What course would you add to Teacher's Ed. Curriculum?

I never said it would be easy. But I think it would give us far better teachers, don't you??

Over the course of 4 years of college, more with graduate work, I think it would be entirely possible to become at least comfortable with 9 different grades. I'm not saying that anyone should be a "Master Teacher" upon finishing grad school. But that if you're certified to teach something, you should be capable of doing so proficiently.

 

At the very least, one should know the content being taught across the grades for which one is certified.

 

Do you mean content area or methods?

 

Both, I think.

It seems to me that if a teacher is certified to teach K-8 or 7-12 or whatever, that he or she should be ready and able (if not necessarily willing) to do so.

Would you need to brush up on content? Of course-- that's why there are summers.

But would you need constant hand-holding as you performed the job you were being paid to do? One would hope not.

 

I've passed all the necessary tests that make me certified to teach all those different grade levels. Thus, I could proficiently teach the content in K-8. I truly don't believe that I could've become comfortable teaching 4th-8th grade through undergraduate coursework. No way.

 

I think most of what should be added to Teacher Ed. programs has been covered. I do not feel that I am getting much out of the courses I am currently taking. I sub most days in the same school and have developed a relationship with the staff and admin there. I have learned most of what I know through subbing and from the teachers there. Classroom management was the first area I worked when I began substitute teaching and I have been complimented by many on this. I am now focusing more on instruction. I ask a lot of questions regarding content, testing, grading, dealing with parents etc. I have taken part in a parent teacher conference, performed assessments and other tasks for teachers when I don't sub to become more familiar with these things. One thing I am considering is assisting a teacher in setting up a classroom so that I can gain some experience doing that. There are no shortage of teachers willing to accept my help whenever I volunteer. :lol: I won't start student teaching until later this year, but I will not be placed anywhere during this time.

 

I agree with the comment about technology. Sure, I had a great educational tech teacher, but we learned about podcasts, creating webquests, and other such things. We didn't have any exposure to smartboards - which my school is big on trying to get in all classes. Also, just to show how patchy my tech knowledge is - the first time I tried an overhead in student teaching, I just had paper. Didn't even know I had to use a transparency. I think any good tech course should cover the manjor things used by teachers -- transparencies, smartboards, grading systems, blogs/teacher websites, etc. It's nice to know how to podcast, but many schools don't have the capabilities. How about teaching us about what schools do have, or are pushing for?

 

I agree. I graduated certified to teach K-6. After teaching for a few years, and working with older students under my Special Ed "hat" I realized that the older kids are definitely for me and I added certification for grade 7-10 a couple of summers ago. I wouldn't want to teach below grade 4 (I don't think that is where my strengths lie), but I could, rightfully so, be asked to teach anything within my qualification area. During my teacher ed--oh, so many years ago--I did three student teaching placements, one day a week for a third of the school year, with a 2-week block at the end. I worked in a grade 1, a grade 3 and a grade 6 classroom, which gave me a varied experience.

 

My current course on special education (which is the only special education course 99% of the students will have) is taught by a realllly old man who uses rather.... depreciated terms, such as mongoloid (For Downs), Orientals (For asians), and Chicano-Americans (For Spanish Americans, I believer)

He doesn't want to go into detail on anything, or even teach IDEA correctly. I've had to correct him a few times.

 

My teacher education program was excellent. It was a Master's program, and the professors really did their parts. We had a classroom management course, technology emphasis, field labs where we had to work in different schools and teach subjects even before student teaching...

Also, they made us participate in any techniques out there that we would use for our students. If we're gonna make our students do it, they made us do it. (such as write a Haiku poem).

We had to write poems, draw pictures, experiment with math manipulatives, write songs...all things we would ask our students to do depending on the subject matter.

We role-played, had lots of research and presentations and our professors had a heart for teaching so they would tell us personal stories from their experiences which also stuck with me.

It was very hands-on. The lecture wouldn't last too long. We usually broke into groups (and the professors had certain methods for that too) and applied whatever the lecture was about.

It was a great program, and I guess that is rare in teacher education these days.

Oh, we had a class called The Psychology of teaching, or something like that. I would definitely recommend that all future teachers take Child Psychology courses. It's much needed.

 

Mediation, classroom management, diverse learners.

My master's program in special ed. was all theory, and most of the profs had not been in a real school setting since the 60's. I kid you not. The reading learning disabilities prof only promoted the program she had written which was just phonics drill, and hated anything that was not her program. A sad state of affairs.

I did have a good behavior management course (you'd hope, since my program licensed me to be an SBD teacher!), and a good course on writing IEP's. The rest was pretty much a wash.

Does anyone know of a good online course for teaching math to students with disabilities? Because I still feel like I don't have all the info I'd like in this area, 15 years later......

Part of the problem was that I was poor as could be, and I got a full scholarship to the school I attended, and I was like, whoo-hoo! Well, I was too inexperienced to be a wise consumer of higher learning. I hope to get a doctorate, and will be much more choosy.....with age has come experience and wisdom.....and less time to waste!