Wednesday, April 27, 2005

HELP????

Ok...I’m in this stoooopid class, that I should not be in, on education. To be full time(which was necessary) I needed one more course. It was EDU or auto body repair and...well the choice was pretty simple. I figured that if nothing else, I would learn a few things that could help me with home schooling my boys...Good Gravy, was I ever delusional.

As Draye pointed out after reading a letter the teacher sent me...the instructor can’t even spell and makes little sense half the time. She seems like a nice enough lady...just seriously knows fuck all about computers, typing and grammar(Not that I am a genius or anything, but you should see some of the assignment instructions...I need a decoder ring!).

Anyway, point is, I need help...I am supposed to survey 5 adults who are not involved in education to get their views on teaching as a profession. I need to know:

•What benefits do you feel teachers obtain from their professional involvement?

•What images of teachers and teaching emerge?

•How do you account for these views?

If anyone has any sort of input to offer here it would help me out a lot.

9 comments:

crystaltwiiight said...

Well They get to meet people instead of staying in their little homes and doing nothing all day. not to mention they get supposively medical benifits. or so my highschool teachers said. im not sure about what she wants from that 2nd question im a bit confused........ What views? im lost... sowwie i cant be anymore help but... im not all there in my head today!

disturbedgraves said...

I think she means...when you think of teachers, what comes to mind? The third question is basiclly WHY do these thoughts come to mind when you think of teachers.

crystaltwiiight said...

I think Teachers are kids that were deprived in their youth so they become teachers so they can tourture kids... and when i think of teachers i think of all those really big reports i had to do and the Translate macbeth into modern english.... and the 92 page report on John steinbeck.. i think they intend to torture us and learn more things than they had to learn because they are supposively "forced" to teach us these things..... Because thats what happeneds 99% of the time. theres only 1% of teachers that pity what they have to do to you and actually cut you some slack those are the nice teachers ^.^ but yep thats my response to the 3 questions :)

scribblekitten said...

Ok, my two cents

What benefits do you feel teachers obtain from their professional involvement?

They get the feeling of accomplishment when they see their students learning and using their things they taught in class. To many teachers, sharing of learned experiences and knowledge is a gift of love and caring and to them it is the highest example of expressing their concern for future generations. Some teachers, teach because they cannot be a part of the field or area of expertise they love, or that for some reason they can no longer work at due to retirement or other reasons. So for these teachers, it a way to stay close to the work they enjoy and the things they know. For others it as simple as economics, teaching to earn a living while working toward other life goals.

Whatever the reason they teach, teachers in the US at least work under a license in the state they work and are classified as civil servants. This grants them many benefits, such as standardized work schedules and pay; cost of living increases; medical, dental, prescription insurance plans; live insurance; retirement packets; pay vacation time and sick leave and union representation.

•What images of teachers and teaching emerge?

My images of teachers are a varied as the people who the title includes. Teachers are human being and each comes with his or her own way of expressing or relating the knowledge they wish to impart. Each has their own values and morals which reflects in the things they teach. So there can't be single uniform image for teachers to me.

But if pressed, I will say to me a teacher, is: someone who takes the time, is willing and patience, tough and thorough when necessary, but gentle and understanding when needed to open the doors to knowledge. This person must have an honest desire to impart knowledge and expand the minds of those willing to learn and to help those who
struggle to learn, but fall to the wayside. A teacher gives of themselves to help others so that a little of them lives on in student they have helped. Doing this not for person gains or money, but for the sense of accomplishment and the knowledge that they have made a difference in someone's life.

•How do you account for these views?

By having the pleasure to have been taught by some the greatest teachers I know at home and during my education. Also by a teacher myself and teaching others, not in a school room full of children, but rooms full of adults who lacked the basics because of teachers who taught for other reasons. I also know this by seeing the results of what a truly good teacher can accomplish.

scribblekitten said...

Re: Ok, my two cents

Sorry for all the typos...just tossed this out without proofreading it or spell checking it first. Now after reading over it...::dies from embarassment:: geeeze.

mythicized said...

1) I think the most important benefit that teachers (should) gain from their professional environment and involvement is the knowledge that they themselves acquire. Especially concerning junior high and high school (and even moreso college), teachers are required to not only know but be fluent in the material they teach, presenting themselves as experts to instill confidence in the students. If a teacher seems hesitant or obviously hasn't prepared, the students lose respect and begin to doubt the teacher knows what s/he is doing. I believe knowledge is extremely important, and I hold great respect for true intellectuals.

Teachers also need excellent communication skills with which they convey their lessons to their students clearly and comprehensibly. This comes with practice, of course, and the skill develops over the course of years a teacher spends in the school environment. Teachers learn from their students in this manner, relying on questions asked and resulting grades so that they may take into consideration how they need to improve.

2) I see teachers as role-models. Not all teachers, of course, but overall I think that's what they should be. The actual teaching is often times tedious, but I look back on my days in grade school all the way through high school, and it's impossible not to realize how much that teaching has paid off. I like to view teachers as scholars and intellectuals whom I look up to as a figure of authority in their given fields. If a teacher is someone I find I can't respect or trust to in the very least know what s/he's talking about, I've discovered it becomes very difficult to learn very much from him or her.

3) I've always considered myself something of a teacher's pet. All through elementary school, every single year, I'd spend recesses helping my teacher because I never connected well with my peers. I've always liked getting to know my teachers and wanting to be more like them, and I adored the idea of someday commanding the respect that many of them gained from me.

I had one particular teacher in high school - my philosophy teacher junior year - who impacted my life more than any other. I'd always had a passion for knowledge, but she brought that out in me to the extreme. She showed me it wasn't such a strange or bad thing to love learning. She helped me work on my photographic memory and made me realize that it didn't matter what other people thought of things like my perfectionist demeanor. She is almost single-handedly responsible for how much I loved my last two years of high school, and certainly impacted what I chose to do with my life afterward and where to go to college. If my confidence in teachers had dwindled in years before, which to some degree it had during junior high, she restored it tenfold.
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I uh...hope that helps? I know I kinda rambled, so I hope that made some semblance of sense...even if my thoughts are all disorganized. x)

serephent said...

((good lord, you are right, she really can't write! Those questions are not worded well at all, but here goes..))

•What benefits do you feel teachers obtain from their professional involvement?

I should think a sense of completion. Let's face it, they get little else. They have to take pride in shaping young minds and the person reward they get from inspiring a young person to want to learn and go on to do great things with their lives.


•What images of teachers and teaching emerge?

I suppose I think of the graying professor in geeky glasses standing at the front of the classroom, when I think in general terms. When I am thinking specifics, I always think of my junior high English teacher. A woman that most people hated, but that I cannot thank enough. That woman inspired me to write and encouraged it. Unlike most, she never wrinkled her nose at me handing in stories about dragons and knights. She looked past my atrocious English skills (which, thankfully (hopefully) have gotten better with time) and took the story and nourished that. So, when I think I a teacher, I picture Ms. Bane.

•How do you account for these views?

Well, obviously, from my own experience. Everyone thinks of teachers based on their own love (or hatred) of learning and their experienced, both good and bad, with the teachers they have had in the course of their lives. I have had some I hated with a passion, but I do my best to block them out and just think about the ones that I loved, that encouraged my passion for learning.

disturbedgraves said...

Oh my god...you don’t even know the half of it. I have to call David in constantly or ask Draye or someone to decipher some of the speak this woman gives me.

infinite_loser said...

teachers

Teachers greatest benefit is the satisfaction of a job well done. Preparing students for their future.

I usually get images of old marms in beehives and guys with glasses and elbow patches on their jacket.

I know these images are TV clichés, but then again every school I ever went to had at least one of each.