a book for young readers
I would like someone to guess the approximate grade level of the book the 11th graders in my school's humanities class are reading.
No, guess lower.
Barnes and Noble dubs it a "book for young readers," appropriate for 3rd-6th graders.
I wonder: are there colleges nowadays that use books for young readers, or in the case of the more academic colleges, books written for grades 7 and 8? We should look into that.
I feel like I'm in some kind of absurdist play, and the joke's on me. Or maybe it's a Truman-show like situation, and we're waiting to see when I finally explode and start "throwing personal invectives around like Rudy Giuliani on a bad day." (That was from a NY Times book review article. The book is '1491,' by Charles Mann. Looks to be awesome, I would check it out.) I imagine the situation would be quite humorous to viewers. Although, I guess a reality show for which a city and a fake ocean had to be created would not be constructed around the life of an education grad student. And if that is the case, somebody should really be fired, because the most exciting thing I've done this week is paint my living room an unfortunate shade of pink. We were going for warm country homestead, but instead it ended up more like warm country Pepto-bismol. (By the way, never, ever go to bed right after eating or drinking Pepto-bismol. The ingredient 'bismuth' reacts with your spit enzymes to produce this black coating on your tongue. Then you wake up in the morning, freak out when black stuff comes off on your toothbrush, wonder if someone stuffed your mouth full of dirt, reject that possibility because your door is locked and your roommate is a tiny Asian girl, consider what having mouth cancer will be like, consult the Mayo Clinic online, and learn about your condition: "hairy tongue." It's better just to circumvent the entire process).
Anyway, back to this book business. Last year at MATCH, the first thing the ninth graders read was Roots! They almost died, but they got through it. When the teacher asked them about it at the end of the year, many of them said they liked having that challenge right at the beginning, that it helped them gear up for the rest of the year. And they were proud of themselves for getting through the whole thing. I don't know that these 11th grade kids will be proud of themselves for reading an elementary school book.
This whole thing is such a moral dilemma. What is going on at this school is just plainly wrong. Should I quit, then? Refuse to student teach? Quit grad school? Switch grad schools? I want to become a teacher as soon as I can, and I don't want to waste the time (one month) and money (I'm not even going to say because it makes me want to eviscerate myself or someone in the student accounts department) I've spent here. But I also hate having to endure this situation and, worse yet, be a party to it. I'm not even allowed to criticize it openly to the people there, not that it would do any good. I feel like I'm an enabler or something. I'm going to try and switch my student teaching placement, but it might not be possible. If any of you out there have advice or words of wisdom, they would be appreciated.
posted by newoldschoolteacher @ 1:17 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
I can offer you this encouragement. Stick it out. It will end. You can find a job at a school with your teaching outlook and move on. Don't quit now! Student teaching is frustrating even if you agree with your supervising teacher/school's educational philosophy.
New Old School Teacher,
Your posts absolutely crack me up. Please keep writing--it's quality stuff.
As I see it, you have a few options here. 1) you can stick with the student teaching placement, quietly do their bidding, and take all this as "what not to do". 2) you can try to switch to another student teaching placement, in the process, complaining mightily and articulately to your advisor about this bizarro school you're currently with. 3) you can find some kindred spirits at your current placement and foment a rebellion (risky).
It sounds to me like you're going to be an excellent teacher, so please don't get too discouraged. You'll find your "home" and things will fall into place.
Keep up the good work (and the blogging!) :)
Hang in there hon, we miss you here. Do what's right for you, because you have so much to offer so many kids.
Don't change. All edu schools are much the same - I'm in Australia and even there its full of constructivist methods of teaching and general complaining about how we are always keeping the poor down. Stick it out, and occasionally point out the flaws in the teachers' 'logic'. Occasionally it gets through to the other students, and it starts them questioning the teachers and doing their own research.
Good luck,
Sam
What's the book and what is the reasoning behind reading such a low level book? Is that the hardest level that the students can decode?
On the Pepto-Bismol: been there, done that. Freshman year of college - ate something in the dorm cafeteria that didn't sit well, took the Pepto before bed, didn't adequately brush teeth.
And yes, it freaks you out. The fact that I remember it well 15+ years later is testimony to that.
As for the book: fight the good fight. I'd recommend standing up for more challenging work, and when you get out of there, go somewhere where they expect the students to be challenged. (I'm a college prof and it frustrates me to see students coming in who don't/won't read at a college level.)
Leave! Get out while you're still smart! Get a MA in history (use the James Madison Program) and teach. Get a MA in Math and teach. Just don't get an Ed degree! Save yourself and your future students!
I am sorry you have to go through all this. My advice is to stick it out--we need people like you to remain in teaching. A question I have is: why do you even need to go to ed school? Is there a law that says all teachers must have a masters? Why can't we repeal that law?
Oh, yeah: keep blogging!!!
Liz here from I Speak of Dreams There's always teaching in private schools, which usually do not require a teaching credential, but do require post-graduate study (MS, MA, or Ph.D) Many private schools now have a much more diverse student body, and can require much higher standards of engagement from the students.
Get a real MA degree. More than one study purports to show that students who learns from teachers with academic graduate degrees perfom better than those taught by those with Ed degrees.
Lord knows opinions will like this will piss off my colleagues at the ed school where I teach, but they've educated hundreds of the mediocrities who've goten the educatios system to this low point. Things have got to change!
I don't know that it will get better when you are out. Social Studies seems to stand out as the core subject that actively encourages doltish thinking. Until we demand that Social Studies teachers know more about their content than they do about coaching or social inequality we are going to have these problems.
I am currently the only member of my department who has a degree in something other than “Social Studies Education.” I am also the only member who wasn’t hired to fill a coaching vacancy that existed at the same time as the teaching position. I participated in the last round of interviews; we gave the job to the former quarter back at the local teachers college rather than the former Dade County Teacher of the Year.
I hate, hate, hate, the world history book we have. Not one topic is treated in anything longer than a paragraph. It has some great visual features though. The MTV-ifcation of textbooks has gone on way too long and it is time to take back education from the touchy-feely, cult of self-esteem, “constructivists.”
I love your site
I have a story to share with the group. When I was a young teacher I felt I was on a mission. I had a lot of similar education school experiences you describe, but like an idiot I soldiered on. I was placed in a middle school with a high ESL student population. I would constantly remind the kids of how they could speak two languages already and how I expect more from such bright people.
I worked their tails off. I gave them homework every night. They had a quiz every day. They told me I was the hardest teacher they ever had but they loved my class. One memory still makes me cry when I remember a kid showing me his "smart card" for getting a 3.00 or above GPA. He told me he was failing in his old school. He looked so proud.
I felt like super-teach! My first two classes had a 3+ average, the lowest grade was a C. My other three classes were a 2.5 or more class GPA.
I was told by the administration that I must be inflating grades, because these kids aren't that smart. I quit. I am currently a partner in a CPA firm making six figures. I should be grateful, if the school wasn't so racist I'd be a teacher today.
I still have the cards and letters from the kids, but I find it hard to read them because it still hurts.
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