A Dialogue about Teaching
This is a site to discuss better education for all, so here is a discussion about teaching.
As faithful readers know, we have had a discussion here about the Relay Graduate School of Education and its methods. It trains teachers for charter schools. See here and here and here and here.
Carol Corbett Burris objected to its narrow pedagogy. I objected to the very fact that it is a “graduate school of education” since its faculty includes no scholars, it teaches nothing other than classroom management and data analysis, it offers no courses in the foundations of education, nothing about cognitive psychology or sociology or economics or history, just one way to teach. To my way of thinking, Relay is a teaching program, not a graduate school of education. I would like to hear someone from Relay explain on what grounds they call themselves a
A Veteran Teacher Says 5 Weeks Is Not Enough
As faithful readers know, we have had a discussion here about the Relay Graduate School of Education and its methods. It trains teachers for charter schools. See here and here and here and here.
Carol Corbett Burris objected to its narrow pedagogy. I objected to the very fact that it is a “graduate school of education” since its faculty includes no scholars, it teaches nothing other than classroom management and data analysis, it offers no courses in the foundations of education, nothing about cognitive psychology or sociology or economics or history, just one way to teach. To my way of thinking, Relay is a teaching program, not a graduate school of education. I would like to hear someone from Relay explain on what grounds they call themselves a
A Veteran Teacher Says 5 Weeks Is Not Enough
A reader states her view of Teach for America’s claim that five weeks of training is enough to make their corps members “highly qualified teachers”:
I graduated college in 1965 with a degree in education. My first two years were liberal arts and my last two years were education classes focusing on various subjects like social studies, math, reading, etc. In those days you didn’t need much in the way of classroom management because it was not a major issue. My third year in college all my education classes required me to visit different schools and observe master teachers who had agreed to allow students to observe them. We came back to class to reflect on what we saw. We collected resources. My last year of college required me to do 4 days a week of student teaching and one day a week in cohort to discuss our experiences. I worked one semester in a 4th grade class in the lower east side of
Report from Florida: Fight Them or Join Them?
I graduated college in 1965 with a degree in education. My first two years were liberal arts and my last two years were education classes focusing on various subjects like social studies, math, reading, etc. In those days you didn’t need much in the way of classroom management because it was not a major issue. My third year in college all my education classes required me to visit different schools and observe master teachers who had agreed to allow students to observe them. We came back to class to reflect on what we saw. We collected resources. My last year of college required me to do 4 days a week of student teaching and one day a week in cohort to discuss our experiences. I worked one semester in a 4th grade class in the lower east side of
Report from Florida: Fight Them or Join Them?
A reader reflects on the rapid advance of privatization in Florida, which has been abetted by the hard demands of the state’s high-stakes testing regime:
Having been in education in FL for over 30 years, it is gut wrenching to me to watch what is going on. Jeb Bush and his band of merry men (and women) have taken over public education in FL. Some of the best and most innovative public educators I have known are now working for him or one of his groups. I am beginning to think folks in FL have decided the privatization of public education in FL is inevitable, and our best shot at helping kids is to get involved now in that transition to make sure there will be some folks in those private enterprises
Having been in education in FL for over 30 years, it is gut wrenching to me to watch what is going on. Jeb Bush and his band of merry men (and women) have taken over public education in FL. Some of the best and most innovative public educators I have known are now working for him or one of his groups. I am beginning to think folks in FL have decided the privatization of public education in FL is inevitable, and our best shot at helping kids is to get involved now in that transition to make sure there will be some folks in those private enterprises
