Monday, January 26, 2009
How much is enough?
So as I sit here after math class and everyone being long gone, a question keeps going through my mind... How much is enough? Robin brought up the fact that many teachers only have a "2" on the Vanhealy (?) geometry scale so how are their students going to get to a "3" to make it in that subject in later grades? Some of us already are realizing that we do not know enough math for what the kids need to learn these days while some of us can solve the most advanced problems. I realize that teachers need to be well rounded in all subject matters but how much is enough? I think of all the classes we have taken and I wonder...Do I know enough about multi-cultural education? Literacy? Do I know my diphthongs from my phonemes? How are my mapping skills? History? Maybe it's not that I wonder if I know enough, it's if I know enough of the "right" stuff. Yes, my brain is full of useless trivia and I do realize that I am a relatively intelligent person but I still am left feeling inadequate at times. I am sure I am not alone in this as others have expressed the same concerns. Do teachers who have been in the profession for many years still feel this way? Do we ever truly know enough? Obviously we as teachers need to constantly be learning as well but is professional development really enough to keep teachers up to date on everything? Then you throw in technology and i wonder if many teachers really know enough to be teaching the future of our country. Not looking to solve the problems of the universe here or really expect any tangible answers but just putting down some of my thoughts...
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3 comments:
Oh I agree completely! I wonder all the time if I know enough to teach these kids. This week I got thrown into teaching a lesson on adjectives. I started out explaining that an adjective describes a noun. “ What’s a noun?” “ A person, place or thing.” ( at this point I am feeling pretty good about my knowledge – very confident) We start picking out nouns from the text. I tell them the mouse in the story is a noun. “ But it isn’t a person, place or thing, so why is it a noun?” I have a ring of blank puzzled faces around me. “ Well, a noun is a person, place, thing or animal, I amend.” ( I am starting to falter a little. I clearly remember being told a noun is a person, place or thing, but they are right, what about animals? What else isn’t covered by this rule?)
After we pick out a few more nouns, we move onto adjectives. “ Running”. “ No, running is a verb. An adjective describes the noun. “ But the mouse is running.” “ Yes but it should tell you more about the mouse. What kind of mouse is it? “ “ It is the running kind.” ( ok-- I’m beyond faltering , moving into floundering.) I try to pick out a few adjectives to give them examples…two, grey, happy. “ Why is happy an adjective and running isn’t?” “ um……. Because it is an action, it isn’t describing the mouse. The adjective is right before the noun, so it is a happy mouse.” “ so if it said it was the running mouse would it be an adjective” HELP! ABORT< ABORT< Danger< Danger --- approaching too many questions for my brain.
Is it an adjective then? I don’t know. This is only 2nd grade! I am supposed to be smarter than them. I am supposed to know this stuff well enough to teach them, right? And I am not even positive when a verb becomes an adjective, or could it possibly have become an adverb?
I have added studying the parts of speech to my list of things to brush up on.
I look at teaching as being similar to the field of medicine. There are pros and cons for having a new physician just as their are for going to a physician with many years "under their belt". Yes, the experienced physician may recognize symptoms a "newbie" might overlook but that "newbie" has spent years learning all about the latest in everything medical. The same can be said about experienced and "newbie" teachers. My current master teacher has been teaching for over 20 years and has almost no knowlege of teaching with technology. She also is teaching a new math and science curriculum this year and is really struggling. We were talking the other day about teachers falling back on bad habits in the classroom. So, we haven't been teaching long enough to have created bad habits. However, I must say that yes, I do very often feel extremely inadequate. I spend a lot of time studying the math being taught to the 6th graders in my placement, enter class feeling prepared and then a student calls me over and asks me a problem and I have no idea what to tell her. I have fallen back on the old "work together with your neighbor" to find the answer. And, I do like to encourage them to work together, but, recently there was a situation where all of the neighbors had the same question. This is where I admitted that I was not sure and went to find out the answer, from my master teacher, before I ended up messing them up.
This brings up another question...I feel strongly about being honest with the kids so they can relate to me as a person but I was told not to tell the students that I didn't know how to do the math; that I would lose all credibility. So, do I lose credibility, or do they begin to see that even teachers don't know everything. Do we let that secret out of the bag?!
We have so many readings I don't remember where I read the following but we recently read about how teachers learn from their students throughout their careers. I think we will be in big trouble when teachers begin to feel they have nothing more to learn.
I agree completely as well. I think professional development is key regarding your concerns. Staying up date as professionals will hopefully make things much easier on us!
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