so in the course of reading and just thinking about the teaching experience there are a couple things that i would like to jot down, so i can stop collecting millions of little pieces of paper with all my thoughts written down on them.
first. the whole idea of teaching i am finding to be slightly scary. especially the first couple of years. i mean you will be (in my case, teaching high school) only four years older than your students if teaching seniors, and only slightly older if teaching grades nine through eleven. it seems difficult to imagine that most students will respect someone that is so close in age to them. i remember what it was like to be in high school; you already thought that you knew more than the teacher, even if they had been teaching for twenty years. i can only imagine that a brand new teacher would be shat upon by know-it-all students. and on top of having to gain their respect, you also have to control them, and hopefully gain their trust, and teach them something at the same time.
also. do you tell them it's your first year teaching? or is that just a recipe for disaster? the first time you meet your students, are you supposed to be super stern so they know who's boss? or are you nice, so they respect you, and maybe then be easier to control? (i realize the approach you take may very well be based on the type of class that you are teaching. for instance, you wouldn't very well be stern to first graders, but you might be to a class in an inner city high school. etc.)
there is also the idea of planning an entire days worth of activities. that seems very difficult. in fact, the more that i think about it, the more respect i have for all of my teachers; it is a hard and thankless job. (although, it is my understanding that someone is going to teach us how to plan a lesson, so that will be good. also, i feel like i would try and talk to experienced teachers and take a peak at their lesson plans. also, i totally plan on using information that my teachers distrubuted to me when i was learning the information. (is that bad?))
last semester i took a sociology class, mainly because it was required for secondary teachers specializing in social studies, but it turns out that it was very interesting, especially when we discussed education. there were articles that highlighted studies that there was an overwhelming amount of sexism in the classroom. it was sad to see, but at the same time, i recall feeling reluctant to raise my hands for feeling stupid, even though a majority of the time i did in fact know the correct answer. so the idea of calling on everyone individually seems like a very good idea. and there is the added benefit that by asking more questions students are supposed to learn more effectively. (this is a just a mental note, so that i don't forget that i should do this.)
another mental note. i really want to make sure that i teach as many different religious and cultural holidays, so that my students are ignorant to what is happening around the world. i wish i had been taught all about that kind of stuff when i was in school. i also wish my teachers, especially the government or history teachers, had gone over more current events, so that i was up to date on what was happening on a daily basis around the world. another thing that i don't think i was ever taught, was history after the 1970's. i mean we learned about the cold war, but besides that we learned very little about historical events that happened right around the time of our birth. i think it is very important to know what is happening around the world, because while it may not affect each of us directly, it is still very important to understand .
finally. is there anything extra that i should know about inner city teaching? clearly it would be different than teaching in the suburbs, i just wonder if there is anything special that i should know, so i don't fail outright. (maybe watching dangerous minds and stand by me could help, even if it is a hollywood version of the inner city.)
purchase rookie teaching for dummies? it might be helpful. (although i've always felt that people who buy those dummie series books are morons, so i'm not sure if i can bring myself to do it.)
on a totally different note. in reading for my educational psychology class i wondered why doesn't iowa have standards set that students should learn or be taught? and how are the students doing there, academically? i mean are they so advanced that is why they don't need specific state standards? or are they way behind the national average? (and can that even be figured out? the way students in iowa are progressing versus the rest of the nation, i mean.) they students must have to take some sort of test one would imagine. i guess i just would like to look up more information about iowa and their educational policies.
ok. i guess that is all of the questions and mental notes that i currently have. but i'm sure there are many more to come.
first. the whole idea of teaching i am finding to be slightly scary. especially the first couple of years. i mean you will be (in my case, teaching high school) only four years older than your students if teaching seniors, and only slightly older if teaching grades nine through eleven. it seems difficult to imagine that most students will respect someone that is so close in age to them. i remember what it was like to be in high school; you already thought that you knew more than the teacher, even if they had been teaching for twenty years. i can only imagine that a brand new teacher would be shat upon by know-it-all students. and on top of having to gain their respect, you also have to control them, and hopefully gain their trust, and teach them something at the same time.
also. do you tell them it's your first year teaching? or is that just a recipe for disaster? the first time you meet your students, are you supposed to be super stern so they know who's boss? or are you nice, so they respect you, and maybe then be easier to control? (i realize the approach you take may very well be based on the type of class that you are teaching. for instance, you wouldn't very well be stern to first graders, but you might be to a class in an inner city high school. etc.)
there is also the idea of planning an entire days worth of activities. that seems very difficult. in fact, the more that i think about it, the more respect i have for all of my teachers; it is a hard and thankless job. (although, it is my understanding that someone is going to teach us how to plan a lesson, so that will be good. also, i feel like i would try and talk to experienced teachers and take a peak at their lesson plans. also, i totally plan on using information that my teachers distrubuted to me when i was learning the information. (is that bad?))
last semester i took a sociology class, mainly because it was required for secondary teachers specializing in social studies, but it turns out that it was very interesting, especially when we discussed education. there were articles that highlighted studies that there was an overwhelming amount of sexism in the classroom. it was sad to see, but at the same time, i recall feeling reluctant to raise my hands for feeling stupid, even though a majority of the time i did in fact know the correct answer. so the idea of calling on everyone individually seems like a very good idea. and there is the added benefit that by asking more questions students are supposed to learn more effectively. (this is a just a mental note, so that i don't forget that i should do this.)
another mental note. i really want to make sure that i teach as many different religious and cultural holidays, so that my students are ignorant to what is happening around the world. i wish i had been taught all about that kind of stuff when i was in school. i also wish my teachers, especially the government or history teachers, had gone over more current events, so that i was up to date on what was happening on a daily basis around the world. another thing that i don't think i was ever taught, was history after the 1970's. i mean we learned about the cold war, but besides that we learned very little about historical events that happened right around the time of our birth. i think it is very important to know what is happening around the world, because while it may not affect each of us directly, it is still very important to understand .
finally. is there anything extra that i should know about inner city teaching? clearly it would be different than teaching in the suburbs, i just wonder if there is anything special that i should know, so i don't fail outright. (maybe watching dangerous minds and stand by me could help, even if it is a hollywood version of the inner city.)
purchase rookie teaching for dummies? it might be helpful. (although i've always felt that people who buy those dummie series books are morons, so i'm not sure if i can bring myself to do it.)
on a totally different note. in reading for my educational psychology class i wondered why doesn't iowa have standards set that students should learn or be taught? and how are the students doing there, academically? i mean are they so advanced that is why they don't need specific state standards? or are they way behind the national average? (and can that even be figured out? the way students in iowa are progressing versus the rest of the nation, i mean.) they students must have to take some sort of test one would imagine. i guess i just would like to look up more information about iowa and their educational policies.
ok. i guess that is all of the questions and mental notes that i currently have. but i'm sure there are many more to come.
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