We encourage you to learn more about cookies on our site in our Privacy policy and Terms of Use. To find out more about cookies on this website and how to change your cookie settings, see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Unfortunately, this second responsibility can be overlooked by their institutions and PIs, who often fail to provide them with teaching support.
We recently spoke with Barbara Houtz, a former teacher and current K—20 STEM specialist who runs an online Scientists Teaching Science course, about the challenges facing first-time teachers. Why should scientists strive to improve their teaching skills? This is especially problematic for minority and first generation students, who come to college excited about a STEM major. They have the energy and the interest, but they're faced with professors who sometimes think it's their job to fail half of the class.
They teach in very traditional manners with lectures and very little interactions. This preferentially harms underrepresented minorities and first generation college students. This causes them to have unreasonably high, sometimes irrational, expectations of their students. I tell people that lecturing is not teaching. I push myself to be better than I thought I could and I surround myself with people whom I see as better than me to keep pushing me.
That's a professional learning community and it's one of the great joys of education. There are three different types of good teachers, and I use a slightly religious metaphor to describe them: A. Prophets: They love the art and skill of delivering information in a way that is compelling, clear, and effective. They love researching, learning, developing, creating new ways of explaining something; they love the light bulb moment when a student finally sees what they've been trying to explain.
Teaching, to them, is a craft and one that is intellectual. Priests: They love the counselling, the advising, the relationship building, the classroom community. They want to hear their students' opinions and care deeply that they have made an impact on their students' emotional and social development. Kings: They love the administration, the organisation, the scaffolding, the structure behind teaching.
They love graphic organisers, notetaking, study skills; helping students choose the right classes, go to college, etc. They often rise to administrative positions because they're just so good at it.
I'm a priest. My husband is a prophet. However, you need all three. I think of it this way: I can't do anything other than being a teacher. I'm not good at anything else. I don't love anything else. At the end of the day, being a teacher is central to my identity and without it, I would really struggle to feel professionally fulfilled. There are a lot of people who are in love with the IDEA of education - 30 angelic, adoring faces starting up at you, desperate to glean the pearls of wisdom you so sagely drop from your mouth when they least expect it Summer school just ended last Thursday.
I am already planning and looking forward to the first day of school. I can't wait. THAT is what being a teacher is all about.
My instinct is telling me that you should take the plunge. My instinct is usually pretty good with new teachers. Please Memail me if you'd like to talk further. And good luck. What about private school teaching? Salaries can be lower because there are lots of candidates and free tuition for your own kids is considered compensation , but the type of stress you are worried about would probably be much lower,too, and that might make up for it.
If you were going to go that route, though, it might be worth talking to a recruiter about qualifications first. I can't offer any advice about the profession, but I'd say you should ask yourself this: Did you like school?
All through school, I had considered teaching to be a reasonable fallback career for me. I think lots of smart kids think this - you're exposed to teachers far more than you are to other professionals, you figure it's a secure job that will always be in reasonable demand though not so much right now.
I quickly disabused myself of this notion when I graduated from college and, living life without school, realized how much I hated it.
I always kind of knew this, but not having to be in school anymore really hammered it home. Seeing as teaching is, on some level, like being in school all the time, it stands to reason that I'd be a pretty miserable teacher. I'm not saying don't do it, but the world has more than enough half-assed teachers who are going through the motions.
You do want to be like them. Think about this carefully. Please do not become a teacher if you genuinely are not sure if you want to be one. I am going through a multiple subject masters and credential program at an incredible university.
I know, deep in my heart, that I am there for two reasons: one, because education is a hugely important part of my life, and two, because I know that I want to be part of the reformation of American schooling more desperately than anything else. The purpose of education in the United States is, for the most part, to oppress, and to reproduce social class.
Are you prepared to deal with inequity in your classroom? Are you prepared to work with students from a variety of cultures and do everything in your power to make sure that their respective experiences with science at the high school level equip them with more than just factual knowledge, and that you do not stereotype or diminish someone's experience based on ethnicity, sex, social class, or anything else?
Are you ready to deal with all the shit that high school generally entails, which includes but is not limited to: cliques, apathy, passive aggressive behavior, obstinate behavior, over achieving, desperation, and, when possible, those few students who are genuinely there to learn and improve themselves? If yes, okay. Maybe you'd do better at a multiple subject credential instead. You could be a 5th or 6th grade teacher, still have the chance to do science, but also have some time to do social studies.
I'm not sure. Just don't become a teacher because you assume it's a job that comes with a decent paycheck if you're not familiar with the realities of American education today. I'm a teacher. I wasn't certain what I wanted to do either; I had worked in radio, public tv, advertising, a whole bunch of things.
Liked many; didn't love any. Went to work as a substitute teacher one day and it was truly a lightning bolt feeling of, "Oh, I get it; this is what I want to do. I have to. If there's no resonance and feeling that it's the greatest job ever, then don't do it.
You will Despite being incredibly passionate about my subject matter, loving the kids, having really great colleagues and being successful at my work according to my kids and colleagues at least , I burned out in 4 years of public school teaching and when I was in my credential program, I smugly told myself that I would not be one of those people. While it was a fantastic experience that I am so glad I had and wow, do I miss my kids!
It's never been an easy profession, but in the current climate, I cannot recommend anyone become a teacher unless the fire burns in their heart with the power of ten supernovas. If you're doing your job right delivering rigorous content via project based learning, differentiated for various student needs , you'll be working hours a week, roughly.
You will have no real breaks in the teaching day and will be performing for hours straight. As of , the last year federal, nationwide data is available, alternative routes represented a third of all teacher-training programs nationwide.
Alternative programs are often faster than traditional teacher-prep programs and are driven by the idea that new teachers are more effective if they learn mostly by doing. Teacher-retention rates vary by program. Others see benefits to alternative programs. They tend to draw more career changers and non-education majors like Reddy, and experts hope that such programs, especially those that aim to fill shortages in areas like math and science, can draw more content experts to teaching and improve academic outcomes for students.
Reddy is an anomaly among K science teachers in that he has a degree in science. A report found that only 26 percent of middle-school science teachers hold a degree in science or engineering.
The science background helps him in the classroom, Reddy said, not only with content but in building relationships with students. Reddy was walking around the classroom quickly, dressed in a blue and red plaid blazer and navy-blue dress pants. Although he had yet to complete his first month of teaching, Reddy had already established rules for the class.
If students dared to talk to their neighbors, they spoke in a whisper. He stopped to answer a question for one student, checked his watch and told students to put their pencils down. Students dropped their pencils and raised their hands to share answers. He pointed to the second part of the question, displayed on the electronic whiteboard in the front of his classroom.
Reddy offered another example. You only have a little energy left. Then you eat lunch and get energy and you run around on the field and you come [back] and you drive all your teachers nuts. In the front of the room, several students chatted with each other.
About half the students clapped back. Jeffrey D. Karpicke and Henry L. Pooja K. Agarwal et al. John Dunlosky et al. Linda Darling-Hammond and Frank Adamson. Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, Can the U.
The Editors; Science Agenda, August Michael Wysession is a professor of seismology at Washington University in St. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.
See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Read more from this special report: Building the 21st-Century Learner. Why have we thought that this process would work with teaching science to children?
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