Tuesday, April 21, 2009

If You’re Pondering A Teaching Career

While on the one hand we’ve got a major teacher retirement upheaval about to hit the American school system, during which we’ll be losing a third of the current teaching force, on the other hand we’ve got a sketchy economy that’s sending boatloads of career-types running for the safety (I use the term loosely) of [...]

While on the one hand we’ve got a major teacher retirement upheaval about to hit the American school system, during which we’ll be losing a third of the current teaching force, on the other hand we’ve got a sketchy economy that’s sending boatloads of career-types running for the safety (I use the term loosely) of the business end of a classroom. Stock markets can crash, but barring a new world order, there will always be schools full of kids to teach.

For anyone out there who might be considering a career in the educating arts, please read this collection of short pieces in the New York Times written by three teachers, one professor of education, and one economist, about how hard teaching really is and the fact that, just because there’s a shortage coming down the pike, it doesn’t mean landing aand keeping a teaching job is going to be a piece of cake.

You might also want to read Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt, the most realistic, unromantic, non-Hollywood memoir about McCourt’s career as an English teacher in the New York public school system. It’s amazing and beautiful, but it would never serve to convince anyone to become a teacher unless the urge to educate was present in their bones prior to reading the book and had managed to stay put through to the last page. Teacher Man does not do for the teaching profession what Top Gun did for naval fighter pilots. It doesn’t make the teaching profession sexy in the slightest; it makes it terrifying and frustrating and also a tad eviscerating. (Is it possible to only be a tad eviscerated?)

Teacher Man is a beautiful story because Frank McCourt is who he is and because he wrote the way he did about how he felt about his students and his teaching of them. No other teacher will have the same relationships or career experiences, so for god’s sake don’t go becoming a teacher so you can be the next Frank McCourt. He writes honestly enough (he’s painfully blunt) that I feel certain reading his book will serve as an excellent chaff separator.

Further Reading:

A ‘Tsunami’ of Boomer Teacher Retirements is on the Horizon
As Economy Falters, Interest in Teaching Surges
Report Envisions Shortage of Teachers as Retirements Escalate
‘Relentless Pursuit’: A Year Teaching in America
Alternate Route to Teaching is Now a Road More Traveled
Education Degree Resources

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Educational Psychology Can Save Recess (I Hope)

Educational Psychology Can Save Recess (I Hope)
Sometimes I wonder why the decision-makers are so backward in their thinking, and then I wonder which one of us non-decision-makers was responsible for putting them in charge in the first place. Outdoor recess and unstructured, in-classroom play time have been decreasing so as to make time for the fully structured knowledge-absorption parts of [...]

Sometimes I wonder why the decision-makers are so backward in their thinking, and then I wonder which one of us non-decision-makers was responsible for putting them in charge in the first place. Outdoor recess and unstructured, in-classroom play time have been decreasing so as to make time for the fully structured knowledge-absorption parts of the school day. The yahoos in charge of how much time is spent learning vs. playing in elementary schools need to spend an afternoon finger-painting and remember what it was like to be a kid.

Alternatively, they could read all the research backing up the idea that kids who are given time during the school day for physical activity (the crux of the recess invention) and to play in the classroom during free choice time (they learn while they play indoors, too) are better able to sit down at their desks and absorb more info when it comes time for the focusing.

I’m a big recess fan, so I’ve always been cranky about the slow but sure disappearance of primary school recess times. But there’s also an entire portion of in-classroom free time, also known as child-directed educational play, which is being squeezed out in favor of fully structured, sit-still-and-absorb-the-information learning.

The traditional kindergarten classroom that most adults remember from childhood—with plenty of space and time for unstructured play and discovery, art and music, practicing social skills, and learning to enjoy learning—has largely disappeared. The results of three new studies, supported by the Alliance for Childhood and described in this report, suggest that time for play in most public kindergartens has dwindled to the vanishing point, replaced by lengthy lessons and standardized testing.

The studies were conducted by researchers from U.C.L.A., Long Island University and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. The researchers found that

• On a typical day, kindergartners in Los Angeles and New York City spend four to six times as long being
instructed and tested in literacy and math (two to three hours per day) as in free play or “choice time” (30 minutes or less).

• Standardized testing and preparation for tests are now a daily activity in most of the kindergartens studied, despite the fact that most uses of such tests with children under age eight are of questionable validity and can lead to harmful labeling.

• Classic play materials like blocks, sand and water tables, and props for dramatic play have largely disappeared from the 268 full-day kindergarten classrooms studied.

• In many kindergarten classrooms there is no play- time at all. Teachers say the curriculum does not
incorporate play, there isn’t time for it, and many school administrators do not value it.

Kindergartners are now under great pressure to meet inappropriate expectations, including academic standards
that until recently were reserved for first grade. At the same time, they are being denied the benefits of play—a major stress reliever.

If teachers were in charge, I can guarantee there would be more free time in the classroom for the kids to engage in child-directed, imagination-saturated, problem-solving, cognition-developing play. Anyone who has learned anything about the psychology of kiddos and their brain wiring knows that they are learning even when they are playing, and that they learn better during the in-desk formal learning part of their school day if they’ve have a chance to blow off some steam and decompress a little.

Someone with a conscience and the proverbial balls to use their powers for good needs to get some official documentation of their qualification to tell the powers that be what it is, exactly, that kids require to be happy and healthy. (The answer is: More play, on and off the monkey bars.)

I think educational psychology carries some excellent potential for bureaucratic ass-kicking. Educational psychologists understand the whys and hows of who is learning what, how they’re learning in any given situation, and who is teaching and what makes those educators tick, and why the curriculum is or isn’t working for all parties involved. They’re the ones who grok the whole educational picture of a school and can use torrents of gorgeous vocabulary to explain to the policymakers why recess matters. Someone go to it and save our kids.

Further Reading and Resources:

Physically Fit Kids Do Better In School
Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability To Pay Attention
Educational Psychology Careers and Degrees
About Educational Psychology
Telling the Stories of Educational Psychology
American Psychological Association

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image sources: classroom and playground