Schoolteaching

[EA Observer]

How many of you had an experience of teaching kids at a school or would seriously consider doing so from pre-school to high/secondary level? How was your experience (if you had already) or how would you approach it if you get a chance to (if haven't yet)? If not, what is your biggest reason for shunning this profession?

[avax]

Never taught in a classroom setting as an actual job or handled a class on my own but I did do two teaching assistant positions part time - one was an esl class for adults, the other for grade 4s. Didn't do highschool. I liked both. Both were rewarding in their own ways but if I had to pick I would prefer teaching adults.

[shugi]

Jericho could answer this thread very well, but when we met him when he came to visit syd one of the things in the conversation was how to handle the troublesome kids. I suppose with high school teaching, teens on their own for parents could be hard to deal with - a classroom full of them with a few troubled ones takes someone special to juggle basic psychology, individual needs and teaching.

although the many good upsides to teaching is you have the option of participating by leading the extra co curriculars & events whatever the shool offers like debating, cadets, camps. holidays when the students have holidays, but there are cool down and warm up periods for teachers with those holidays to get ready for the next semester or finishing up a semester - so holidays are probably not as long as students.

[dannyd]

I've taught at Kindergarten, Middle School, High School and Professional level

To be honest my favourites were middle school and professional. Kindergraten I didn't last very long. Every time I taught a class, 5 or 6 teachers from the school would come aswell and sit in the room with my 80 or so screaming little Chinese kids. When I realised that the only way to entertain AND educate them was to do things like sing to them (ABC's etc) and that this embaressment was watched keenly by several of my colleagues at all times, I left. I didn't even collect my last pay packet (I guess there was some guilt that I left them). This is not necessarily advice for you, some people are very good with children. I found it difficultm though it may in some part have been due to the sheer size of the class. This experience is of course specific to teaching a foreign language. The kids didn't really know why they were there and to be honest a twice weekly class without study inbetween in not going to get a young kid speaking English.

The high school kids I taught were difficult. It may have been the school I was teaching at, but most of them seemed to think if English as a waste of time and as such I found it difficult to get through to them when their attentions were obviously on 'more important' exams. There was a brief period mid-year where we had some fun but attention was quickly re-focusessed. I blackmailed them . I always had homework prepared for them. If I was happy with a class, they didn't get homework. If I wasn't they'd get homework. I know it worked on me as a schoolboy!

The middle school kids were excellent. Curious, attentive and playful it is easiest to teach a class when they are like that. Plus I was only 19-20 so at least they thought of me as older, I think some of the high school kids couldn't handle me being so young hehe.

Professionals on the other hand were good too. They were there because they wanted to be. They listened. Couldn't do thing like play games with them (I found a very affective method on middle school kids to force them into using the language amidst fun) but even if it was a little more boring, I was able to be effective and even on occasion, join them for drinks afterwards. Being the 20 yr old teacher of bankers 30-50, I never had to pay for very much

Thinking back, the group I termed 'high school' were 17-18
Middle school 13-16

Just my stipulative definitions for my post .

I guess I never intended on continuing with teaching, it was only to support myself. But on the same note, I wouldn't consider it as a profession. Simply because I'm not very good at it! I always had to rack my brains for lesson plans, or get friends who were teaching elsewhere to give me ideas. It was never natural.

There is much reward I must say though. I saw alot of improvement in some of the kids, and I had kids who would barely says a handful of words at the start of the year giving me decent speeches in front of the class by the end. When you notice those things you do feel a sense of accomplishment.

[avax]

dannyd said:

Being the 20 yr old teacher of bankers 30-50, I never had to pay for very much

Did it take some getting used to? Some adults are touchy about this, imo. There was a good mix in the class regarding ethnicity too. I'm not sure if I would be taken seriously as a female in that age range in asia teaching such a group.

[cjsdad]

Educator makes the top five list for most under-appreciated careers.

As the son of two teachers, this hits home for me.

I've thought about doing more than part time, I'm on the faculty of a teaching hospital, but never wanted to take the pay cut that full time would require.

My experiences with students are mostly very positive.
My experiences with fellow staff members...not so much. Red tape and government/state employees are a bad combo.

[xandra]

cjsdad said:

Educator makes the top five list for most under-appreciated careers.

As the son of two teachers, this hits home for me.

That's surprising to me. My mom is a teacher (she's taught kindergarten and grade 1 and before that was a supply/substitute teacher who taught any grade in elementary school) and overall she finds her job very rewarding. Of course there are always the bad parents who don't listen to what teachers have to say, or who complain about a lot of stuff but my mom is amazing at what she does and her kids and most of the parents love her. But I think your overall experience with teaching is dictated by the principal, since they really set the tone of the school and can create tension for the teachers.

I've thought about teaching, and kind of wish that I had prepared myself to go to teacher's college after university since it's in demand and pays fairly well. But I guess it didn't appeal to me enough for me to pursue it and if I ever did teach it would most likely be in the 'teaching english in asia' capacity.

[cjsdad]

^Perhaps you misunderstood my post.
I think teachers get neither the respect nor the money they deserve for what they do.
Nothing is more important to a parent than the education of their child.
At least it SHOULD be a HIGH priority.
Yet, until very recently, teacher salaries have not been, IMO, commensurate with the importance of the career.
In my family, mom quit teaching to stay home with my brother and me.
This left Dad's teacher salary only.
It wasn't abject poverty, but it was very tight and very paycheck to paycheck.
This was a long time ago, but it wasn't THAT long ago.

Both my parents LOVED what they did, they just didn't necessarily get the appreciation from parents and administrators that I thought they deserved.

Thus, my comment on being under-appreciated.

It's rewarding but can be super-frustrating.

[avax]

To be very frank, I do not think the teachers in canada do a very good job. Kids are learning how to add in gr. 5. Thanks, mr. anderson. Barring that, yes, it's an important career. I also think most of them should take it more seriously than they do at the moment. If I offend anyone, not my intention - I'm sure your loved ones are great teachers. The majority I've seen aren't. Maybe that has more to do with the crappy overall curriculum than the teachers themselves. School seems more like a daycare.

[0]

^ How does this fit in with your opinion that reading books is a waste of time and that knowledge isn't very important?

[avax]

Start young. Enjoy later.
I'm not sure what the push is for "knowledge". It's everywhere and anyone can pick up a book, read an article, most libraries have access to journals or you can buy subscriptions. I do think it's more important to train them in the way they think as young kids through teens, more so than pumping tsunamis of knowledge. What comes of it? A regurgitating machine? Citing "classics" and memorizing lines? At most it's good conversation material but maybe that's not enough - that's my own lacklustre on the matter though. "knowing" is great but I think there's something else that should be accompanied with it. Creativity, intuition, skepticism, some wondering, all sources should be exposed to the bare bones. It's not enough that an author has a flashy title.

I came across another discussion about short attention spans and televisions and how computer/online knowledge is "making people stupid". I'm not so sure about that. Kids should be trained from young how to handle mass knowledge, usually not all that reliable, from all sources. The funny thing is schools and parents are accepting that wikipedia is a kind of supplementary education, which is great, but where's the other stuff to balance it out? Algebra doesn't count. And come on, television's been a scapegoat for decades. So.. what exactly IS knowledge ? and who wrote those textbooks anyway.

[xandra]

cjsdad said:

^Perhaps you misunderstood my post.
I think teachers get neither the respect nor the money they deserve for what they do.
Nothing is more important to a parent than the education of their child.
At least it SHOULD be a HIGH priority.
Yet, until very recently, teacher salaries have not been, IMO, commensurate with the importance of the career.
In my family, mom quit teaching to stay home with my brother and me.
This left Dad's teacher salary only.
It wasn't abject poverty, but it was very tight and very paycheck to paycheck.
This was a long time ago, but it wasn't THAT long ago.

Both my parents LOVED what they did, they just didn't necessarily get the appreciation from parents and administrators that I thought they deserved.

Thus, my comment on being under-appreciated.

It's rewarding but can be super-frustrating.

Ah, gotcha. I agree that they should be paid more, but in Canada they do make a decent living (although it would be tight raising a family on that alone) and you can always take more courses to up your salary. But the really do have so many demands on them at school and it seems like more and more is expected of them without any compensation for their extra efforts.

[honeyviper]

I've never taught a class, but I really enjoy working with the youth. I usually work within curriculum and education development. It's best to approach the classroom with a needs assessment. What are they looking to learn and how can you help them achieve their goals. Or, at least that's my thought on it.

[attilathehun513]

I don't think there's enough difficulty in regular school; although the peers you are with tend to more easy to socialize with, IMO.