A case against alternative certification or content only teacher training
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Anonymous
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http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2017/09/29/arizona-teacher-shortage-made-me-break-down-tears/715137001/ This is an article about two men who were certified through alternative search vacation and were absolutely struggling with how to be good since they had no training in classroom management or how to do lesson planning. I admit that the school itself was incredibly chaotic and poorly run but the fact that jumped out at me the most was that it was taking the teachers three hours to do daily lesson planning for one class! I know Andy, a lot of armchair experts think that teachers only need to be trained in content but I think this is a good example of the importance of pedagogy too. |
Anonymous
| I did alternative certification and agree that as a novice teacher my classroom management was a struggle. However, once my first year ended, I had a plethora of behavior strategies under my belt while many of of the first years I befriended who did traditional programs are still struggling with their content. There's little time or opportunity to do professional development in your content if your district isn't redoing curriculum. And even with the requirement to do your grad degree in 5 years after hire, most young teachers will pick an MEd over a MA or MS in their content. |
Anonymous
| How is it, in this day and age, schools don't have class lessons that are ready to go for teachers? Why is everyone starting from scratch? |
Anonymous
Because teaching isn't an automated factory-production process? |
Anonymous
As a former teacher, I totally agree. I taught for years--guess what? I never regurgitated lesson plans. Every year, I made new plans. I have not taught in several years and I understand that it is more regimented now than when I taught. My normal operation: Make goals for the year using the guidance from the school system. For my daily lesson plans, I usually stayed very late on a Thursday and made lesson plans for the following week. I would assemble the materials needed--as much as possible. But, frequently, other things interfered, or the kids needed more practice or review and I would need to push lessons to the following week. Sometimes, a lesson would go more quickly than anticipated and I would move forward. As for the pedagogy, I do think that elementary teaching (especially primary grades) requires more classroom management, organization, etc. You need to create a physical environment that helps the kids to learn, as well as plan how you will teach. FWIW, many college professors will teach education students that if they have good lesson plans, they will not have discipline problems. (Please remember, that the people telling the prospective teachers this "lesson" have been out of classrooms for years--except to tell others how to teach. Good lesson plans are extremely important--I knew teachers who said they did not need them, that they "knew' what they were going to do without writing it down. I needed them--it was important to me to see that I was moving forward with the kids. Sure, I had an outline in my head--but, when you walk in class first thing in the a.m.-it sure is nice to have a reminder in front of you of what you had planned for that day. (plus, I loved to check it off) I could never have used someone else's plans on a daily basis. Teaching is not a script. |
Anonymous
| I teach ESOL students (I'm on a lunch break) and I have to write new lesson plans every year. We often change grade levels as well as proficiency levels plus we have no curriculum so we have to follow and support each grade level's curriculum (which also changes a lot). That means new lesson plans every year. Tiring, yes but necessary. I wish I had lesson plans already laid out for me but there is nothing. |
Anonymous
Ugh, can't believe anyone actually believes this to be true! |
Anonymous
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First year teachers often experience these issues.
Unless things have changed, university teaching prpgrams do not teach classroom management skills or how to teach. That comes from student teaching. They do teach lesson planning, but it is based off unrealistic ideals not real students. Universities teach theories, whatever the latest teaching craze happens to be. When I wen through university, it was "whole language" and letting kids spell however they felt. The running theory of that time was that teaching kids to spell correctly or how to follow grammar rules inhibited their ability to write, so they should be allowed to write however they felt, and that magically, somehow, they would figure out correct grammar and how to spell on thier own somewhere between kindergarten and graduation. This was at the dawn of computers (early 90s) and before widespread spell check. |
Anonymous
| The problem is classroom management is a skill and it is highly unappreciated by people outside education. Everyone assumes they can teach, but thrown into it, it's much more difficult to manage a classroom and get students learning. |
Anonymous
+1 also a former teacher |
Anonymous
Bingo! |
Anonymous
| Personalized learning with 1:1 devices is THE answer!!! |
Anonymous
| They do teach CM and LP in alt. Teacher programs. You probably went to a really bad one. Was it NVCC? |
Anonymous
signed, a teacher |
Anonymous
I also have this question. Countries with very successful school systems have successful curricula as well. Teachers starting out should be able to follow a "tried and true" curriculum with ready made lesson plans that have a high likelihood of being successful for students that are of similar abilities to the students they have. That should at least be their starting point, and then they can customize and tweak as need be. It is CRAZY to expect teachers to come up with all new lesson plans each day, especially beginning teachers. They should have structure and guidelines. |