you get what I am trying to say.
The system works against you and sometimes you will take the
rap for things that aren't your fault--like bad parenting
or bad genetics or bad placement by the counselors or bad
teaching by former teachers or students being passed who
never should have been...Can you work under those conditions?
Teachers.Net
Login
More chatboard posts...
22 Subscribers