Item the first: MTC.
We've been at it about two weeks now, and it's been fairly intense. The first few days were mostly introduction, but now that we've started into the summer school I'm acutely aware of how little time we have. In college courses it would occur to me now and again to wonder if I was actually getting "educated" enough, and if, after taking 12 or 20 or 48 more classes I'd know enough to justify receiving a degree, but this feels like a whole different ballgame.
My thesis professor laughed at the idea of me in an "education" curriculum, at how easy it would inevitably be, but the pressure is so much higher here because every day, even as we're learning to plan lessons and about which state tests we'll have to get our students to pass and why, I am facing head on for the first time the realization that these kids' EDUCATION is in some small way my responsibility. And the thing is, there are no ready answers. Even if I understood everything they're teaching me, even if I had no doubts that a young, small, white girl could control a class of high schoolers, even if I knew the format of a lesson plan like the back of my hand, those are all just TOOLS and ultimately it is UP TO ME to figure out really what to teach these kids.
And that's a big deal. And yes, there are state guidelines, and yes, I am surrounded by resources and people who know so much more about this than I do but ultimately, come august, I'm going to close that classroom door and decide what my kids are going to learn.
Assuming that I've assimilated enough experience in our brief 8 weeks of training to take care of all the technicalities.
My thesis professor laughed at the idea of me in an "education" curriculum, at how easy it would inevitably be, but the pressure is so much higher here because every day, even as we're learning to plan lessons and about which state tests we'll have to get our students to pass and why, I am facing head on for the first time the realization that these kids' EDUCATION is in some small way my responsibility. And the thing is, there are no ready answers. Even if I understood everything they're teaching me, even if I had no doubts that a young, small, white girl could control a class of high schoolers, even if I knew the format of a lesson plan like the back of my hand, those are all just TOOLS and ultimately it is UP TO ME to figure out really what to teach these kids.
And that's a big deal. And yes, there are state guidelines, and yes, I am surrounded by resources and people who know so much more about this than I do but ultimately, come august, I'm going to close that classroom door and decide what my kids are going to learn.
Assuming that I've assimilated enough experience in our brief 8 weeks of training to take care of all the technicalities.
posted by Miss Marshwater at 3:16 PM
2 Comments:
Great post. You are exactly right. What differentiates teaching from almost any other profession is that you are responsible for 200 other people. It can be overwhelming at times. Traditional education classes may be a joke but teaching 200 kids is defintely not. However, as I've said in class, the difficulty is what makes it so rewarding.
You are right. It is all up to you. I have to disagree with Ben a little bit. Traditional education classes are not exactly a joke. As a traditionally trained teacher I can tell you that my four years of course work prepared me pretty well to face a classroom full of students. It was up to me, however, to use the information I was given.
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