I've been teaching full time for 12 years. Before that I subbed and
was an instructional aide. I did stay home for several years to
raise my four sons. Before that, I taught for a couple of years. I
have to disagree about lack of knowlege of the material. I had the
required hours to teach elementary school, all subjects including
English/language arts. When I finally decided that middle school
language arts/reading was where I REALLY belonged, I took three
more classes to specifically help me be a better teacher. I needed
two of those classes for my endorsement and took the third for my
own edification.
While I agree with you on some levels of what we have too much of
(administrators - and not just principals). In our district, we
have a crazy hierarchy of custodial and maintenance people.
Granted, our buildings are all in excellent shape, but I really
wonder about the layers and layers of custodians and maintenance
people.
I also agree that all the new "buzzwords" can sometimes be
overwhelming. PBIS, RTI, DI, MCP, etc... When does it stop?
Education is a constantly changing, morphing entity, adapting to
the different needs of our students as our communities and
societies change. Basically, I always center my teaching on two
things: state standards and Bloom's Taxonomy. If my lessons can
reach students with different learning styles and abilities and can
reach all levels of learning over the course of a unit, I know my
students can be successful. If I had one thing to teach new
teachers, it would be that. Sure, you can have pretty portfolios
and can spout all the newest buzzwords. But, if you can show that
you understand the different modalities of learning, as well as the
levels of learning AND that you can teach your subject using
different levels of learning (Bloom's), you are halfway there. All
you have left is management, and that is where we are seeing new
teachers struggle, even more than in the past.
I disagree with you about student government, sports, and other
extracurricular activities. From my own perspective, sports have
kept many of my 8th graders on track educationally because of
eligibility. We have a very stringent policy, and our students DO
step it up a notch. As far as student government, I've seen the
students who participate grow and mature as citizens of their
school and community.
So, don't tear down the gym. Illinois is the only state left that
requires daily p.e., and with today's sedentary students, that may
be their only real exercise each day. Don't fire the coaches; just
make sure that the people you hire are teachers first and coaches
second.
You have given me a lot to think about. I may not agree with you,
but you are well-spoken and passionate, something that tells me
that you could be a great teacher. Karen
On 6/21/08, Merrill wrote:
> I was not an education major. However, I entered a graduate
> program that allowed me to earn a M.A. in English and a Teaching
> Certificate. I had to do observation (can't remember the hours,
> but it was quite a bit) and then student teaching for a semester.
> I also had to take 5-6 education courses. Some of these courses
> were helpful, several were not.
>
> Teaching is very difficult. Not only do you need to have a deep
> understanding and knowledge of the material, you need the
> practical skills of presentation, class management, etc.
> Education students tend to lack knowledge of the material, and
> specialists (Math majors, English majors, etc.) tend to lack the
> practical skills.
>
> Our education system tries to adapt to every possible contingency
> that might come up in the classroom--what if the student is ADD?
> What if the students are foreign? What if the students are poor?
> This approach is "student-centered" which means that the focus is
> not on the material, but on getting the student through the
> course. Somehow, we have to get Jimmy through Algebra, even if it
> means not teaching him much Algebra. The teacher then becomes a
> kind of taskmaster or construction foreman--and ceases to be a
> teacher. Vague concepts like "mental skills" and "learning how to
> learn" are all the rage, because you can have both of those things
> and not know a damn thing about anything.
>
> Reform in education comes when the educators come to an agreement
> with the specialists. It comes when we realize that students are
> in school to learn, not to play sports or run for student
> government. tear down the gym, fire the coach, get rid of student
> government, reduce the number of administrators, work with
> parents, and hike teacher's salaries. Recruit the best and the
> brightest--and you will see change.
>
>
>
>
> On 6/21/08, mrsd wrote:
>> You have some good points. When I was in college, we did have
>> theory classes. Actually, it was one theory class. We also
>> began our observations in our freshman year. And that's all we
>> did - 10 hours of sitting in a classroom, watching the teacher.
>> In our sophomore year, we had more observations, but were also
>> able to walk around the room helping students. We also learned
>> how to run the ditto machine (guess how old I am!) and how to
>> grade papers. Junior year, I actually got to teach lessons and
>> then a unit. By my senior year, I was more than ready to do my
>> student teaching. I had been in enough classrooms and had
>> taught enough practice lessons that I was fairly comfortable
>> taking over a classroom after only a few days of observation
>> and a couple more days of co-teaching with my cooperating
>> teacher. Nowadays, we are seeing teachers who start out with a
>> major, say English, get their degree, then take a fifth year to
>> get their education degree. They come to us as seniors in
>> college with no classroom experiences. They observe in various
>> classrooms for 10 hours. I've had students take just two days
>> to complete their 10 hours. Then, they go on to get their
>> education certification with just a few weeks of student
>> teaching. We've gone through 2 language arts teachers in the
>> past two years on my team. One had NO business teaching, and
>> she is now working retail. The other took the theory classes to
>> heart and was very rigid in dealing with our 8th graders. She
>> had many great ideas and lessons. But her ability to adjust her
>> lessons to fit the needs of the students was lacking. For
>> example, if we had a grammar lesson all planned for the same
>> day and another the next day, she'd follow that plan. If the
>> other l. arts teacher and I taught the lesson and felt that we
>> needed to do some reteaching and more practice, she wouldn't go
>> along. In the same vein, if her students did poorly on an
>> assignment, she'd record that score and move on. We other two
>> would give a completion score (5 or 10 points), reteach, then
>> record the next assignment as a full grade. I agree that these
>> young teachers are great at knowing how to create great
>> lessons, teach to all modalities of learning, and do all the
>> other "in" things. But, they lack the experience of knowing if
>> they even BELONG in a classroom. Sigh..Karen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6/19/08, spedhead wrote:
>>> On 6/19/08, mrsd wrote:
>>> It's very difficult to
>>>> hire teachers who speak incorrectly, especially when
>>>> teaching reading/language arts.
>>>
>>> My only comment here is that many people get nervous during
>>> interviews, especially when they know th chips are so stacked
>>> against them in the job market. I really, really like getting
>>> involved with our student teachers in my department and relish
>>> the chance to work with them. Its basically a semester long
>>> interview, but we drop the pretense and business suits and get
>>> down to teaching, learning, and being realistic.
>>>
>>> Supposedly there is a glut
>>>> of English teachers out there, but I really wonder how many
>>>> are competent teachers.
>>>
>>> Hard to say, because most of them haven't had a job teaching
>> yet.
>>>
>>>> I
>>>> don't know if it's a sad commentary on our teacher
>>>> preparation programs or on the quality of young people
>>>> going into teaching.
>>>
>>> I think teacher prep programs lack the real-world element.
>>> Many, many teacher come out of their programs like deer in
>>> headlights and while most of them get a good dose of the
>>> real-world in student teaching, they still cling onto the
>>> philosophical nonsense and theory shoved down their throats.
>>> I would rather see more teaching strategies taught and
>>> demonstrated and real-world teaching situations explained and
>>> demonstrated. There's a lot of pie-in-the-sky stuff taught in
>>> college ed classes.
>>>
>>> I had one person show me, from his portfolio, a unit plan he
>>> designed for college-bound, gifted seniors with LD. The plan
>>> and materials were written at 16th grade level or higher.
>>> They were excellent, for a 2 or 3 hundred level college
>>> course, maybe even an honors high school course... He was
>>> applying for a 7th grade Special Ed position.
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