Beauvoir teachers??

[Anonymous]

I have heard that some teachers at Beauvoir are not so good. This is shocking to me considering we would be paying a fortune to go there? Is this true? I expect any school that I am paying $25,000 to go to to have excellent schools. Is this the case? What about some of the young teachers I saw walking around there? They can't be too experienced. I know someone that said the school is good but it depends solely on the teacher you have that year. That is a bummer. Is this true? Any input here?

[Anonymous]

I'm not a Beauvoir parent, so someone probably will correct me, but here's my understanding. Beauvoir uses a system where they hire young teachers who are recent graduates of education programs with some teaching experience (2-3 years maybe?), then they pair those young teachers in classrooms with more experienced teachers. It might even be a 2:1 ratio of 2 experienced teachers for each new teacher. As a result, the student:teacher ratio is low (I think they claim it's about 7:1 there) and the more experienced teachers get the benefit of the energy and new ideas that a recent grad can bring. I suspect the reason this system works is that Beauvoir can pay the new teachers less than experienced teachers, and the new teachers are happy to accept lower pay in return for good experience. I am sure Beauvoir works hard to hire only excellent new teachers, but I am sure many of them are not as good (yet) as the more experienced teachers.

Again, all this is just my limited understanding, and probably gets some details wrong. I also have no children there, so I cannot comment on how successful the system is. It seems like a good idea though so long as the new teachers are used to supplement (not replace) the experienced teachers.

[Anonymous]

In my opinion, there is no more valuable an experience for a parent than going in and actually observing a class for a few hours. Will Beauvoir allow you to do this?

[Anonymous]

Private school teachers - and correct me if I'm wrong - do not need to be certified in education, only in a subject area. So w/o the pedagogy, I fail to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Combined, my kids have had ten classroom teachers at Beauvoir. Seven of them have been stellar, including several of the young assistant teachers, and the other three have been okay, but certainly not terrible. In addition, every one of the art, science, music, learning resources and PE teachers are veterans and wonderful. At how many schools could you say that 80+% of the teachers are educators you'd be happy for your kids to have over and over again.

If there has been a weak point for us, it has been in the young assistant teachers who have been promoted to lead teachers, perhaps before they are really ready. Both times we've had such a lead teacher, the (even-younger) assistant teacher has been especially strong, so at least they pair them well. (Come to think of it, the disastrous third-grade teacher was also one who was promoted from assistant teacher to lead teacher. So maybe there is something in that process that needs to be re-examined.)

Overall, though, I'd say the assistant teacher program works well, and we have loved our kids' teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private school teachers - and correct me if I'm wrong - do not need to be certified in education, only in a subject area. So w/o the pedagogy, I fail to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

On the flip side -- many public school teachers have plenty of education classes but not much in subject areas like math (for example). We've experienced many public school teachers who couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag in math -- and this is in elementary school where the math is EASY. IMO, kids are much better off with a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and gets support from the administration in terms of teaching techniques.

[Anonymous]

My child is in pre-k, where there are no assistant teachers but rather two experienced co-teachers in each classroom. Not sure if the associate program begins in K or 1st.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school teachers - and correct me if I'm wrong - do not need to be certified in education, only in a subject area. So w/o the pedagogy, I fail to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

On the flip side -- many public school teachers have plenty of education classes but not much in subject areas like math (for example). We've experienced many public school teachers who couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag in math -- and this is in elementary school where the math is EASY. IMO, kids are much better off with a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and gets support from the administration in terms of teaching techniques.

So it's the administration's job to teach a teacher how to instruct? Hire them and then train them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Combined, my kids have had ten classroom teachers at Beauvoir. Seven of them have been stellar, including several of the young assistant teachers, and the other three have been okay, but certainly not terrible. In addition, every one of the art, science, music, learning resources and PE teachers are veterans and wonderful. At how many schools could you say that 80+% of the teachers are educators you'd be happy for your kids to have over and over again.

If there has been a weak point for us, it has been in the young assistant teachers who have been promoted to lead teachers, perhaps before they are really ready. Both times we've had such a lead teacher, the (even-younger) assistant teacher has been especially strong, so at least they pair them well. (Come to think of it, the disastrous third-grade teacher was also one who was promoted from assistant teacher to lead teacher. So maybe there is something in that process that needs to be re-examined.)

Overall, though, I'd say the assistant teacher program works well, and we have loved our kids' teachers.

Combined my kids have had 12 classroom teachers and 11 have been stellar and the other one average. Maybe we have been lucky, but I doubt our luck is that good! They have taught my children to read, write, solve math problems, and be good citizens and friends. They are all caring, responsive and knowledgeable. I couldn't ask for more! I second the kudos for the resource teachers! No school or teacher is perfect; but we are thrilled with our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school teachers - and correct me if I'm wrong - do not need to be certified in education, only in a subject area. So w/o the pedagogy, I fail to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

On the flip side -- many public school teachers have plenty of education classes but not much in subject areas like math (for example). We've experienced many public school teachers who couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag in math -- and this is in elementary school where the math is EASY. IMO, kids are much better off with a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and gets support from the administration in terms of teaching techniques.

So it's the administration's job to teach a teacher how to instruct? Hire them and then train them?

Yes, actually I believe it is the administration's job to teach a teacher in a certain sense -- the administration chooses curriculum and assessment tools, fosters individual teacher development, team teacher planning, help develop classroom management skills, etc. This is the kind of mentoring and leadership I expect from an administration.

Why? Do you think it's the administration's job to teach a math teacher math?

[Anonymous]

help develop classroom management skills???


Are you kidding? Every parent who sends their child to any school should expect a teacher to have classroom management skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combined, my kids have had ten classroom teachers at Beauvoir. Seven of them have been stellar, including several of the young assistant teachers, and the other three have been okay, but certainly not terrible. In addition, every one of the art, science, music, learning resources and PE teachers are veterans and wonderful. At how many schools could you say that 80+% of the teachers are educators you'd be happy for your kids to have over and over again.

If there has been a weak point for us, it has been in the young assistant teachers who have been promoted to lead teachers, perhaps before they are really ready. Both times we've had such a lead teacher, the (even-younger) assistant teacher has been especially strong, so at least they pair them well. (Come to think of it, the disastrous third-grade teacher was also one who was promoted from assistant teacher to lead teacher. So maybe there is something in that process that needs to be re-examined.)

Overall, though, I'd say the assistant teacher program works well, and we have loved our kids' teachers.

Combined my kids have had 12 classroom teachers and 11 have been stellar and the other one average. Maybe we have been lucky, but I doubt our luck is that good! They have taught my children to read, write, solve math problems, and be good citizens and friends. They are all caring, responsive and knowledgeable. I couldn't ask for more! I second the kudos for the resource teachers! No school or teacher is perfect; but we are thrilled with our experience.

So are we thrilled with our experience with Beauvoir teachers. 6 out of 8 of our classroom teachers were phenomonal. The resource teachers were excellent. Very creative and dedicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:help develop classroom management skills???


Are you kidding? Every parent who sends their child to any school should expect a teacher to have classroom management skills.

I've met many DCPS teachers and others with Ed degrees who didn't have great classroom management skills and who did not have any leadership from the principal to develop them. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Teacher suck everywhere. I taught at a major school and there were teachers there I would not let watch my pet rock, let alone teach children. $$$$ tuition gets you cut grass, but not great teachers!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school teachers - and correct me if I'm wrong - do not need to be certified in education, only in a subject area. So w/o the pedagogy, I fail to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

On the flip side -- many public school teachers have plenty of education classes but not much in subject areas like math (for example). We've experienced many public school teachers who couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag in math -- and this is in elementary school where the math is EASY. IMO, kids are much better off with a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and gets support from the administration in terms of teaching techniques.

So it's the administration's job to teach a teacher how to instruct? Hire them and then train them?

Yes, actually I believe it is the administration's job to teach a teacher in a certain sense -- the administration chooses curriculum and assessment tools, fosters individual teacher development, team teacher planning, help develop classroom management skills, etc. This is the kind of mentoring and leadership I expect from an administration.

Why? Do you think it's the administration's job to teach a math teacher math?

What La La Land do you live in? Do you even know how schools work?

Before a teacher is hired, I EXPECT him/her to
- have a certification OR a degree in a specific subject area (for secondary educators), or
- an elementary, ESOL or special ed certification, and
- pedagogy to assist him/her in implementing well planned lessons, in managing the classroom, and in dealing with stakeholders.

Furthermore, with NCLB, teachers are expected to pursue advanced degrees to obtain an advanced professional certificate. I would expect that even teachers at Beauvoir would consider this important.

Based upon your response, however, I see that Beauvoir does not expect teachers to even have the basics in order to manage a classroom. Why would you pay exorbitant tuition only to have teachers enter a classroom unprepared? Or perhaps that is the REASON that tuition is so high?