Teaching for Teachers
Here’s a simple rule from the Big Book of Common Sense…The first time you try something you always make a mess and the mess is multiplied by the complexity of the task.
*Do you remember learning to ride a bike? Simple right? Not the first time. Most people go through every Band-Aid in the house before they catch on.
*Ever have the pleasure of sitting through Calculus and wondering how math had morphed into strange magic spells?
*How about your first day on the job? How many dumb mistakes did you make? Where you efficient at all or did you have to ask for help with everything including finding the bathroom?
I assure you there are few things more complicated than teaching. You’re not just presenting information in a digestible form you must also impose your will on a group of somewhat uncooperative “clients.” Unlike engineering, there are no absolute rules of physics to rest on. Computers will bend to your will if you speak their protocol but no child is formatted the same. Oh yea, and you can’t just use the bathroom whenever you want.
Here’s where I’m going…You want to avoid, if possible, putting your child in the classroom of a first or second year teacher. Why? They’re still learning what they’re doing. Do you want them breaking in and sifting their tactics on your child?
Here’s statistic to think over. Just over forty percent of teachers quit after the three years.
That means with four years of education classes, they were still unprepared or unaware of the demands their profession would extract. I sure pay plays some part but most go into teaching with a grand vision that turns into a search for the exit sign.
But fear not! I have a fix.
Most (and by that I mean almost all of them) education classes in college are ideal based with the anchor of reality long since severed. Aircraft engineers don’t spend years in a classroom learning the names of parts and how their put together and are then sent out to fix commercial aircraft. Instead, they are given a limited amount of instruction and a whole lot of practice with actual engines before being set loose. Teaching should be the same way.
Traditional Teacher’s Education
About 1.5 years of general education classes (speech, psychology, etc.)
About 2.5 years of education theory classes (children’s literature, classroom mismanagement, and instructional strategies)
Only .5 years as a student teacher (I’m guessing it’s so short because they don’t want you to figure out that you’re no where near prepared for this job.)
Matt’s Perfered Teacher Education
About 1 year of education theory classes (Instructional strategies and classroom management ONLY)
About 1 year of general education classes (Centered on the subject you might like to teach)
About 2.5 years as a student teacher working the six million kinks out.
Even then, the teacher dropout rate may only slightly improve.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:00 am
haha. i agree. I didn’t have the semester of student teaching before jumping into this job. It WAS my job. It was good because I was getting paid but bad because I was on my own. Talk about being thrown into the fire! But I learned so much. I can say that my college gave me a lot of exposure to the classroom before the student teaching so that helped. But not every college is like that and I could have used less psychology classes. Even though I love my job, it would be nice to have one of those jobs where the stress is less and the pay is more……. btw, we didn’t even have a class devoted to classroom management, it was incorporated into a psychology class!!! I learned everything I know from fellow teachers and experimenting. Maybe you should write a book about THAT! lol It would be a new teacher’s bible.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Does this theory of “the first time you try something you always make a mess” apply to the theory presented here?