Comment: I liked the idea of having the kids do a multimedia text set instead of a traditional book report. I think I would get some really neat results from that. Pedro Noguera was amazing on Saturday! I truly enjoyed his insights. The story about the New York school with the internet cafe and clubs after school, which was open until 9 P.M. was awesome! I also liked his view on standardized tests, and how we are doing so much testing that its hard to actually teach. I couldn't agree more!
Question: I loved how that principal in NYC was able to create such a supportative school with so many resources. I wonder how she was able to get the money to do that? It seems like just getting a little resource is like fighting a war. :)
Connection: I really connected with our discussion both in class and on Saturday about how young teachers need to be mentored and have support. While, I did feel that I was very prepared to begin teaching, there were days where it would have been nice to have someone there to help out. Also, not giving a new teacher all the behavior problems would be a great thing to do. I think part of the reason that teachers burn out and leave the profession is due to behavior issues.
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2 comments:
Hi Katie, I think your connection regarding new teachers and eventually leaving the profession are key issues to address. I have a friend who actually did TFA, was given a classroom of students identified as having "behavior problems," and endured some physical and verbal abuse. She said that she still feels bad for having left and now works for an NPO in NYC, but would have liked to be able to handle tough teaching situations. I don't think she had any guidelines or support for handling potential conflicts and power struggles between teacher and students in the classroom, as many were saying about TFA. I don't think the solution is just giving teachers more money to handle challenging classrooms; there also needs to be some sort of infrastructure.
I think teachers need to have opportunities to work with other teachers, observe each other teach, think and plan together, and have opportunities to map out a plan for professional development that is rooted in issues/questions from their own teaching/classrooms.
I agree with J. This needs to be deliberate and principled.
thanks
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