Thursday, March 5, 2009
What of this book business?
So here I am in my new placement and although I think the cooperating teacher is a swell character, I find that his teaching is dry and baron. He teachers from the book , to the test, and lacks passion. Furthermore, his stundents don’t seem to respect him at all. I had heard about teaching from the book as a big no no and a practice done by the dinosaurs, but this man is young..Where did his passion go, or did he have any to begin with? I find myself picking his brain fo knowledge of the content, but not for teaching tips. Anyone seen this sort of thing in their placement?
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I have the same problem in my placements. I have been trying to adapt more activities that my cooperating teacher is willing to let me do. For instance in my health class i am doing a charater building unit while he is teaching sex ed from the book. it seems to work out because i get to do fun activities with my students and he gets to be his boring self. But don't upset your cooperating teacher by doing things with out asking.
ReplyDeleteMy B placement teacher is somewhat this way, but he has the students respect. One of the kids told us the other day that it is his favorite class even though it is also his hardest one. Anyway, my teacher has a health class during 7th period. He plays a CD with a person reading from the text as the students read along. It is very worksheet driven. The science classes are not nearly as dry, but he does teach to the OAKS test. At first I was really put off by that. After spending some time in the class, however, I have come to appreciate what he is doing and why. His reasoning is that the content the State of Oregon wants us to teach is valid and not unlike what he would teach anyway. He uses techniques that are preparing the students to be successful test takers as well as understanding the content adequately. Since our society is embracing high stakes testing more and more I think it is good to prepare the students to be good test takers. There is only so much content a middle school student can wade through anyway and there is nothing inherently wrong with the goals the state has set out for us.
ReplyDeleteAre you finding the students prefer your style to his? I am trying to avoid it as much as possible but I also have to be my corny self. I have fun teaching and want the kids to have fun learning. I can see how the students in your class are benefiting from having both of you in there - his method of teaching sex ed must be really funny! I keep hearing the teacher's voice from Ferris Bueller when I think of it!
My students share with me things that take place in other classes. One teacher is famous for just assigning problems from a math book, and returning to his desk. Period. They like it because they can play their iPods while working, but hmmmmmm. What I find are a few teachers who do teach from the book, and give quizzes and tests, others that have all kinds of activities going on. My cooperating teacher taught beginning drawing from a workbook that the kids and I hated. They were bored, and behavior was not so good. As soon as they got into their own drawings and projects, they were engaged, and behavior was not much of an issue. I know from that experience that I do not want to teach from a workbook!!
ReplyDeleteMy teacher is the exact same, but sixty five. She is sweet and loves the kids, but does not teach with passion and does not leave the book. I talked with a teacher who has been teaching for three years and he told me he has lost a lot of his passion because the students do not care no matter how hard he tries.
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