Initially, I started this blog for a graduate course on curriculum change; it was a relatively good course. Now, this blog will be used as a vehicle for maintaining my sanity in this strange profession we call teaching.
Okay...Where was I?
After seven years of teaching and many years of school, I have realized that education is more than what it should be. I always thought that teaching students how to learn was our main charge. I thought we were supposed to increase the amount of instructional/learning time. I thought we were supposed to increase students' abilities in competing in the new global economy.
Do we do the aforementioned?
After seven years of teaching and many years of school, I education is not what is should be. First year teachers teach many of the lower level classes while veteran teachers enjoy the upper level classes (actually, those lower level classes just storage areas for misbehaving teens).
I guess seniority is more important than providing good instruction.
Novice teachers are inexperienced and have to work with the most challenging students. Veteran teachers work with the advanced students. And the results are:
1. New teachers leave the profession.
2. At risk students are not receiving the best instruction possible.
3. The students that always do well continue to do well. On the other hand, that number is decreasing.
4. I get more and more frustrated. Too bad my appetite is not decreasing.
Let's not worry. We have more and more AP courses, test prep, unions, field trips, fire drills, snow days, and intruder alerts. The aforementioned will increase the quality of the education. Right?
No comments:
Post a Comment