Teachers: What would you do?

[Nightingale 0]

my comments weren't directed at you. you were just the last poster.

[kallend 2,106]

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It's fairly easy to be creative if you're not constrained by the system. At many public high schools the teachers have to follow prescribed, almost scripted, lesson plans.

That's kind of a cop out, John.
Lesson plans, aka xyz subject must be taught, are proscribed, but the way they are taught is generally not mentioned.

I also used to work for the Davis Science Center. DSC had these outreach programs, to mostly grade schools, on science subjects. Most elementary teachers do not have extensive science background. This one week I was filling in for someone. We had this appointment at the Stockton 'I hate Mondays' school. Across the street was the HS (that might have been the real 'I hate Mondays' school). Upon arriving we checked in at the main office to find out where our classroom was. We were also informed of a rule that said if you hear a whistle blown for a long time, then hit the deck. This meant hit the deck because someone was shooting at you. This was slightly different than the tornado drills I did as a kid in the mid-west, yet almost the same.

Yet we went on with our hands-on presentations that involved kids.

Some lesson plans tell you what to teach, but they do not tell you how to teach it.

If some teachers use the proscribed lesson plans as an excuse to teach only one way, they should not be the ones ferried over to another school. Use the teachers that see that difference.

.

Well, if I recall correctly you are a professional engineer. I strongly suspect that you have markedly greater ability to put together an interesting physics class than does the normal HS physics teacher without a background like yours.

It our place we have a program called SMILE
www.iit.edu/~smile/
where HS science (mostly physics) teachers from around the Chicago metro area come in two evenings a month to share ideas. It is moderated by members of our physics faculty. Most of the stuff they develop is hands-on demos. Illinois allows teachers considerable latitude in the way they handle their curriculum. The web site has a lot of examples of stuff that has been developed and shared, and a few years back they put a lot of it out in book and CD format.

The unfortunate thing is that out of 200 high schools in the area, only about 30 participate on a regular basis.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[YahooLV 0]

That just proves my point about how little respect teachers get in this country! We're not treated as professionals, but as baby sitters, and day care workers.

I say the teachers of the US should ALL go on strike and refuse to teach until we get pain at least what a baby sitter of two children gets for a Friday or Saturday night.

I'm leaving the teaching world because I'm very tired of having A@@holes who have nothing to do with children making most of the money.

Damn them and Fischer too!

http://www.curtisglennphotography.com

[Shydi 0]

I just finished up with my grad program for my Master's and I am dreading standardized test days. In WA, they have the WASL - basically sounds like the same thing in Florida. Here though, a student will ideally take it three times before graduating - once in 4th, 7th, and 10th. As it stands now, the test 'grades' a specific school and then accordingly is allocated money. But, what they want to do is make the test a graduation requirement for the 10th grade test.
One horrible outcome to the pressure of this test is that schools are forced to adopt a teaching to the test policy. Not all schools are doing it, but the pressure is immense and it takes out almost a month of school curriculum (includes preparation for the test and actual test days). I am not a fan of it. It is wrong to take away from the classroom time for a test that could literally make or break your school. Another downside is that if a school does well, how can you base a judgment call on sending your kids there when you don't know if there are good teachers or not? The teachers might just be reviewing verbatum what's on the test; how is that any different from teaching straight from the book?


Anyways,
off the soapbox. I think that education (public at least) is in dire straits in our country in general. What to do? No clue, but teaching to a test and hoping to make a school better by supplying teachers who are good at one school (who might not be good at another) just makes their jobs harder.

Dianna

[skymama 37]

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Here though, a student will ideally take it three times before graduating - once in 4th, 7th, and 10th. As it stands now, the test 'grades' a specific school and then accordingly is allocated money. But, what they want to do is make the test a graduation requirement for the 10th grade test.

That's exactly how it is in FL now and why the county school board moved the good teachers to the F schools...so they won't lose their funding. As usual, it's all about money.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon