Posted on 06/15/2007 10:38:16 AM PDT by grundle
thanks for the ping.
your daughter’s send off sounds like fun. :)
we still have one more day on monday.
i took my gre in ann arbor, michigan (u of m land)
i got my scores back at the end of the testing.
the folks running the center were amazed i wasn’t
an engineering major. apparently they had alot of
engineering majors headed to u of m who didn’t
score as high as i did.
... i have a masters degree and i’ve been teaching
for 14 yrs now :)
Engineering: 1240 sat (old style not the new witch calc style) and 740 GRE. It does not surprise me education is so low I knew many education majors who had trouble with 200 level math.
On a recent visit back to my old High Scool last year, I saw a lot of new faces among the faculty (faces younger than mine) and I asked my favorite teacher (who occaisioned the visit) how effective were these new teachers. With a straight face she said that “They’re very nice people.” She topped that off by hoping that the staff would grow into the mold of teachers instead of buddies.
Another is passion and deep understanding of the subject matter. Not this ‘just stay one step ahead of the 10th graders crap that the NEA put out).
A teacher should at *least* minor in what they intend to teach the fact I had grade school homeroom teachers that could not spell has not helped me in life *at all* no matter how good their character might be. The cranky old teacher my mother hired as a teacher, otoh, was priceless in making me borderline literate ;)
A good math teacher, and math major will teach you how to solve a problem (though engineers are probably a little more inclined to do that then most majors). Poor math teachers *and many many education majors are poor math teachers* try to memorize and push things off because they don’t understand the fundamentals enough to teach them.
I once had a music teacher, whom I very much liked, ask me if I was stranded on a desert island with kids would I want a doctor a lawyer or a teacher. When I said Doctor he quipped but ‘who will teach your kids’ to which I replied ‘Its easier to teach a kid than a corpse for anybody, Ill take the doctor’
My daughter told her to get out. ;^)
i was just reading this thread aloud to xsteen. we are both kind of astounded that my niece is getting her degree in secondary ed.
Education courses are by far the least demanding. After remedial algebra and remedial English you begin taking education courses.
You’re EITHER an education major OR a math/science/English/business/communications/etc. major.
I’d answer that if I weren’t as dumb as a worm.
For a long time, I’ve been noting that, in the “US News and World Report” special issue on grad schools, the average GRE scores at the top Ed school grad programs were a couple hundred points lower than the bottom-of-the-list engineering grad programs
Our last day also. We play the Hallelujah Chorus as soon as the last bus pulls out! Happy that we have made it through another year :)
It's just another sly way to bash on teachers, which is pretty much what FR has turned into over the last year or so. First someone posts something like this. Then people talk about how dumb teachers are. Then someone pings "Another reason to homeschool" folks. Then some one will come in and proceed to list every wrong done in every school around the world as if all of these things occurred at their local school and how lucky their kids are and how pitiful it is that public schools even exist. Then there is an argument about my school vs. your school.
Meanwhile, those of use that teach get up every day and go out there and just do our best kind of confused that even conservatives hate conservative teachers, but it doesn't matter because the kids in front of us have immediate needs. Needs that are met quietly and with no fanfare. Example - every teacher at my school donated $20 so that a group of kids could have a yearbook. Did we have to? Nope. Was it publicized? Nope - no one here even knows what school it was. But guess what - those 30 or so kids know and their smiles were enough thanks.
So go ahead, tell me how awful I am for being a public school teacher, but I dare you to do my job for a week.
The fact of the matter is that there are many excellent, competent and dedicated teachers often working in systems that reward incompetence and slovenliness and penalize excellence and dedication.and
Needless to say, teacher incompetency isn't the only explanation for our education malaise. Parents who don't give a damn and students with minds and attitudes alien and hostile to the education process figure in as well. There's not much politicians and the education establishment can do about these factors...
I think teacher education courses should be more rigorous, and I agree with what Williams says about secondary teachers having a degree in their subject, not in education.
I think they would have a hard time getting enough warm bodies in today's classrooms if they implemented that, however. Lots of people don't want to teach (I'll let those who aren't teachers tell us why they aren't...)
Which is exactly why I started not to even post on this thread. It's all too predictable.
Meanwhile, those of use that teach get up every day and go out there and just do our best kind of confused that even conservatives hate conservative teachers, but it doesn't matter because the kids in front of us have immediate needs. Needs that are met quietly and with no fanfare. Example - every teacher at my school donated $20 so that a group of kids could have a yearbook. Did we have to? Nope. Was it publicized? Nope - no one here even knows what school it was. But guess what - those 30 or so kids know and their smiles were enough thanks.
Great job! Similar (and maybe even more heartbreaking) stories at my school, but I'm sure very few here would want to hear them, or would believe them....
So go ahead, tell me how awful I am for being a public school teacher, but I dare you to do my job for a week.
Precisely.
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