chapter 1 teaching: is it for me?

Fraser TEACH © 2011 McGraw- Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1Teaching: Is it For Me?

Fraser TEACH © 2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Why Do People Become Teachers Today?

• NEA survey results– Desire to work with young people, 73%– Value of education in society, 44%– Interest in a subject-matter field, 36%– Positive influence of a former teacher, 32%


Why Do People Become Teachers Today? • Other reasons:

– Always wanted to be a teacher– Family influence– Job security – Benefits and long summer vacation – A lifetime of learning – Others?


Join the Dialogue

• Why are you interested in teaching?


Why Do Some People Leave Teaching?

Between 40-50% of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years.


Why Do Some People Leave Teaching? • Primary reasons given for leaving

teaching: – Personal reasons– School staffing actions– Other job opportunities– General dissatisfaction: salary, student

discipline problems, and lack of support


Why Do Some People Leaving Teaching?

• Salaries– Teachers have historically low salaries

compared with other professions– However, teachers receive pensions and

great benefits which, along with “priceless” qualities of work, can make up for low pay


Why Do Some People Leaving Teaching?

• Lack of support – The first year of teaching is generally “sink

or swim”– This is changing with many new mentoring

and induction programs


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• The nation’s first teachers

– Many young men entered teaching between graduating college and entering a profession

– Between 1636 and 1776, 40% of Harvard graduates taught at some point during their lives


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• Teaching becomes a woman’s profession

– In 1830, the vast majority of teachers were male. By 1900, 75% of teachers were females

– Catharine Beecher advocated for women to enter teaching profession

– Teaching was an opportunity for middle-class, single women to enter a respectable career

– Women worked for lower pay and were expected to leave the profession if they married


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• The first “Peace Corps”: Teachers in the

Midwest and South – Communities in new territories and states

needed teachers for emerging schools – The Board of National Popular Education

recruited young women as teachers and sent them west to “civilize the frontier”

– After the Civil War, newly freed blacks and Northern teachers taught former slaves


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• Immigration transforms teaching

– Chinese and Japanese immigrants moved to the West Coast. Southern and eastern Europeans immigrated to East Coast

– New students meant new opportunities and challenges for teachers

• Many established residents wanted new immigrants “Americanized”

• Needed more teachers for the influx of new students


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• Progressive education

– Part of a larger effort to improve the quality of American, especially urban, life

– Belief that students learn best when practicing real-life activities while engaging with a community of learners

– John Dewey wanted to create school communities which were “worthy, lovely, and harmonious” for the students


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• The emergence of high schools

– The majority of students did not attend high school until the 1930s

– Not until 1950s that a majority of students graduated from high school

– High school teachers enjoyed greater prestige and higher pay


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• Movements of the 1960’s

– The Peace Corps brought teachers from U.S. to underdeveloped regions

– Teachers began to be required to complete a baccalaureate degree prior to teaching

– Women were given greater job freedom across all professions

– Civil Rights movement


What Has Motivated People to Teach at Different Times in the Past?• Effects of the Civil Rights Movement

– Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, many African-American teachers lost their jobs as schools were integrated

– Teachers could no longer let disadvantaged students “slip through the cracks,” but had to provide effective teaching to all students, regardless of race, disability, or income


Should I Be a Teacher?

• Ask yourself: – Why am I considering teaching? – How will I find out if teaching is right for

me? • You may not know the answer until you

spend time working in a classroom


What About Me?

• What about teaching most appeals to you?

• What excites you when you think about standing in front of your own classroom?

• What is the least appealing thing about teaching? What about it scares you?


Reading: From To Teach, The Journey of A Teacher by William Ayers• Gives reasons for not teaching

– Low salary, low professional status, complex and difficult working conditions

• Ayers began teaching at an alternative school in 1965 and believed, then and now, that teaching was (and is) a way to change the world

• Ayers concludes: • “Teaching can still be world-changing work. Crusading

teachers are still needed—in fact, we are needed now more than ever…And this, I believe, is finally the reason to teach…I teach in the hope of making the world a better place.”


Reading: “The Colors and Strands of Teaching” by Melinda Pellerin-Duck

• Lifelong teacher who believes students need to have an active role in their learning

• Exalts in the joys of teaching and when asked why she continues teaching, answers:

• “…I teach because I see extraordinary possibilities in my students. I could not see myself doing anything else but teaching; it is my vocation.”

• Subverts the popular saying: “Those who can’t, teach” by claiming that only those who can, teach:

• “Those who can, find joy walking into a room with open minds. They teach. Those who can, take students from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can.’ They teach.”


Reading: “The Wrong Solution to the Teacher Shortage” by Richard M. Ingersoll and Thomas M. Smith• Demand for new teachers stems from

increasing students and retiring teachers, though these reasons are only secondary to the problem of teacher attrition– 40% to 50% of new teachers leave in the first 5

years in the profession • Teacher shortage won’t be alleviated by

recruitment, but rather, teacher retention efforts – Support from school administration, teacher-

mentor programs, improved working conditions


Reading: From The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching by Herbert Kohl

• Characteristics of “schools and classrooms of hope”

• “Staff, parents, and community are in common accord that every child can learn”

• “They are safe and welcome places…”• “Teachers and staff are delighted to work and free to

innovate…willing to take responsibility for students’ achievement”

• Kohl’s goals: – To challenge students with new material and

intellectual programs– To understand how to deal with youth rage and

violence and use understanding for students’ benefit

chapter 1 teaching: is it for me?

Documents

mcgrawhill higher education

value of education

mcgraw hill higher education

new teachers

lives fraser

young people

northern teachers

teaching professionteaching