The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.
Friday, August 04, 2006
On Staff Developers
On a trip from Budapest to Vienna, I met a very interesting woman from Canada. We talked for quite a while and finally realized that we were both teachers, or as she said, "I used to teach. Teaching eighth grade math was just too difficult, so now I am a staff developer." I guess that throughout the world those that can't teach become the teachers of others.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Is there a program in the NY schools where experienced teachers mentor newer teachers? In my kid's school, the science teacher does something like this one day a week. Does this work?
Actually, I have seen it work quite well. Sometimes new teachers are mentored with more experienced teachers, teaching in the same field. They observe each other and the experienced teacher helps the new teacher with such things as classroom management, exams, etc. I see a problem when teachers are paired with teachers from different disciplines. There is a woman working as a mentor in my school. She is a retired ESL teacher. She has been working with English, math and science teachers. What worked for her cannot work for them. Also, because she has this cushy job, she is a pawn of the administration and must push admin's policies even when they are not in the best interests of education.
Post a Comment