How about continuing education for teachers? Some subjects, and particularly technology change in time. I don't think teachers' continuing education would necessarily need to be as regular as other careers require, but I don't see much reason not to require continuing education of them. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, attorneys, financial professionals, architects, and engineers all have to participate in continuing education throughout their careers.

 

I don't know of any teachers that don't do this every year. Especially from the vantage point of technology, it's unreal how much is being done in the classroom with regards to this area and its implementation into the classroom.

 

Also, all teachers must earn their Master's degree within 5 years (I think) of their first day in the classroom. I began mine the first year I started teaching, and many go on to get their Rank 1 and doctorates, where technology integration in the classroom is being focused on more and more.

 

Technology in the classroom at some schools in central Kentucky is absolutely mind blowing. Several schools have actually passed a lap top initiative where every student in the school has a lap top. Downloading class text books to their laptops is just the tip of the iceburg with this. You really just have to see it in action to get the full effect. It's astonishing, really.

Agree 100%. The ones that do the best on these tests, do not always make the best teachers. I will never forget my math teacher in high school. He was brilliant in math, but had a very hard time teaching it. He just couldn't understand why we didn't get it the first time he explained it......:lol:

 

Also classroom management is key. If you don't have control of you your classroom, doesn't matter that you scored high on these tests.

 

 

You nailed it with these comments. Most people who aren't in the teaching profession don't fully grasp what you just said. Some teachers probably graduated the highest in their class, but without high communication and classroom management skills, none of that matters.

How about continuing education for teachers? Some subjects, and particularly technology change in time. I don't think teachers' continuing education would necessarily need to be as regular as other careers require, but I don't see much reason not to require continuing education of them. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, attorneys, financial professionals, architects, and engineers all have to participate in continuing education throughout their careers.

 

Several days of professional development are required each year. The school decides their needs and makes a plan to have their PD tailored to those needs. A couple of years ago our whole faculty attended a week long Advanced Placement course at U of L. We only needed three days of PD time, but we all completed the five day course.

 

Again, most of what ails certain teachers is NOT content knowledge. It is the inability to "teach" kids or to control the classroom.

They need to do away with Tenure after 4 or 5 years or whatever it is. What other profession gets this kind of security after just a few years on the job.

Has anyone read the editorial in WSJ? I'm curious as to the person's reasoning considering each state has some sort of exam.

How about continuing education for teachers? Some subjects, and particularly technology change in time. I don't think teachers' continuing education would necessarily need to be as regular as other careers require, but I don't see much reason not to require continuing education of them. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, attorneys, financial professionals, architects, and engineers all have to participate in continuing education throughout their careers.

 

I don't think people seem to really understand what all teachers have to do. It seems like a lot of people think teachers get their degree to teach and then they are done. However that is not the case at all, by the time teachers are done with schooling they are usually in just as long as doctors are. Teachers have to get their masters, then if they want to reach their top pay they have to get another 30 hours of grad school work. Then the school systems make teachers have to get a certain amount of PD hours each year to help them continue to grow as a teachers and grow in the areas they are weak in. Teachers are having to gather new ideas and education every year they teach already.

 

As people have said the biggest thing just comes from a persons ability to establish the classroom management, about finding different ways to address each kid because each kid has different ways they learn. Its more on how teachers develop the information, rather than what they know.

Has anyone read the editorial in WSJ? I'm curious as to the person's reasoning considering each state has some sort of exam.

 

Are you referring to the article you linked in post 1?

They need to do away with Tenure after 4 or 5 years or whatever it is. What other profession gets this kind of security after just a few years on the job.

 

Tenure doesn't carry near as much weight nowadays. I don't know a principal and/or super out there worth their salt who let tenure determine whether or not they need to get rid of a teacher not doing their job.

 

Also, the whole tenure controversy, like many things in our society got a bad reputation from a small minority of teachers. Only takes a few bad apples...

Are you referring to the article you linked in post 1?

 

No. The original story was in the WSJ but it's a pay site so you can't read the article.

I am gratified that there weren't a bunch of knee-jerk "teachers stink and aren't qualified and don't do anything" posts here. That gets tired after a while.

I am gratified that there weren't a bunch of knee-jerk "teachers stink and aren't qualified and don't do anything" posts here. That gets tired after a while.

 

I agree. A good friend of mine is one of these anti-teachers, blah, blah. Problem is, he wouldn't last an hour, let alone one day in a classroom. Yet, he has all of the "answers". (I've told him this as well)

I am gratified that there weren't a bunch of knee-jerk "teachers stink and aren't qualified and don't do anything" posts here. That gets tired after a while.

 

 

Agreed. I am married to an extremely dedicated teacher. Actually, for how hard they have to work, what they put up with, the compensation level, it is amazing that people would enter the profession.

 

What the administrations do, however, is a whole different things. They urinate away a lot of money every year with flavor of the month teaching programs where they spent bunches "re-training" teachers who may have something already working without really any analysis. Additionally, I agree with the earlier post regarding requiring prospective parents to take a test. :lol: Parental support and involvement is highly correlated with academic success, and there are a lot of kids already failing before they get to pre-school.

Lets use an eight grade class as an example. 25 kids in a class. Six, fifty minute classes a day. One hundred fifty kids. If all was right with the world, 300 parents.

 

30 of your students can't read beyond the elementary level. A few can't read at all.

50 of your students will not have eaten breakfast this morning. Some because they are poor, others for various other reasons.

Five of your students are homeless by definition.

More than twenty students will not graduate from high school. Five of them are aware that they are among that twenty and embrace it.

30 of your students have the ability today to achieve at a level well above the grade that you teach. Some by one grade level, a few by many grade levels.

 

Your job is to create a lesson plan that will maximize the abilities of each student and then carry out that lesson plan. ......Except....Johnny didn't show up today.......Susie thinks she might be pregnant.........Tony got his but kicked on the bus......Billy and Tommy were smoking spice before school.........Sally is distraught because her boyfriend broke up with her........Julie is inconsolable because people have been calling her fat on Facebook........

 

Tonight you have parent teacher conferences. Both parents of all thirty kids who are over grade level will be here. They will ask why you are not doing more. You will see a lot of grandparents and step parents. They may ask why you expect so much. You won't see any parents from the 30 students who preform below grade level. The parents of any special needs students will be there. If your district does not provide adequate services they likely will have an advocate with them.

 

Your in your third year teaching and still working on that masters in night classes. A paper is due tomorrow.

You have tests to grade and log into infinite campus.

 

You took this job at $33,000 a year. You have not had a raise.

The district cut four more positions this year. Your lucky to have a job. You have been reminded of this.

 

The school policeman has just interrupted your class and asked to have Timothy come with him.

There is another e mail from the curriculum director reminding you of points that MUST be made prior to state testing next month.

 

Tomorrows lesson plans need to be updated. Yes you get to do this all again tomorrow.

Lets use an eight grade class as an example. 25 kids in a class. Six, fifty minute classes a day. One hundred fifty kids. If all was right with the world, 300 parents.

 

30 of your students can't read beyond the elementary level. A few can't read at all.

50 of your students will not have eaten breakfast this morning. Some because they are poor, others for various other reasons.

Five of your students are homeless by definition.

More than twenty students will not graduate from high school. Five of them are aware that they are among that twenty and embrace it.

30 of your students have the ability today to achieve at a level well above the grade that you teach. Some by one grade level, a few by many grade levels.

 

Your job is to create a lesson plan that will maximize the abilities of each student and then carry out that lesson plan. ......Except....Johnny didn't show up today.......Susie thinks she might be pregnant.........Tony got his but kicked on the bus......Billy and Tommy were smoking spice before school.........Sally is distraught because her boyfriend broke up with her........Julie is inconsolable because people have been calling her fat on Facebook........

 

Tonight you have parent teacher conferences. Both parents of all thirty kids who are over grade level will be here. They will ask why you are not doing more. You will see a lot of grandparents and step parents. They may ask why you expect so much. You won't see any parents from the 30 students who preform below grade level. The parents of any special needs students will be there. If your district does not provide adequate services they likely will have an advocate with them.

 

Your in your third year teaching and still working on that masters in night classes. A paper is due tomorrow.

You have tests to grade and log into infinite campus.

 

You took this job at $33,000 a year. You have not had a raise.

The district cut four more positions this year. Your lucky to have a job. You have been reminded of this.

 

The school policeman has just interrupted your class and asked to have Timothy come with him.

There is another e mail from the curriculum director reminding you of points that MUST be made prior to state testing next month.

 

Tomorrows lesson plans need to be updated. Yes you get to do this all again tomorrow.

 

 

Don't forget all the paperwork to verify everything you are implementing your class.

Lets use an eight grade class as an example. 25 kids in a class. Six, fifty minute classes a day. One hundred fifty kids. If all was right with the world, 300 parents.

 

30 of your students can't read beyond the elementary level. A few can't read at all.

50 of your students will not have eaten breakfast this morning. Some because they are poor, others for various other reasons.

Five of your students are homeless by definition.

More than twenty students will not graduate from high school. Five of them are aware that they are among that twenty and embrace it.

30 of your students have the ability today to achieve at a level well above the grade that you teach. Some by one grade level, a few by many grade levels.

 

Your job is to create a lesson plan that will maximize the abilities of each student and then carry out that lesson plan. ......Except....Johnny didn't show up today.......Susie thinks she might be pregnant.........Tony got his but kicked on the bus......Billy and Tommy were smoking spice before school.........Sally is distraught because her boyfriend broke up with her........Julie is inconsolable because people have been calling her fat on Facebook........

 

Tonight you have parent teacher conferences. Both parents of all thirty kids who are over grade level will be here. They will ask why you are not doing more. You will see a lot of grandparents and step parents. They may ask why you expect so much. You won't see any parents from the 30 students who preform below grade level. The parents of any special needs students will be there. If your district does not provide adequate services they likely will have an advocate with them.

 

Your in your third year teaching and still working on that masters in night classes. A paper is due tomorrow.

You have tests to grade and log into infinite campus.

 

You took this job at $33,000 a year. You have not had a raise.

The district cut four more positions this year. Your lucky to have a job. You have been reminded of this.

 

The school policeman has just interrupted your class and asked to have Timothy come with him.

There is another e mail from the curriculum director reminding you of points that MUST be made prior to state testing next month.

 

Tomorrows lesson plans need to be updated. Yes you get to do this all again tomorrow.

 

Unfortunately, this is typical. And some teachers teach subjects to all three grades of middle school (e.g. health); requiring three different sets of plans - not one.

 

Add to the mix answering e-mails and phone calls about why Sally has a "B" on her progress report in your class (because she's neglected to turn in several homework assignments; although that's your fault as a teacher). Of your 150 students, five can't keep their eyes open because they stayed up until 2 in the morning playing video games. Another ten came to school today (it's 25 degrees out) wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and no coat. Yesterday you confiscated a note from Jimmy outlining his "hit list" (you're on the list). On Monday you will have to restock the classroom supply of tissues, pencils and hand sanitizer out of your own pocket. When you get home - even if you already have that Master's degree - you will spend a couple of hours grading papers, updating plans, etc.

 

Lather, rinse and repeat.