Hi Joe!
I think that is really cool of you to consider this! I knew I wanted to be a teacher since high school. It is the best thing in my life (besides my loved-ones). I get to wake up everyday and be excited to go to work. Seriously. Yes, there are days that I am tired, cranky, and the kids are little craptards. But one the whole, it is so great just to be around kids all day. I love teaching, and I love the joy of seeing them discover something, but I like the kids just for being kids. They are funny and stupid and immature, but they are practicing what it is like to be adults, and to be mature. It is amazing to watch.
I teach a mix of math classes. I teach geometry, which is pretty much in the middle, I teach an engineering class, which has very driven, smart kids, and I teach the lowest level algebra we offer. These are the kids who go home to an alcoholic mother and a father who is in prison. These are the kids who show up because they will go to jail if they miss another day. These are the kids who plan to drop out as soon as they can so they can live on welfare. From day to day, they are obviously the toughest class to reach and teach. But in the long run, it is the most rewarding class to teach. You can't measure successes in them learning the quadratic formula, you measure successes in them turning in an assignment complete, or them choosing not to retaliate when someone makes them mad. If you are ever in this situation, don't expect to reach every student. You will get discouraged if you let every failure get to you. Instead think how you can make it better for another student. It isn't like Mr. Holland's Opus. Sorry, it isn't. BUT, you can have moments when they make progress and it makes all the effort worth it. Some of this may sound cheesy, but this is how I really feel. I really do love teaching, and I get a tremendous amount of fulfillment out of it.
That being said, to answer your specific questions:
1) I can only speak for Indiana, and math in particular, but I know English has End of Course Assessments (ECA). They are standardized tests that assess english standards put forth by the state. This gives you a fair deal to teach them. However, this does not take up all of the curriculum, so you will have leeway to teach some things you want, and if you are creative, some really cool ways to teach it as well. Even the things you have to teach you can put your own flair on and teach it the way you want. Just don't think you're going to walk in the classroom with your sports coat and your jeans and your messed up hair and teach them whatever the hell you want. If you tell your kids to rip their textbooks in an act of creative rebellion a la Dead Poets Society, you will be fired. You are not Robin Williams, so be reasonable. As long as you teach them what they need (according to the state), you can teach them what they need (according to life).
2) Obviously there is more freedom at the college level, but I can't speak on this.
3) I work with a great group of people who really care about kids and who really have their best interests at heart. We laugh everyday at lunch. We collaborate on things. I also know people at the school who are dispassionate because of the grind of school, but I don't think they EVER really had what it takes to teach. For me personally, I am generally at a better mood at the end of the day then at the start of the day. But even if you are having a bad day, think of the privilege it is to show your kids joy and happiness, when THEY are the ones having a bad day, or are joyless.
4) I won't lie and say it is worth it every single day. I have days when I'm like "Wow, we got shit accomplished today." But the next they is usually pretty awesome after those days. Depending on how you measure success. You measure success on a lesson, a concept, a whole unit. But mainly you should measure success on your kids' love of life. Have you read the mission statement of a school? I have. Dozens of them. Not ONE of them says anything about passing the end-of-year exam, or getting a high score on the SAT, or even getting into a good college. They talk about being a life-long learner, a good person, and someone who loves life. I don't even know how you measure this, but I know I can make a difference with this in my kids' lives. That makes it worth it.
5) Joe, if you love kids, you will be a good teacher. If you love them when they are excited about learning, and when they are apathetic, when they are immature, and cranky, when they just broke up with their boyfriend and are bitchy, when they don't want to do what you want, and when they are sad, then you will be a good be a good teacher. It doesn't matter what subject you teach. Math was my worst subject in high school, but I chose to teach it because I knew I loved teaching, and the subject didn't matter, so I might as well pick one that people have a tough time liking anyway. You are a very social person, and doggone it, people like you. If you can bring that into the classroom, you will be good at what you do.
Also, about pay. Teachers do not get payed a lot compared to many professions with the same education. There are other blessings in the job that more than make up for any monetary shortcomings. If you value material possessions enough to not want to teach, then don't teach. I will say that teaching for a year and a half, I have never wanted something I couldn't afford, and I am paying off a car and schooling, plus living on my own in a new city.
I also know several teachers who hated it. They couldn't deal with the kids, or the staff, or the whole system. It's not for everyone. There are frustrations. But for me it is, for what it's worth. I thank God everyday I get to do this. If you try it and hate it, you do have an education that can take you other paces, and that should be a good feeling!
Plus all the school lunches you can eat!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Prayer Log
I am not good at praying out loud. For all of the beautiful and poignant prayers I have been exposed to in church, it has not prepared me for the casual personal prayers encountered in the prayer group at school. I don't necessarily view this as a bad thing that I am not strong at praying casually, as I don't know we should treat God as "Papa God" as I have heard in some prayer groups. He is the one who made the universe, he is the one who brought the Israelites out of bondage. He destroyed the earth in a flood. He concurred Satan and death on the cross. This is not the type of person I want to high five. This is a God I am afraid to look up to. This is a God that I love because He first loved me. So when I pray out loud, it is usually from an old church prayer or hymn, or one of Luther's prayers. This I feel captures the reverence that is appropriate for my Heavenly Father.
Still, this leaves me wanting a more personal approach when speaking out loud in group. I have personal talks with God in my head, but I am uncomfortable speaking out loud with people. I'd like to try to get better at this while not sacrificing reverence.
Still, this leaves me wanting a more personal approach when speaking out loud in group. I have personal talks with God in my head, but I am uncomfortable speaking out loud with people. I'd like to try to get better at this while not sacrificing reverence.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
How Schools Stifle Creativity
This video has been out for a while, but I recently Stumbled across it.
Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert(there is such a thing?) who has a special interest in education and the way schools educate children. Although a lot of the things he says are vague and not practical for all students, he does raise some interesting questions. Why have our kids lost the ability to be creative? I have seen it countless ways. Ask a small child to draw a flower, and he or she will use colors not imagined before. The child will give it a purple stem with yellow and blue polka dot petals. Maybe it will have a face in the center, maybe it will be able to move and talk like people. Ask that same child to draw a flower years later, and he or she will draw a red flower with a green stem. We have gotten our creativity conditioned out of us. Many of us, including me, are hesitant to try new things because we might look silly, or we might fail. As a person who is in a "hard science," I have the desire to increase creativity through open-ended investigation. At the same time, I am pressured from several areas to provide simply the rigor and procedure of the subject. I think math is very important, and I think it has one of the most important roles in human intelligence and achievement. However, is the way I teach it the best way for students to learn. Just because it is a rigorous subject does not mean it must be taught like this 100% of the time. There must be practice, persistence, and diligence when it comes to learning the procedures, but how can I go deeper than this to explore some more concepts? How can I use what is learned to have them create their own applications? This is something I will always struggle with. But the video has taught me to view some students differently. I have many kids who have ADHD. My solution has just been to tell them to sit down more, and give them some more time to settle down. I tried to use more bodily kinesthetic activities, and I got varied results. I was hoping to magically unlock a door where they were actively learning, and instead it turned into a mess. So sometimes even with structure, some kids actively try not to learn. I think the problem is that it is not as simple as I, or Dr. Robinson, or anyone would like to paint it. I will always have kids that have trouble paying attention for various reasons. I think my job is to simply help them see a world that has yet to be, and help them make something of it.
Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert(there is such a thing?) who has a special interest in education and the way schools educate children. Although a lot of the things he says are vague and not practical for all students, he does raise some interesting questions. Why have our kids lost the ability to be creative? I have seen it countless ways. Ask a small child to draw a flower, and he or she will use colors not imagined before. The child will give it a purple stem with yellow and blue polka dot petals. Maybe it will have a face in the center, maybe it will be able to move and talk like people. Ask that same child to draw a flower years later, and he or she will draw a red flower with a green stem. We have gotten our creativity conditioned out of us. Many of us, including me, are hesitant to try new things because we might look silly, or we might fail. As a person who is in a "hard science," I have the desire to increase creativity through open-ended investigation. At the same time, I am pressured from several areas to provide simply the rigor and procedure of the subject. I think math is very important, and I think it has one of the most important roles in human intelligence and achievement. However, is the way I teach it the best way for students to learn. Just because it is a rigorous subject does not mean it must be taught like this 100% of the time. There must be practice, persistence, and diligence when it comes to learning the procedures, but how can I go deeper than this to explore some more concepts? How can I use what is learned to have them create their own applications? This is something I will always struggle with. But the video has taught me to view some students differently. I have many kids who have ADHD. My solution has just been to tell them to sit down more, and give them some more time to settle down. I tried to use more bodily kinesthetic activities, and I got varied results. I was hoping to magically unlock a door where they were actively learning, and instead it turned into a mess. So sometimes even with structure, some kids actively try not to learn. I think the problem is that it is not as simple as I, or Dr. Robinson, or anyone would like to paint it. I will always have kids that have trouble paying attention for various reasons. I think my job is to simply help them see a world that has yet to be, and help them make something of it.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
