AMA about Teaching -the Art, the Science, and the Profession

[DrMikey]

What would you say to someone who's going to be looking for a job in the field in the next few years?

I'd say talk to a lot of teachers, and make it a wide variety, from ones who have been teaching for decades to ones that only have a few years of experience under their belts. Get a bigger, fuller perspective.

I'd also recommend that they be politically aware and active at many levels, from local to regional, state to federal, as teaching policies are being defined and redefined at each of these levels fairly frequently these days.

As these policies directly affect their careers and livelihoods, it would behoove them to take an active role in the shaping of such policies.

[Mikel]

Teachers look forward to 3 day weekends as much, if not more than, their students.

This is also a good read:
http://www.themillions.com/2014/01/the- ... dents.html

Common Core has some good aspects to it, but the over-reliance on standardized testing is leading to a shallowing out of education, particularly in those areas that encourage life-long learning.

[Chad]

So as a parent of a 1st grader (a little ways off from High School ) what can I do to make his teachers job easier and better for both them and my boy?

[Mikel]

The best thing:
Instill in them that education is important.
That reading is good.
That thinking makes you smarter, which makes you better.
That it takes courage to ask the question everyone has.
To ask for clarification, when needed.
To get extra help when you need it.
To give extra help to those who are falling behind.
To be kind.
To learn how to play the game many adults play, "get through the day" when you're having a rough one.
To be passionate.
To be inquisitive.
To get themselves on a pee schedule. (Teachers have to wait until the end of the class.)
To get into the arts. Or sports. Or clubs. Or whatever makes them happy.

[DrMikey]

So as a parent of a 1st grader (a little ways off from High School ) what can I do to make his teachers job easier and better for both them and my boy?

Wow.I can only answer as a parent, but apart form parroting what Mikel said, I'd say:

-keep open lines of communication with the teacher
-understand that their work day extends well into the evening, between class prep and communicating with parents
-understand that they probably have a larger class size than is optimal for your (or almost any) child, which not only adds to the workload but exponentially compounds the stress
-understand that teachers aren't robots. they're humans who have bad days (and a home life, with all the potential baggage that entails) just like the rest of the world
-be empathetic about those things when addressing any issues you have surrounding your child in school.

Parents and teachers work best as teams. There are parents who are rude and demanding of teachers, snippy towards them because they get summers off or whatever, or because they don't necessarily value what the teacher does, who approach school systems with a sense of entitlement but without any sense responsibility on their end.

Don't be that parent.

(But really, I seriously doubt you are.)

[Mikel]

Oh, and something that wasn't a problem when I was young:

Sleep.

Holy crap, do a lot of them stay up very very late talking with friends via text or online. Not getting enough sleep is a major problem with students today.

You can have a student's phone set to only respond to emergency or parental calls or texts during certain times. Our principal set his daughter's phone to not take texts after 11pm on a school night or during the school day.

[Mikel]

And everything Mikey said.

Miscommunications are easy and it's best if both sides explain themselves well and give the other the benefit of best intentions.

[Mikel]

Sometimes, during the weekend, you go through what you had them do and discover that it went way the hell over their head and they're not finding a way to get specific.

I'm dealing with the lowest functioning group of seniors I've ever worked with by a huge amount.

It's amazingly frustrating. Previous classes didn't have this problem.

[dntimm]

So what do you think about Khan Academy used as a supplement to students course work? My school district is doing it. The district granted all the kids iPads to work with....

-Dennis

[Chad]

A big thanks to Mikel and DrMikey along with everyone else that participated!