Get Schooled

By Jeff

May 21, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

This year marks the highest 3rd grade enrollment in U.S. history. Generation Y is larger in number than the baby boomers, and make up 26% of the entire US population. I’ve been teaching for 8 years, and truly enjoy it. However, in those 8 years, I’ve seen an incredible amount of turnover - primarily due to student behavior and unbelievably abusive parents (seriously, ask me about the teacher who received death threats for teaching the pledge of allegiance to her students in the target language… just as an exercise in translation). You’ve gotta have the ability to let the water roll off your back, or you go out of your mind - not a lot of folks can handle that day in and day out for 190 days. Look around your schools - the teachers who are left after 10 years are mostly amazing. Those who are new… well… they’ll sink or swim in a couple years. My advice to parents - your students present you with fascinating versions of the truth… grain of salt!

By WFC

May 21, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

Teaching was a “calling” for me. I went back to school after three years in the corporate world to become a teacher. I also believe that teaching is as much an “art” as a science but a teacher must “know his/her stuff.” Teaching is also a function of personality, an often overlooked factor in selecting teachers.

I also believe that a high school teacher should be at least 25-27 years old. A 22-year old teaching a 17-year old is seldom a good idea.

By high school teacher

May 21, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this

Teaching is a gift. I have seen some excellent teachers emerge from the Teach for America program, and I have seen horrible teachers with mulitple degrees in education. Can anyone teach? No, plain and simple.

By jim d

May 21, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

WOO — HOO !!

它结束

het is over

es ist vorbei

τελειώνει

č sopra

それは終わった

acaba-se

оно сверх

ha terminado

NO Matter what language you use, “It is over” Sounds so sweet!

By jim d

May 21, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this

Can anyone teach?

WHY NOT?

The powers to be expect everyone to learn so why not expect everyone can teach?

By Jeff

May 21, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this

Let me tell you a story:

There were once two friends who applied to Teach for America. One friend was from a fairly prestigious midwestern school, the other from a relatively obscure southeastern school. The friend from the mid west didn’t really want to teach the rest of his life, he simply wanted to use his time in TFA as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. The friend from the southeast REALLY wanted to be a teacher, and could think of no higher calling in his life.

TFA selected the friend from the midwestern school and rejected the friend from the southeastern school, in part because he was persuing a teaching degree at the time anyway.

Both wound up being teachers. The TFA teacher taught in the inner city in Baltimore, while the non-TFA teacher wound up in an extremely rural system, just as poor - if not poorer than - the kids the TFA friend was working with.

Two years pass. Both had horrible experiences in the classroom in these two years, but only one stayed in the classroom.

Was it the TFA teacher who never wanted to be there in the first place, or was it the college of education-trained teacher who wanted to spend his life in the classroom?

By lyncoln

May 21, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this

Well, there’s a recent research paper released by the Urban Institute that did some comparisons of Teach For America teachers in North Carolina High Schools.

You can find it here at TFA research

The study measured for High School teaching and concludes that the TFA teachers were more effective than traditionally trained teachers.

The table I found most interesting was the one listing the college selectivity of the different groups of teachers (in Table 1 on page 30). The TFA teachers came from a more selective group of universities.

That difference between the regular teachers and TFA teachers suggests that teacher ability has some relationship to student’s learning. I would tie ‘teacher quality’ into salaries for a moment and suggest that students that attend more selective universities might end up owing more money on college loans and also have the ability to earn degrees that will earn higher salaries in the working world. I hypothesize that attracting more of these students from selective universities into teaching would have a positive influence on student learning and one way of doing that is to increase salaries for teachers.

As for today’s topic, I don’t have much of a problem with TFA graduates teaching students in various grade levels.

By meme

May 21, 2008 9:58 AM | Link to this

If they can take the abuse of the administrators, the students and the parents, I say let them teach.

By LikeToBlog

May 21, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this

There is a teacher shortage in many areas. For example, high school teachers, especially in the areas of math and science, are in extreme shortage nationwide (not just in GA).

Because of this shortage, schools struggle to find teachers to fill the required positions.

In some states, shortage in specific areas are addressed through increasing teacher pay in those areas only. For example, high school teachers in Michigan (I believe it is Michigan) are paid on a higher pay scale compared to elementary teachers.

Can anyone teach? Yeah, you can put any warm body adult in front of any group of students and call them a teacher. Should anyone teach? No.

Being a teacher requires many skillsets: patience with children, dealing with parents, content knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, education law, etc. This skillset as a whole is very different from the corporate world.

Can Teach For America succeed. Some will be successful and some will not. Is it better or worse as a whole - don’t know. IMHO success entires greatly on the particular school.

Some schools have tremedous behavior problems. The administration is weak and the students behave so badly it makes teaching miserable.

Some schools are academically weak. The community, the administration, even some of the teachers have set the bar low academically for the students. For me, I wouldn’t like to teach there.

IMHO, a good formula for new teacher success is:

By shell

May 21, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this

I believe most of the problem is many graduating college students look at the poor and say ‘I’ll teach until the economy gets better’. Personally, I don’t think anyone can become a teacher. I never understand why education was the easiest major in college. What are these students major? What subjects and grade levels will they be teaching. It does a disservice to have a person in a profession who really doesn’t have any interest in being there. Students can pick up on if a teacher is really into teaching or just doing for a easy ‘paycheck’ and summers off.

By abcdefghijklamnop...

May 23, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this

I like the “easy paycheck” and “summers off”. I just did the calendar math, and we have shortened summer again: this time to 9 weeks.

By Lisa B.

May 23, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this

Officials from a nearby school system here in South Georgia just returned from a recruiting trip to India. I’ve heard 30 math teachers were hired on that trip to teach here beginning in August. I guess TFA isn’t bringing in enough teachers.

By TheBlogger

May 23, 2008 2:58 PM | Link to this

My school hired a teacher from India for this past year. She was a ‘science’ teacher. She didn’t know the content, was very timid and let the students run all over her. Fights regularly broke out in her class and her students wondered the halls every period.

She was not rehired for next year.

By MathTeacher

May 27, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

There are many “gifted” teachers. However, teaching is also a science. People can learn to teach, and teach more effectively.

On the other hand, unless you are naturally gifted as a teacher, you must learn to teach. The notion that “anyone can teach” is just a myth.