Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Top Eight Challenges Teachers Face This School Year
Top Eight Challenges Teachers Face This School Year
1. ALL THOSE KIDS!!With teacher bashing all the rage these days, we thought we’d show what teachers are actually facing when they step into the classroom each day. In no particular order, here are the top eight challenges facing educators this year:
In Georgia this May, after state funding for schools was cut by nearly $1 billion, the state Board of Education voted to lift all class size limits. “We don’t have a choice. We didn’t give them enough money,” said state school Superintendent Kathy Cox.
And, of course, it’s the same story in states across the country. It’s tough for educators—but even tougher for those kids who need their attention. “There are a lot of geniuses sitting in the back of our classes, but they don’t get properly taught in classrooms with more than 30 other kids,” said one Los Angeles student in a recent news article.
2. TURNING ON TECHNOLOGY
Students today are technophiles. They love their video games—all fast-paced and addictive—and they can’t put down their smart phones, iPods, and social networks. And educators? They might also love new technologies, but even if they don’t, they realize that technology often is the key to locking in a student’s interest. The challenge is, how? Deitrya Anderson, a Tulsa teacher, puts those phones “to an educational use” through a site called Wiffiti that receives and displays student questions via text message. Others are using Twitter—sending tweets to students to remind them of key points from the day’s lesson or use it as a language arts tool. Even Facebook has its merits. Susan Colquitt, a New Mexico teacher, says she uses it to answer her students’ questions and mentor them.
3. CYBERBULLYING
Remember Phoebe Prince? Or Megan Meier? Both girls committed suicide after long, humiliating bouts with cyberbullies. Their deaths were tragic and unusual, but many kids are struggling to cope with this particularly virulent form of bullying. According to Pew Research, nearly one in three teens say they’ve been victimized via the Internet or cell phones. A teacher’s role—or a school’s role—is still fuzzy in many places. What legal rights or responsibilities do they have to silence bullies, especially when they operate from home? To more clearly define their prerogative, many schools are writing cyberbullying policies into their handbooks, in effect forcing students and their parents to sign contracts that allow schools to discipline them for Internet abuse. But prevention is the best policy and experts say the answer is more conversation with kids. Peer models—often from older high school grades—can be effective discussion leaders.
4. NCLB
“Testing, testing, testing, what is the point of testing? Do we use the data to remediate those who do not measure up? No!” complained Shelley Dunham, a Kansas special educator, on an NEA discussion board. Instead the federal law takes those test scores, which are incredibly flawed pictures of achievement, and uses them to punish schools. (And don’t even get us started on the inappropriate use of tests with students with disabilities….) This year, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (better known as NCLB) is up for reauthorization. The Obama blueprint offers more of the same, but the NEA’s Positive Agenda for ESEA Reauthorization would offer multiple measures of student learning, smaller class sizes, adequate funding, and support for teachers—even while insisting on high standards for students. Go toEducationVotes to find out more about this sensible approach.
5. PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Often, it feels like there are just two kinds of parents: The ones hunkering in a cave somewhere and the ones camping in your pocket. Unreachable? Or unavoidable. Either way, teachers wish for the kind of parent involvement that supports learning. Elusive parents usually have a reason for their mysterious ways, like language fluency. In New Mexico, teacher Ricardo Rincon asks students to host parent conferences. He also crafts homework assignments that don’t assume parents have advanced skills. For example, instead of asking them to supervise the addition of fractions, they might be asked to ensure their kids read for 30 minutes at home.
6. YOUR SALARY
What salary, educators ask. After paying the mortgage, student loan debts, medical bills, utilities, car and food, what’s left? “With pay cuts, furlough days, increased taxes and other bills, for the first time I am falling behind in my financial obligation, ruining a 30-year record of perfect credit,” writes one fed-up California teacher. “I feel my only route is retirement and possibly filing for bankruptcy.”NEA’s campaign for professional pay for teachers and support professionals is trying to change that.
7. GETTING HEALTHY
Everybody from Michelle Obama to the Naked Chef Jamie Oliver has turned their attention to that kid who can’t quite fit behind his desk in the back row. According to the federal government, nearly one in five children and adolescents are obese—nearly triple the rate of a generation ago—putting them in great risk of diabetes and heart disease. The Child Nutrition reauthorization bill, which would establish national nutrition standards for school food and provide more training opportunities to cafeteria employees, needs support. It passed the Senate in August and still needs a vote in the House. Some school districts are ahead of the curve. In Oregon, as part of a growing effort to close inequities in hunger and nutrition, using local produce and balanced meals, head cook Rhonda Sand has been slicing up jicama spears and filling trays with mixed berries—“They really weren’t a fan of the beets though,” she told Today’s OEA, smiling.
8. FINDING THE FUNDING
On the one hand, there are public schools that can’t afford to pay their educators, fix their leaky roofs, or replace their moldy textbooks. On the other, there are hostile legislators who would love to divert the ever-dwindling funds for public education to private schools and companies and a federal government that believes the Race to the Top Fund, a $4.35 billion reward for states that promise to tie teacher pay to test scores, is the answer. (Clue: It isn’t!) Activism is critical this year. NEA activists will help elect pro-public education candidates—through donations to the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education and participation in local phone banks and door-to-door walks. And they’ll be holding those politicians accountable. “Sometimes I hear people say, ‘Oh, but I’m not political. I’m an educator!’” says Lee Schreiner, an active Ohio teacher. “And I say, ‘Bull! Name one thing in your job that isn’t political.’” To learn more about NEA’s work for pro-public education candidates and issues, visit EducationVotes.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Art of teaching
Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator
Teaching is more than a job. It's a responsibility—one of the greatest responsibilities in civilized society. Teachers lay bare the mysteries of the world to us. They train our minds to explore, to question, to investigate, to discover. They ensure that knowledge is not lost or forgotten but is instead passed on to future generations. And they shape our lives in limitless ways, both inside and outside of the classroom.
But teaching is no easy task. It's an art form; one that requires craft, sensitivity, creativity, and intelligence. Whether your classroom consists of 3 students or 300, it's important to be as effective and successful a teacher as possible, both for the education of your students and for your own professional and personal growth.
The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator, one of the most dynamic and innovative Great Courses we've ever produced, is designed to help you achieve new levels of success as a teacher. These 24 lectures will help you develop and enhance your teaching style; provide you with invaluable methods, tools, and advice for handling all manner of teaching scenarios; and open your eyes to how other teachers—and their students—think about and approach this life-changing profession.
An invaluable aid, this course's insights are useful to a wide variety of teachers and people in other leadership positions:
- Current teachers at the college and high-school levels
- Aspiring teachers and teachers in training
- Corporate managers and trainers
- Public speakers
In addition, The Art of Teaching has value for anyone who's curious about how academic education in the 21st century works. While the examples used in this course are rooted in the world of academia, the concepts and principles they illustrate—
- lecturing,
- presenting,
- leading discussion groups,
- using technologies, and
- using creativity and innovation
—can be put to use in nearly every situation in which you're required to teach and lead.
Learn How to Teach from the Best of the Best
The Art of Teaching is delivered by award-winning Professor Patrick N. Allitt of Emory University, one of The Great Courses' most popular professors. A distinguished teacher with more than 30 years of classroom experience and 5 years as Director of Emory College's Center for Teaching and Curriculum (designed to study and improve the art and craft of university teaching), he is the perfect instructor with whom to explore ways to become a great—or even greater—teacher.
What's more: He enhances his lectures with candid and illuminating interviews with an all-star group of veteran Great Courses professors, some of the brightest teachers in higher education. Not only do you hear what they have to say about their roles as teachers, you actually witness them applying their tools and techniques in lecture halls, seminar classes, and even one-on-one student coaching.
These teachers are
- John Hale, Director of Liberal Studies at the University of Louisville
- Jeanette Norden, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- Stephen Nowicki, Dean and Provost of Undergraduate Education and Professor of Biology at Duke University
- Scott E. Page, Collegiate Professor of Political Science, Complex Systems, and Economics at the University of Michigan
- Steve Pollock, Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder
- Michael Roberto, Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University
With these professors' wealth of teaching awards and accolades, their combined decades of experience teaching in classrooms of all sizes, and—most important—their deep and abiding passion for the importance of their profession, you'll learn how to teach from the best of the best.
Explore the Toolkit for Effective Teaching
At the heart of this new and unique course are the lessons you learn on how to enhance and improve your own teaching. In each lecture of The Art of Teaching, you'll discover a veritable toolkit of tips, techniques, exercises, advice, and wisdom rarely assembled in a single, affordable package.
Here's just a brief sample of what you'll learn in these 24 lectures:
- How to handle the first day: The first day of your class is critical, because it gives your students an idea of what their learning experience will be like. Make sure that, during your first class, you explain your subject and establish your credentials for teaching it, demonstrate why the subject matters, set your expectations, learn your students' names, and immediately engage your students.
- How to give a dynamic lecture: Excellent lectures are both informative and interesting. Some tips to make your lectures more dynamic and memorable: Start your lecture with something stimulating or controversial; vary your vocal volume, tone, and expression to maintain attention; occasionally ask rhetorical questions; and avoid overfilling your lecture with content.
- How to effectively use technologies: When dealing with aids like PowerPoint, remember that the more teaching technology you use, the more time you're likely to devote to it instead of to your students. Keep your PowerPoint presentations bold and simple, and don't forget the usefulness of "traditional" technologies like blackboards. When using a teaching aid, always ask yourself: What does this method of teaching add? How will it help my students to learn?
- How to create and administer exams: Exams should fully test your students' knowledge and thinking ability. Before writing an exam, ask yourself what you want the students to take from your course. Decide whether to administer a multiple-choice test, a take-home exam, or an oral exam; each has its benefits and drawbacks. Similarly, decide beforehand whether you're going to grade on a curve or according to an absolute standard, and what your policy will be for handling potential grade disputes.
- How to survive the challenges of teaching: Teaching can be stressful at times, but there are many ways for you to remain focused. First, never take conflict with students personally; remember that your relationship with them is professional, and any disagreements should be handled professionally. It's also important to periodically reflect on your life as a teacher to ensure that you still view it as a vocation and not just a job to suffer through.
A Course Unlike Any We've Crafted Before
The Art of Teaching is a course unlike any we've crafted before—specifically because of how thoroughly it immerses you in the experience of being a teacher.
Professor Allitt's course takes you across the country and brings you inside the classrooms of some of the greatest universities in America, where you actually watch great teachers doing what they do best. It's this dynamic approach that makes the course a unique learning experience—one that gives you the knowledge on how to be an effective teacher, then demonstrates it for you.
In addition, you get a chance to hear views about teaching from the students themselves. Professor Allitt's interviews with students offer a fresh and often undocumented perspective on the art and craft of teaching. What do students think are the qualities of a great teacher? How would they describe the perfect classroom experience?
With its diverse perspectives, its immersive nature, and its unparalleled look at the lives and minds of a variety of instructors, The Art of Teaching will reshape the way you think about and approach this important profession. By the conclusion of the final lecture, you'll have an amazing reservoir of skills to draw on in your own teaching. Most important, you'll have found a source of guidance and inspiration that will last your entire career.
About Your Professor
Dr. Patrick N. Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. He earned his bachelor's degree at Oxford University and his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley.
From 2004 to 2009, Professor Allitt directed Emory College's Center for Teaching and Curriculum. In this critical administrative position, he led workshops on a wide variety of teaching-related problems, visited dozens of other professors' classes, and provided one-on-one consultation to teachers to help them overcome particular pedagogical problems.
Professor Allitt was honored with Emory's Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2000 was appointed to the N.E.H./Arthur Blank Professorship of Teaching in the Humanities.
A widely published author, Professor Allitt's books include I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom, a memoir about one semester in his life as a university professor. In addition, he has written numerous articles and reviews for academic and popular publications, including The New York Times Book Review.
Available Exclusively on DVD
This course features in-depth interviews, extensive footage of teachers at work, and other elements to enhance your learnin
Teacher quotes
 | Quotations about Teachers and Teaching |
A teacher affects eternity:
he can never tell where his influence stops.
Henry Adams
he can never tell where his influence stops.
Henry Adams
What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero
The important thing is not so much
that every child should be taught,
as that every child should be given the wish to learn.
John Lubbock
that every child should be taught,
as that every child should be given the wish to learn.
John Lubbock
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life,
those the art of living well.
Aristotle
those the art of living well.
Aristotle
What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable than teaching?
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau
By learning you will teach;
by teaching you will understand.
Latin Proverb
by teaching you will understand.
Latin Proverb
Education is the mother of leadership.
Wendell L. Willkie
Wendell L. Willkie
Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
Bishop Hall
Bishop Hall
If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.
Tryon Edwards
Tryon Edwards
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
Ben Sweetland
Ben Sweetland
Grammar speaks; dialectics teach us truth; rhetoric gives colouring to our speech; music sings; arithmetic numbers; geometry weighs and measures;
astronomy teaches us to know the stars.
Latin Maxim
astronomy teaches us to know the stars.
Latin Maxim
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frederic Amiel
We learn by teaching.
James Howell
James Howell
Natural ability is by far the best, but many men have succeeded in winning high renown by skill that is the fruit of teaching.
Pindar
Pindar
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken
joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Albert Einstein
joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Albert Einstein
The most effective teacher will always be biased,
for the chief force in teaching is confidence and enthusiasm.
Joyce Cary
for the chief force in teaching is confidence and enthusiasm.
Joyce Cary
Education is the guardian genius of democracy.
It is the only dictator that free men recognize,
and the only ruler that free men require.
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar
It is the only dictator that free men recognize,
and the only ruler that free men require.
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar
Whatever you want to teach, be brief.
Horace
Horace
To me, education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.
Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark
Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.
Anatole France
Anatole France
The true aim of every one who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions,
but to kindle minds.
F. W. Robertson
but to kindle minds.
F. W. Robertson
He that teaches us anything which we knew not
before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master.
Samuel Johnson
before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master.
Samuel Johnson
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
Chinese Proverb
From Teaching Quotations at Parrot's Meow
I do and I understand.
Chinese Proverb
From Teaching Quotations at Parrot's Meow
Be careful to leave your sons well
instructed rather than rich,
for the hopes of the instructed are better
than the wealth of the ignorant.
Epictetus
instructed rather than rich,
for the hopes of the instructed are better
than the wealth of the ignorant.
Epictetus
I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.
Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest: we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction anil vary the song.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frederic Amiel
Teaching is not a lost art,
but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
Jacques Barzun
but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
Jacques Barzun
Education is the transmission of civilization.
Will Durant
Will Durant
To teach is to learn twice over.
Joseph Joubert
Joseph Joubert
A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe,
and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
Newton D. Baker
and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
Newton D. Baker
One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes
change a delinquent into a solid citizen.
Philip Wylie
change a delinquent into a solid citizen.
Philip Wylie
A child miseducated is a child lost.
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
A master can tell you what he expects of you.
A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
Patricia Neal
A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
Patricia Neal
And one silly quote just for fun....
Never try to teach a pig to sing....it wastes
your time and annoys the pig.
Anonymous
your time and annoys the pig.
Anonymous
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