@aragorn546: What do you teach? I have a friend who is a history major with a minor in education and the other is a linguistics major with a minor in early childhood.
I'm 22 and have been bumming around in Asia for years as an English Teacher.
All of you went and got that degree for nothing! I make the same salary you make with the added bonus of getting to live in places like Taipei and Tokyo!
I personally did not get and education undergraduate degree, i got one in creative writing. BFA ftw.
I became a teacher through the NYC teaching fellows program which is currently paying for my education masters. I find Education classes to be the most useless things on this planet. They will almost never have any real bearing on your teaching. Your knowledge of content and personality are what guide you as a teacher.
I currently teach seventh grade english, my license is 7-12 so i may be looking to do high school in a few years. Junior high, especially in NY, is a crazy ass age group to teach. Last year I taught Eighth grade and a good majority of my students were 16 or so.
Teaching abroad sounds awesome, a friend of mine did it in japan and she loved it.
and for those who do teach: do you ever bring your love of games into the classroom? I've used Ezio from AC2 to model an example of a character in a man vs. society conflict and used god of war as an introduction to my unit on Greek mythology. Both times it grabbed their attention (my students are now all freaks for different mythologies) and seems to have given my opinion mor weight with them.
@aragorn546: Nice, I'm currently signed up for an Urban Teacher Residency Program in Newark. I'm sure teaching in the city gets crazy, but Newark's right there with it.
@Warfare: This is why i teach 7-12th grade. They are more tollerable the less likely they are to pee themselves. Also, it is why everyone in the public bitches about how easy teachers have it, but when suggested that they then too should become teachers turn around and say "god no, I'd be fired on day one"
I foolishly dropped out of real work to do a post-grad year-long GTP to become an ICT teacher, then went on to teach in a grammar school for 3 years; becoming head of ICT and Computing in my last year there.
I found teaching to be a complete nightmare of a career. The teaching side of things was good, if repetitive (even after 3 years!), but there were some severe difficulties to me continuing my career as an ICT and computing teacher:
1. The mindless bureaucracy, stone-age methods and systems used in UK schools today (and I'm talking about the good ones) is over-bearing. In order to do the job according to the government job specification, teachers don't have enough time in the week to do any of it to any degree of quality, so either work themselves silly, or muddle through.
2. Teaching methods are entirely prescriptive nowadays, so inspiring students to learn is set-aside in favour of learning a very rigid and broad set of facts with no variation, or depth - by rote. In my subject (ICT and to a lesser extent to computing) much of the information taught is out-dated, irrelevant and some oft incorrect. In my particular case, the department had only 3 full-time IT teachers (in a school of 700 boys), the rest being either learning support staff or lad techs.
3. The teaching profession is spoiled by government intervention and unionization, so creativity, free exchange of ideas, or senses of teamwork just don't exist, like they do in other industries. Instead, I found a wall of bureaucracy, empire building, blame shifting, belly-aching and doom.
3. I had a particularly bad experience and tragic (among an unexpectedly huge variety of other job-related) circumstances that made my job intolerable. I chose to work at a classic grammar school, where IT was a low priority and the headmaster was a technophobic bully. At least I've now got a permanent teaching qualification I suppose, which is useful in potentially getting me supply work anywhere in the country, should I ever need to resort to it.
@Warfare: This is why i teach 7-12th grade. They are more tollerable the less likely they are to pee themselves. Also, it is why everyone in the public bitches about how easy teachers have it, but when suggested that they then too should become teachers turn around and say "god no, I'd be fired on day one" "
:(
But kids are at their cutest when their under the age of 10!
I'm the opposite of you: I love kids!
..... but I hate teenagers(well, not all of course:P)
@diz: Good to see the UK education system has pretty much the same problems as the NYC one. I hate so much of the bullshit that surrounds the profession. Just let me be a goddamn teacher!
Nope, but it's nice to know that some teachers actually like video games. There's probably only one teacher in my school that actually looks like he does something like that.
I'm a high school math teacher, currently teaching the required 7th grade math through geometry and trigonometry. This is my first full year, but I took over for a teacher last January.
"I personally did not get and education undergraduate degree, i got one in creative writing. BFA ftw. I became a teacher through the NYC teaching fellows program which is currently paying for my education masters. I find Education classes to be the most useless things on this planet. They will almost never have any real bearing on your teaching. Your knowledge of content and personality are what guide you as a teacher. I currently teach seventh grade english, my license is 7-12 so i may be looking to do high school in a few years. Junior high, especially in NY, is a crazy ass age group to teach. Last year I taught Eighth grade and a good majority of my students were 16 or so. Teaching abroad sounds awesome, a friend of mine did it in japan and she loved it. "
You are so right about this. I have been teaching for 6 years and am just now finishing my masters. I took my comps today and the whole process of studying for them has just reiterated how worthless the majority of education classes are. The content area classes are pretty good, but teacher training in this country is long overdue for some sort of reform.
" I'm 22 and have been bumming around in Asia for years as an English Teacher. All of you went and got that degree for nothing! I make the same salary you make with the added bonus of getting to live in places like Taipei and Tokyo! Biggest scam there is. "
I'm just starting the CELTA course next month, but I already have a masters in English lit and a degree in Law so its the best of both worlds. Tokyo here i come
what happened? usually those are good stories. and for those who do teach: do you ever bring your love of games into the classroom? I've used Ezio from AC2 to model an example of a character in a man vs. society conflict and used god of war as an introduction to my unit on Greek mythology. Both times it grabbed their attention (my students are now all freaks for different mythologies) and seems to have given my opinion mor weight with them. Any one else have this experience? "
I'm in my 12th year teaching elementary kids, mostly 5th grade. And I am open with my students about my love for gaming. Most of 'em love video games anyway, and they do dig talking to me about games and movies cuz they know I'm into all that. What's also a blast is on Fridays I give them free time in the comp lab and we play some simple online games(some of these have gotten pretty damn advanced!)and get some competitions going, putting high scores on the whiteboard etc.
Anyway for all you taking the courses or training to teach, here's my advise: you won't really get any practical experience, or actually get a clear idea of how and what the job really entails, 'till your in the classroom. Sub or help out hands on with students, and really pick the brain of your master teachers when that time comes...invaluable experiences that can help you survive the profession, or perhaps even realize it's not for you.
what happened? usually those are good stories. and for those who do teach: do you ever bring your love of games into the classroom? I've used Ezio from AC2 to model an example of a character in a man vs. society conflict and used god of war as an introduction to my unit on Greek mythology. Both times it grabbed their attention (my students are now all freaks for different mythologies) and seems to have given my opinion mor weight with them. Any one else have this experience? "
I'm in my 12th year teaching elementary kids, mostly 5th grade. And I am open with my students about my love for gaming. Most of 'em love video games anyway, and they do dig talking to me about games and movies cuz they know I'm into all that. What's also a blast is on Fridays I give them free time in the comp lab and we play some simple online games(some of these have gotten pretty damn advanced!)and get some competitions going, putting high scores on the whiteboard etc. Anyway for all you taking the courses or training to teach, here's my advise: you won't really get any practical experience, or actually get a clear idea of how and what the job really entails, 'till your in the classroom. Sub or help out hands on with students, and really pick the brain of your master teachers when that time comes...invaluable experiences that can help you survive the profession, or perhaps even realize it's not for you. "
What he said, the actual training courses are next to worthless in terms of what you ACTUALLY DO in a classroom, it's full of theories and theorists on motivation and in my case adnragogy (Adult Learning - though I teach mostly high-school age kids, in the UK that is post-compulsory).
Yes I do take gaming into the classroom, I talk about DnD and DA:O and how the chances to hit are based on dice rolls and use it to teach them simple probability. I am trying to get hold of some DS's so I can use some of the puzzles from Layton that involve ratios to help them with those (they may prove too difficult, but if you don't try...)
Log in to comment