Post by title1parent on Jun 2, 2010 11:30:54 GMT -5
www.suntimes.com/news/education/2332590,CST-NWS-teach30.article
New Naperville teacher gets a rude awakening
NAPERVILLE | Education didn't include lessons on motivating students, keeping order, dealing with parents
May 29, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hemant Mehta's training taught him how to write a lesson plan and how public schooling began in the United States, but it was useless when it came to keeping order in the classroom and getting students to pay attention.
To get through his first year teaching math to high school students in Naperville, the 27-year-old needed help from Twitter, math blogs on the Internet, TV sitcoms and experienced teachers down the hall.
"The ideas there are so much better than my formal training," Mehta said. For example, he found that students learn a lot more math when they're having fun, playing games or watching video clips.
Critics say few colleges provide adequate nuts-and-bolts teaching skills such as public speaking, classroom management and dealing with the class goof-off.
"It's complicated in the United States because we don't as a country agree that teachers need much preparation," said Suzanne Wilson, chairwoman of teacher education at Michigan State University. "We're deeply divided on this as a country."
Educators say much is being left out of teachers' lesson plans -- from keeping kids engaged to leading a meaningful class discussion and using student test data to assess when students are ready to move on.
Mehta would add to the list: motivating kids to do their homework, dealing with parents, reading a teacher contract, using classroom technology like smart boards that are both white boards and giant computer screens, and whether it's OK to accept friend requests from students on Facebook.
Educators across the nation have begun to work together on what teacher education needs to look like in the future, and the federal government is getting involved. The president's budget includes a proposed expansion of the federal government's role in teacher training programs, which would add up to $405 million a year if approved by Congress. That's more than double current federal spending on teacher preparation programs.
Pam Grossman, professor of teacher education at Stanford University, says the pendulum swings back and forth between a focus on craft and theory in teacher education. Is it more important for a teacher to know how to get first-graders to sound out words, or should they know why some kids learn to read in kindergarten and others don't figure it out until second grade?
Grossman describes a step-by-step way to teach things like classroom management: show videos of good teacher technique, talk about the videos, have students role-play to practice on each other and then send them out into the field and videotape them as they practice on kids.
Many teacher candidates never practice these skills until they enter a classroom for the first time.
Doug Lemov, who runs Uncommon Schools, a charter school management nonprofit based in New York, says the work of a skilled teacher looks like magic. But when that practice is analyzed, it's no longer a mystery.
Deborah Ball, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan, notes that nearly all teacher colleges offer different programs, and every state has its own requirements.
Ball said the people who will someday replace the nation's 3.8 million teachers need to learn how to do the same things in the right way.
"We can't have a reasonable professional training program when it's so diverse," Ball said.
New Naperville teacher gets a rude awakening
NAPERVILLE | Education didn't include lessons on motivating students, keeping order, dealing with parents
May 29, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hemant Mehta's training taught him how to write a lesson plan and how public schooling began in the United States, but it was useless when it came to keeping order in the classroom and getting students to pay attention.
To get through his first year teaching math to high school students in Naperville, the 27-year-old needed help from Twitter, math blogs on the Internet, TV sitcoms and experienced teachers down the hall.
"The ideas there are so much better than my formal training," Mehta said. For example, he found that students learn a lot more math when they're having fun, playing games or watching video clips.
Critics say few colleges provide adequate nuts-and-bolts teaching skills such as public speaking, classroom management and dealing with the class goof-off.
"It's complicated in the United States because we don't as a country agree that teachers need much preparation," said Suzanne Wilson, chairwoman of teacher education at Michigan State University. "We're deeply divided on this as a country."
Educators say much is being left out of teachers' lesson plans -- from keeping kids engaged to leading a meaningful class discussion and using student test data to assess when students are ready to move on.
Mehta would add to the list: motivating kids to do their homework, dealing with parents, reading a teacher contract, using classroom technology like smart boards that are both white boards and giant computer screens, and whether it's OK to accept friend requests from students on Facebook.
Educators across the nation have begun to work together on what teacher education needs to look like in the future, and the federal government is getting involved. The president's budget includes a proposed expansion of the federal government's role in teacher training programs, which would add up to $405 million a year if approved by Congress. That's more than double current federal spending on teacher preparation programs.
Pam Grossman, professor of teacher education at Stanford University, says the pendulum swings back and forth between a focus on craft and theory in teacher education. Is it more important for a teacher to know how to get first-graders to sound out words, or should they know why some kids learn to read in kindergarten and others don't figure it out until second grade?
Grossman describes a step-by-step way to teach things like classroom management: show videos of good teacher technique, talk about the videos, have students role-play to practice on each other and then send them out into the field and videotape them as they practice on kids.
Many teacher candidates never practice these skills until they enter a classroom for the first time.
Doug Lemov, who runs Uncommon Schools, a charter school management nonprofit based in New York, says the work of a skilled teacher looks like magic. But when that practice is analyzed, it's no longer a mystery.
Deborah Ball, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan, notes that nearly all teacher colleges offer different programs, and every state has its own requirements.
Ball said the people who will someday replace the nation's 3.8 million teachers need to learn how to do the same things in the right way.
"We can't have a reasonable professional training program when it's so diverse," Ball said.