Insight and Inspiration Desired

[Unregistered]

I am a first year university student, studying Primary Education. I am enjoying my studies and finding all I'm learning to be very interesting. However, I can't help but be overwhelmed at times by the huge responsilibility I will have as a Teacher; for the education and development of my students. How will I be able to effectively pass on my knowledge and also maintain an awarenes of the students individual progress.

I am sure that it will all come with experience, but I dont want the students to suffer from my lack of experience! I desire to be the best teacher I can be and I feel strongly about impacting my students lives and encouraging them in their growth as a person in our society.

Can anyone offer me any encouragement from your own personal experiences???
Any thoughts???

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

Get to know your state content standards and base your lessons on them. Then check their understanding constantly throughout the lesson.

Don't worry too much about their personal growth, self-esteem, yadda yadda. If you teach them and they learn, the rest will follow.

That's my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

[Unregistered]

Be very very quiet. Don't say too much or you could screw with their little heads. Maybe teach sign language so you won't have to talk.

[BigDaddyTeacher]

unregistered lamented:
"I am sure that it will all come with experience, but I dont want the students to suffer from my lack of experience!"

Yes, indeed. Experience is the best teacher. The main thing is (so cliche) never let 'em see you sweat! Everyone has had their 'first day' - but, if you think about it, you experienced your first day during your student teaching phase. Use the strength you gained from that experience to empower you when you reach the 'real' classroom. You'll find that you are better than you think!
Good Luck!
dennis

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

Experience is the best teacher.

Then why are there so many bad veteran teachers?

[BigDaddyTeacher]

Then why are there so many bad veteran teachers?

Wish I had the easy one to that. Let me ammend my previous post.
Experience is the best teacher - 90% true for those just starting out. As one progresses through the year, gaining confidence in your abilities, and gaining mentors/peers to politely borrow ideas from, one becomes more experienced. As time progresses, perhaps one becomes less inclined to learn new tricks - might as well stick with the lessons that have worked last year, and the year before, and the year before that....ad infinitum.

I believe in the concept of teacher burnout - I've seen it happen. I realize that the federally mandated NCLB laws might weed out those teachers who have reached the information saturation point, and just don't want/desire to learn the new tricks. Others might find a way around them (man, is he cynical this morning, or what?) Don't have an answer for that, either.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the district institute a mandated sabbatical, close to year 10 of teaching. thoughts?

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

First of all, sabbaticals are used at the university level for research purposes. One of the mistakes I see in K-12 is the mimicking of university practices. So if university profs get tenure, so do K-12, never minding that the reasons for tenure are much different at the K-12 level. I think the same applies to sabbaticals.

Now, if the teacher uses that one-year sabbatical for the expressed purpose in attending workshops and training, then I could see the value in it. But they won't and a sabbatical will just be another perk, like tenure.

I think the problem is deeper than burnout. In a sense, the same problem applies in sports. If one doesn't arrive by their seventh year in most sports, most likely they never will. After that, they are just practicing their ineffectiveness. I think most teachers peak around their third or fourth year, then steadily decline after that. (Just a gut feeling, not based on real research.) Are there exceptions? Sure. But the older you are, the tougher it is to find the stamina to make your teaching better.

Give me a bunch of third-year teachers over veterans any day.

[Unregistered]

Hello All:

I am actually a grad student pursuing a second masters in education. I have a MSA in business. I have yet to teach or student teach my first class. My dilemma is how do I teach my students effectively without sounding like I'm giving a business presentation and like most corporate meetings run the risk of putting my class to sleep!

By the way, I find your responses enlightening and informative. I'm glad I found this site!

[BigDaddyTeacher]

First of all, sabbaticals are used at the university level for research purposes... Now, if the teacher uses that one-year sabbatical for the expressed purpose in attending workshops and training, then I could see the value in it.

I should have added that to my thought - make a portion of the year mandatory attendance at workshops or training classes. Mabye even a course or two at the local university. Then, they could use the rest of the time to rest and recharge.



I think the problem is deeper than burnout... I think most teachers peak around their third or fourth year, then steadily decline after that. (Just a gut feeling, not based on real research.) Are there exceptions? Sure. But the older you are, the tougher it is to find the stamina to make your teaching better.

I would agree, up to a point. As you say, there are always exceptions to this theory. I would imagine that finding stamina to make {insert job of choice here} better after a number of years would be difficult...unless you really loved what you were doing, and wanted to make sure you gave your all for the sake of whomever is being served.
Before I was a teacher, I worked full-time at...a comic book/pop culture store (never thought I'd admit that here :) ) I was working in a field I enjoyed, and only left after 16 years 'cause the only way to advance would be to put a hit out on the owner and take over the business. But I went in every day loving my job.
Now I'm teaching, and I have that same feeling when I arrive at my classroom. Will I feel this way three, five, nine, X years from now? I sure hope so, for my kids' sake.

As Spider-Man/Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said..."With great power, comes great responsibility."

Dennis

[hiflyer]

Don't worry too much about their personal growth, self-esteem, yadda yadda. If you teach them and they learn, the rest will follow.

That's my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

I couldn't agree less.

Of course you should aim for your students to experience personal growth, self esteem, a sense of purpose, inspiration, etc. etc. If a teacher is not inspirational, then no amount of "state content standards"-driven teaching is going to be of minimal value.

Good teaching which leads to learning is vital, of course. But ignoring the affective/aesthetic/sprititual side to life and to learning is a recipe for bland, mediocre, boring teaching.

Aim high and don't be put off by those who say that your desire to inspire is not worth considering. :)

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

Of course you should aim for your students to experience personal growth, self esteem, a sense of purpose, inspiration, etc. etc. If a teacher is not inspirational, then no amount of "state content standards"-driven teaching is going to be of minimal value.

I think you read too much into my post. My concern was focusing too much on methods for enhancing self-esteem at the expense of teaching. Students' self-esteem is largely attached to their success, in my opinion. When students perform well, they feel good about themselves and their confidence grows.

Too often the grade-level of the learning content is lowered so as not to frustrate the student, but that simply delays the inevitable. Sooner or later the lack of grade-level content will catch up to them. Then they are placed in remedial programs, or even special ed, and all confidence disappears.

I am fully convinced that teaching grade level content is an absolute must. We need to teach it so that they are continuously successful. And it can be done.

[Unregistered]

Thank you hiflyer!!

Lisa's Hotcakes, I found it very sad that you would encourage someone to just teach to the standards. We are teaching children not programming computers. I feel that teaching has a much better impact on people of any age when it is done with consideration for the person as a whole. If you are an effective teacher, I'm sure that you do not just teach to the standards.

By the way the teachers and class content I remember the most were those in which care was given to take into the account the student as a whole person.

To the student who posted the question:

I think that you are already headed in the right direction. The fact that you are asking these questions shows that you care. Never stop caring and always be on the lookout for new ideas. Facts and standards are imortant. However, your students will not learn nearly as well nor retain as much info. as they will if you teach to the whole person. Perhaps you could write down how you feel about teaching now and what you would like to accomplish. Then from time to time take out what you have written. In doing this you can remember your enthusiasm and see how far you have come. If you are enthusiastic about what you are teaching and who you are teaching your students will be more enthusiastic. Just make sure you are genuine. I hope all goes well for you!

Brandi

[Unregistered]

Lisa's Hotcakes, I found it very sad that you would encourage someone to just teach to the standards. We are teaching children not programming computers. I feel that teaching has a much better impact on people of any age when it is done with consideration for the person as a whole. If you are an effective teacher, I'm sure that you do not just teach to the standards.

One of the State standards I am asked to teach is the following:

Identify events that advance the plot and determine how each event explains past or present action(s) or foreshadows future action(s).

Now if I teach my students how to analyze the events in a story in terms of how they advance the plot, how is this "programming" them? I can't just fill their heads with answers that they can memorize.

I wonder if many of you have bothered to even read the standards. There is no "body of facts" that the Standards asks students to memorize, at least not in California. Quite the contrary -- each standard contains a necessary skill and concept; it is up to each teacher to find a way to teach these skills and concepts.

By the way the teachers and class content I remember the most were those in which care was given to take into the account the student as a whole person.

Okay, which students do you think should be exempt from learning how to identify the events in a story and describe their impact on the plot? How would you decide which of your students should learn these skills and concepts?

And if you decide not to teach these skills and concepts, who will? Or do they not need to know them?

[Unregistered]

Someone did not read my entire post. If you had you would have seen that I said the standards were important. I never said not to teach the standards. I said that just teaching the standards was not enough.

Brandi

[Unregistered]

Someone did not read my entire post. If you had you would have seen that I said the standards were important. I never said not to teach the standards. I said that just teaching the standards was not enough.

Your post was an overreaction to an earlier post that said teaching grade level content was important, which you seem to agree with all along. If you find a statement in an earlier post obectionable, why don't you quote it and comment on it?

By the way, are there any State content standards you think are unimportant to teach?

[Unregistered]

Don't bother with Lisa's posts....We are all use to her now.

She critizies everything that is said on here. She makes it clear that she does not try to "make a connection" with her students unless it's "state standards" or "direct teaching". She often forgets that as a teacher we have because of the world we now live in (not saying it's a good thing) we have to take into account other things about our students in order to teach them.

Sometimes the best way to teach a student (yes...teach them the "state standards") is to let them know that we love them (because we may be the only ones they have) and want them to succeed.

[mustang girl]

If you bring a sense of excitement and fun to the classroom along with knowing what you want the students to learn and how you plan to teach it, you will be successful. It's not always what you teach, but how you teach it. Be prepared with your lessons and create a classroom environment where students are accepted and nurtured. Kids will accept any mistakes you make as long as they know you care about them and their progress. :)

[Unregistered]

She critizies everything that is said on here. She makes it clear that she does not try to "make a connection" with her students unless it's "state standards" or "direct teaching".

I never said any such thing. But while we are on the subject, what part of the standards are you suggesting is not important for our students to learn? How about some examples?

She often forgets that as a teacher we have because of the world we now live in (not saying it's a good thing) we have to take into account other things about our students in order to teach them.

What things are you talking about, and what effect do they have on your teaching strategy? Let's talk specifics.

Sometimes the best way to teach a student (yes...teach them the "state standards") is to let them know that we love them (because we may be the only ones they have) and want them to succeed.

What does that have anything to do with anything I have ever said?

All of a sudden people are suggesting that I said we shouldn't love our students? What the ****??? I love my students. But I still need to employ proven teaching methods.

You really need to start quoting me because you are mangling my statements.