Let me first start this blog by saying, Wow, I'm surprised at how much technology we are being asked to incorporate into our training as teachers of the new millenium. It is not that I am overwhelmed by the amount of work that goes into it, but it's just stunning to me how little I relied on technology as a high school student just a decade ago, and how much we are being told students need it now. I take pride in being the first generation to really use computers in the classroom, but I really wonder about the long term effects it will have on students as it is at the forefront of what they will now rely on to get them through a lesson.
Frankly, I've known how to use much of the technology that we've used so far in this class, EDT 610; I guess that is really not a testament to me, but rather to the Microsoft and Adobe suites, as they are fairly universal and come in multiple versions that are all roughly the same. I actually remember when I was first introduced to the new generation of computers as a middle schooler in the mid
'90s, and there was a practical war among platforms that seemed to be all about which corporation controlled the user rather than actually making anything user friendly.
Anyway, enough of that, and onto the questions I was prompted to answer...
This semester has been a great challenge to me, specifically because it's finally made me think hard about becoming a teacher. I was not naive enough to think that being a teacher was coming into a room blind for nine months a year and then having a nice vacation during the three warmest months. However, I continue to be surprised at how much paperwork and political correctness seriously goes into this job -- not to mention keeping a constant straight face when you find out how ill-informed and dependant some of these kids really are.
I'll show you what I mean. Here's a clip from a cool movie I found a couple of years ago before I decided to go into teaching. Initially, I thought it was funny... Now...
I am not trying to chastise, however some teachers' jobs do get called into question because admistrators confuse chastising with occupational frustration. I have just come to the conclusion that being a teacher is a full time job, even BEFORE you are placed somewhere. Before I began this program -- and, really, this semester -- I believed that a teacher just had to learn their content area and a few rules about classroom management, and then the real work came when they were placed into a job and had to figure out their own teaching method from the context it gave them.
It is not true.
More than two months into the semester, I am still surprised at all they want us to know about how to be a teacher before we even step into the classroom. I have become a very mixed bag of groceries this semester, as I contemplate becoming a teacher, and whather or not it is good for me to get this frustrated with the profession before I even get a job. I feel I need less classroom theory and more on-the-job training, which I am kind of getting this semester as I am observing wiht a wonderful teacher at Ramsey High School. I feel that is really my only source of education right now, as it gives me a practical floor with which to park myself on, rather than a theoretical platform where all is well-and-good because it is not tried.
I hope things change by my next blog, or else something is gonna give.
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