Teacher Education

On Wednesday, October 24, the NY Daily News  ran an editorial:  Central challenge:  Teaching teachers.  The article talks about many of the controversies in education today but the part that interested me the most was the part about teacher education and the need for high quality teacher preparation programs.  And, while I agree this is important (I had a dynamite methods teacher and advisor when I student taught) it did not prepare me for what I faced in my own classroom.  The article recommends a year of paid clinical practice under the supervision of an experienced mentor.

This editorial brought me back to my first term teaching.  I was 21 years old, fresh out of college.  I walked into a classroom, green.  I expected things to flow, like they did when I student taught. I was heart broken when my lessons did not go over as I expected or when the kids did not listen.  I was blessed with the most wonderful teacher next door who took me under his wing and showed me what it was like to be in a classroom and how to get kids to listen and learn.  So many years later, we are still friends and he still never lets me forget that he was my savior.

The new teachers today are not going to get paid mentors.  The schools won't spend the money.  Besides, there are just too many new teachers.  And, there aren't enough experienced teachers left to help as all the veterans are being pushed out.  The article says that parents would always prefer a seasoned teacher to a rookie and I agree. What I disagree strongly with is the statement that there is a sharp increase in teacher effectiveness in year two and a small increase in year three with performances then leveling off after that.  A teacher learns more each day and while effectiveness will level off, it will take at least 5 years  and closer to 10 do this.

(Pictured above is a Jones Beach pigeon, very well fed)

Years Improve Everything Including Teaching

The big school complaint used to be that experienced teachers were at good schools and the bad schools were all staffed by newbies.  The complaint was all good teachers took transfers to better schools as soon as they had enough years.  Schools with the neediest populations always were the schools with the most teachers without tenure.

Things have changed.  And now these teachers with tenure and experience are considered the worst teachers.  How sad.  It takes a minimum of three years in the classroom to become a good teacher and the majority of teachers get better every year.  Teaching is a learning experience that never ends.

No one goes into teaching to get rich.  Very few stay past the minimum requirements for retirement just to build a pension.  I don't know about other states, but NY teachers don't need to do this.  Our pensions provide us with an income good enough to let us avoid the torture of a job we hate.  I know teachers including me, who worked non stop up until the day we retired, doing our best to help our students.  We did not sit on our haunches because we could.  Sure not every teacher is like this but there are bad apples in every profession, why single out teachers?  Why don't administrators use mechanisms in place to get rid of teachers who don't belong in the classroom?  (If these administrators did their jobs correctly, documented properly this would not be a problem.)

Tenure and experience is not and has never been the problem.  Schools never did well with only new teachers and they won't start doing well now.  Schools need a mix of old and new.  We both learn from each other all the time.  I personally do not know how I would have survived without the older, tenured teacher's help.

Learn From Your Mistakes (There Are Many To Learn From)



There were final farewells today, mostly to the kids.  There was no need to say goodbye to the teachers who care about me, and who I care about, as our friendship will endure beyond Packemin.

A former student heard it was my last day and came to visit.  He is now attending a very prestigious college, taking linear algebra in pursuit of his engineering degree.  (He placed out of calculus.)  This student did not do well on the Packemin placement test and was put in the lowest level math class as a freshman.  (He is from South America, so his placement should be no surprise to anyone.)  I got to know him when he was a sophomore, saw how brilliant he was and pushed him ahead.  He did trig as independent study, got a 98 on the regents and then took BC calculus and got a 5 on the exam.

This is old stuff that I have written about before.  Today, as we were talking, the ninth grade teacher he had recognized him.  She commented on how smart he was even back then.  It struck me that she should have moved him then, but did not.  Truthfully, it is not her fault.  She was new and inexperienced and had no idea how exceptional he was and how she could have helped him.  Still, the point is that if she had asked an experienced teacher, or had a decent supervisor, this kid would not have been held back then.

My big mouth always gets the best of me and as Mr. AP was around at the time, I loudly said, "Someone really messed up on Owen's placement."  Now, anyone who knows Mr.AP knows he is never wrong never admits to being wrong, so instead of congratulating Joe on his success, he began defending himself by talking about another student.  I conveniently left as he was in mid sentence.

No one is perfect.  But, we have to admit our mistakes before they can be corrected.  If it wasn't for the AP Guidance, this kid would never have gotten where he is today.  I recognized his potential and she acted.

I am off Mr. AP's mailing list, but I still see his memos.  (They are so amusing various department members forward them to me.  He sent out a slide show full of serene messages.  Here is one of my favorites:

Life is school and we are here to learn.  Problems are lessons that come and go.  What has been then will serve us  for the days of our lives.

Too bad he hits the forward button before he reads the message.

No Insult Intended



I didn't intend to insult young teachers with this post and humbly apologize to those who took it the wrong way.  I know there are many fine, hard working good young people out there and my problem is not with them but with the way they have been put on pedestals and are being lauded as the best thing that ever happened to education.  My problem is with the way older teachers are being treated by the system.

A young teacher was offended by the post and pointed out that many of the new teachers work 10 - 12 hour days perfecting lessons and helping students.  When I first started I got lots of help from the senior teachers in my department.  I was even given lesson plans to use and although I worked hard, I didn't need to put in those kinds of hours.  This young teacher won't have those experienced teachers to get help from.  And, like I said, they won't be appreciated for the work they do.  They will be replaced as easily as I was.

Experience Needed



I met Mark on the subway last week. He is a former student, a very bright young man who just graduated from college and had spent his last semester student teaching in one of the better schools in Queens.  Mark and I spent a long ride catching up and he told me tales of his student teaching days. 

Mark was very disappointed with student teaching.  His mentor teacher was a twenty five year old woman who had only been in the classroom for three years.  And, while the mentor had many good skills, it was obvious to Mark that the mentor was still in need of a mentoring and could not teach him the things he needed to learn. 

Mark told me he was thrilled when he got his student teaching assignment.  He was assigned to the high school he had graduated from and he knew there were many good teachers to help him.  Unfortunately, most of those teachers had left by the time Mark began.  The few that were left, the AP decided were not good enough to teach a new teacher and  Mark ended up with the newbie.

Aside from not learning how to teach, Mark felt he was turned into a glorified servant for his mentor.  He got little to no help with lessons.  He was given full responsibility for one class and asked to do work for some of the other ones.  He had a miserable, unproductive year.

Mark is now looking for a teaching job, something that will not be easy to come by.  He knows that and is willing to wait.  he just wishes his education had him better prepared for the future he hopes to one day face.