Week 8 Spring Ch 8 and Folder 8

1. “After the Civil War, female teachers rushed into the South with a mission of creating social equality and political right for freed slaves. However, female teachers were often demeaned and exploited.” (201 Spring)

This is such an oxymoron to me because these women are doing a great thing for the blacks that were enslaved in the past but then they themselves were being discriminated. The good that they were doing even far back to the Civil War was not acknowledged. It is unfortunate that in 2011 the teacher profession is still not respected. I wonder if there is a connection to the fact that a majority of people that are teachers are women? In the civil war times this seemed to be the case. The teaching profession needs to be respected no matter what gender the teacher they all work tremendously hard to bring knowledge and experience to the people. People should be nothing but grateful for their educators overtime for getting them wherever they are today. The issues that have been occurring throughout history is just illogical for what these people are giving each day.

2. “But TFA training has not included many of the strategies that I find most effective. TFA’s test- based and standards-driven orientation stifles creativity, and nowhere in TFA training did anyone present the type of lesson that I taught on World War I.” (Diamond TFA)

This strategy that is described is really disappointing to me that TFA teachers are being taught to go strictly by standards. This is a problem that experienced teachers are facing as well. Teaching to the test is drowning our teachers’ and student’s creativity. I was surprised to read that this is the way they would be trained to teach in a classroom.  The description of this teachers World War I lesson sounded like the teacher was really trying to have the students learn something the other examples that focus on the outcome of a test does not necessarily mean the students are really getting something out of the lesson that is meaningful to them. There lies the problem with strict standards and testing. But we are producing more inexperienced TFA teachers that think they are really doing good for the country when if they are going by their training are not. Hopefully there are more TFA teachers like the one who has wrote this reflection.

3. “A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject. But the pupils are all kept in the same classroom, regardless of their ability in that particular subject.”(BBC News Finland schools)

This tactic is very logical I am surprised that most schools that I have visited don’t follow this method of teaching. When I worked with students in 2^nd grade at a school in Hartford there were student that I just didn’t get to spend much time with because they were out of the room for most of the day getting special help with certain subjects. The time period that I mostly visited was during the reading block of time and the class size was dramatically different because of how many students left for tutoring. I feel that this is unfair to those students that have to leave the room the amount of time that is wasted each day that they have to walk through the halls collecting the other students from other classrooms that are also going for extra help probably amounts to a lot of time over the school year. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pull a child out of their classroom for extra help because then they are missing the lessons that their classroom teacher is doing while they are gone. This was an issue for the teacher I was working with she always tried to schedule her lessons for when most of the students were in the room but that was extremely difficult because of the large number of students that left at various times. Over all the Finland method just makes a lot of sense so students still get time with their classroom peers and are able to learn from others.

4. “Despite increasing teacher-certification requirements with No Child Left Behind, teachers’ salaries still lag behind those of other white-collar workers. Why do people become teachers if they pay is low for a job that requires an extensive education and licensing?” (204 Spring)

This quote makes me think of how mistaken so many people are who say that teachers get paid well. Some try to make the argument that teachers are living luxurious lives because they get paid well and don’t work all year round. This is so frustrating to me because of how difficult it is to become a teacher and as the quote says teacher salaries do not match other jobs and other jobs do not have tough requirements to be certified to be able to work there. This quote points out that it takes a special person to be able to be a teacher because you are not getting paid extremely well and it is not just an easy job you can pick up from any time of education. People who become teachers have to be dedicated and love bringing knowledge to people. It is not a job that you can breeze through each day. Teachers have a great responsibility each and every day to bring knowledge to their students and encourage them to keep learning as they progress through life.