Lesson Planning Questions

Are you kidding? That is a serious question.

 

Listen, this is gonna be harsh, but you basically asked for it here.....

Teaching is not for you because you don't have the self-awareness and reflective capacities needed to be an effective educator. It is not something you can learn with ease, or possibly even learn at all. I am sure you have plenty of strengths and talents, but the mix of inter- and intrapersonal don't mesh well with that. You will find something you can do well, but you need to be realistic about what you can and should be doing with yourself.

 

You are failing because you don't have enough interest in being successful to figure out how your textbook works, or to Google "strategies to teach theme" or to choose what text the students will be working with (and corresponding vocab and comprehension questions) before the middle of the night before you teach it.

You seem to lack a basic interest in doing the prep work needed to teach. In a previous thread I gave you a specific list of things to do, including reading on NewsELA and really digging into your state test. Did you do either? And I mean really do them, not just spend 30 minutes and decide it was boring (which it is). A lot of what we have to do that is behind the scenes is boring, but it is part of the job.

In an earlier post you mentioned wishing there were videos about lesson planning. A video of me planning would look like this: me at my computer. Googling. Looking at computer files of previous activities. Reading from my textbook. Looking up my standards. Checking the wording of released state test questions related to the standard. For hours.

Teaching also requires common sense and an ability to think on your feet, and you will not be successful if you lack those qualities.

Finally, teaching requires a minimum amount of social skills. Goodness knows you don't need to be an extroverted life of the party, but you need to be able to communicate and read people decently.

If you lack those skills and are unable to learn them (without requiring someone to explicitly teach them) then you will not be a successful teacher. There is no shame in that. I have OCD with an emphasis on the compulsion part, so there is no way I could be an airline pilot. I wouldn't be able to trust that I'd really pressed the green button or disengaged the whatevers. Same with being an engineer--I would not trust that I had not made a miscalculation and would have to keep checking to the point where I wouldn't be able to move to the next task.

 

Given the circumstances, why weren't you fired? Is there some benefit to students by allowing you to remain in the classroom?

I've never heard of anyone asking strangers that they have never met to explain why he/she is failing on the job. Do you realize how absurd this sounds? My final suggestion would be for you to consider taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment - it will help shed some light on what makes you tick and offer useful information on appropriate career options. Good luck!

 

I don't really know. Maybe it's because of my contract, my presumed familiarity with the students, or even just because someone felt sorry for me? In any case, it's not because I can teach.

Do you want me to be honest? I just wanted to know. It's not like you are the only people I've asked. I sometimes use internet conversations as practice for what I'll say to actual people. I test it by seeing how people I'm comfortable with would react first. The feedback I've gotten says that just asking this question might be a problem, because it's "absurd" to ask someone who does not know me about my job performance? That's new information, and it's a little confusing, because my college professors, supervisors, and "mentor" teachers are more or less strangers, too, aren't they?

My question, though, is why did I ever pass student teaching? Was it for the same reasons? Wouldn't it have been nice for someone to at least make sure I could do my job before certifying me? You know, people go to school with certain expectations. I took student teaching twice, didn't fail either time, got certified to teach, and even got hired at the place where I was doing my internship initially. Why didn't someone between those points pull me aside and say, "sorry, I don't think you can do this and you should look for another position?" The feedback I got was something along the lines of, "you are capable of doing this job." At one place, my co-teacher even left me in charge after she retired. I'm telling you, it looks like no one really noticed my deficits.

 

At the the youth center, it was my, understandable, unfamiliarity with the curriculum and lack of well-developed interpersonal skills. I was responsible for tutoring several different subjects, and it was actually pretty difficult to keep up with. What's worse, though, at least in that environment, is I failed to establish good rapport with the kids, and they wanted a way to get rid of me because of it.

Here, my problems were a little different. The kids were tame, and my boss was very understanding, but my unwillingness to communicate with my coworkers left me in the dark on some very important information I needed to succeed in this situation. At this particular job, I really either needed the skills of a curriculum planner or the ingenuity to overcome that deficit with the skills I already possessed. I failed at both.

 

Tame kids? I find that hilarious. One needs management and pedagogical skills with even well behaved students. Any administrator is going to only be so understanding to a point- you are failing your students with your ineptitude. Allowing that to continue would be irresponsible on the administration's part. Lack of communication-yeah, that's a problem, but the kinds of information you were seeking from them (and quite frankly, here on the forums) is information you should have a handle on, or be able to figure out. It's not your colleagues' job to hold your hand. You might want to start thinking about what you're going to do next. You most likely won't be renewed.

 

Being capable of doing a job, and being willing to put in the time, reflection and steps toward personal growth to be effective, are two vastly different things.

 

This, right here, speaks volumes.

 

Enough.