Teacher training really should change.

runn wrote:

Teecher Ted wrote:

Teaching in public schools is a thankless task and its getting harder every year because kids arent the same any more. A large part of that lies in their over use of social media and the need for instant gratification which a teacher cant ever provide.

There are lots of great teachers but I feel that number is dwindling due to the above mentioned issues coupled with terrible salaries. Why would someone in a STEM field want to deal with crappy students and earn next to nothing? Add to that a public distaste for teachers in general, for all the wrong reasons.

I agree that teacher Ed has to change, a lot of it is completely irrelevant and they don't address what actually happens in a modern classroom. The NE seems to be on the ball with the best education programs and the best prepared teachers

BTW discipline issues that cant be resolved are an example of poorly prepared teachers, because it is about classroom management and setting a good culture and rules to follow.

Bottom line, public education is in big trouble in the US.

I agree with you. I noticed a couple things when I retired and came back to sub (no lesson plans, no grading, etc).

1. Technology as a teaching tool- rarely makes it better, it's just another way of presenting it to the students. And it takes much longer to prepare a lesson using technological tools.

2. Social Media/kids on their phones- this is a parent issue- kids get very little sleep because they're on SM all night. Their faces are in their screens as often as possible and I've seen kids literally shaking when they can't be looking at their phone.

3. Their world is so "enclosed" in their own social media world that they simply do not care about anything else. Nothing interests them. I can tell you that kids used to get excited when we studied Ancient Greece and Rome and the Medieval Period and the World Wars.

Now, they go through the motions just to get a grade and many of them don't even do that.

When I retired someone asked me (on Facebook) what one piece of advice I would give to a parent. It was- DO NOT get your child a smart phone.

boyl99 wrote:

Today I have seen 2 different posts, one about quiting 7 days in, and another questioning if they should pursue teaching, both times a comment in the thread sparked thus same thought:
We need a fundamental change in teacher training https://nox.tips/ .
I often hear "education classes are worthless" " I didn't learn anything meaningful in classes" "education classes were useless" "I didn't have any idea what I was getting into until I started teaching"
I understand the reason to study the theory behind education, I really do. I understand the reason and purpose to study techniques and philosophy. But, that does no good when you only have 15 weeks in your last year to practically use the the information you studied. At least in my state but I think this is pretty standard.
I do not think that this is sufficient, at all. I got extremely lucky. I was hired as a teacher who had a primary teaching load as a co teacher for humanities. So I spent a whole year working with veteran teachers watching them teach, them watching me teach, working together on planning, classroom management and dealing with difficult situations.
We really need to do better by our new teachers.