TV sitcoms and "reality" shows may be fun to watch but you do not want to live in one.
I have sat through far too many episodes of "Drake and Josh" and "iCarly" as of late. Yeah, funny to watch but I would ground those kids in a heartbeat if they pulled that crap in my house.
Another thing to consider: The things you and your friends did to your high school teachers that you remember so fondly will now be done to you. The teacher can easily occupy one of the lowest rungs on the high school social ladder. Sure, there might be one or two that the kids respect, but the majority are the natural targets of the class clowns, jocks, and Ferris Buellers of the world. That's not fun. Not fun at all.
It's easy to get this attitude: "Y'know, I know all about this particular subject matter that you would probably find uplifting, helpful in organizing your thoughts, and practical in later life. However, since you're so happy and pleased with yourself that you superglued my new leather briefcase that my wife gave me for Christmas to my desk chair, I think I'll just keep that knowledge to myself. You think you're smarter than me anyway, and you've just had this 'epiphany' that you're a supergenius who doesn't need school, so maybe you can just pick this stuff up on your own."
So if I ever chose to be a teacher (hypothetically, because it will never happen), I would go for the upper level classes (where kids might actually care about learning), or school systems that are reasonably well-funded. Another option is to go for a second career, and do tutoring of some kind on the side.
College level teaching is much, much different than high school. It's a much nicer experience and it's much more rewarding. As you said and as you might expect, the students are more engaged and much better behaved. Most of them have had an epiphany that they need a degree and that their degree programs are designed to give them certain skills, so their classes must be important.
Tutoring can be okay too. It's a really terrific part time job. All you have to do is put up an ad and work however much you want.
I just finished my student teaching. As soon as I get my test scores back on the 18th I will be a certified Technology teacher. I really miss being in a classroom. I think my positive experience comes from being in an elective, hands-on class; where students can see not only how what they are doing applies to the "real world", but also how to use skills that they have learned in other classes.
If you are thinking abut teaching in the US you need to look carefully at any state you are considering. Each state has very different rules, benefits, pay scales, and requirements. For one thing not every state requires a masters, although there is usually a pay bump for getting one.
I never quite understood that in the US. Aren't you able to choose your courses? So shouldn't most of the people taking German as a foreign language (which by no means is the easy way to go) be motivated to learn the language? I can understand the problem in my school system, since we can't at all choose subjects and you are forced into learning for them.
We (Canada and the US) have specific subjects we need and a certain course load to reach. Of course, this ranges from country to country, county to county, even school to school.
For mine, an Albertan high school, you need English 30, Social Studies 30, a Math 20 and a Science 20, a Career and Life Management course (CALM, 3 credit), and at least Physical Education 10-T (a one time, 3-credit course), plus so many credits to graduate. For a full time course (once a day, every day for one semester) you get 5 credits. For a part time course (once every second day (on a day 1 or day 2) for one semester), it's 3 credits. The required courses, such as the English, Social, Sciences and Maths are 5 credits each. The other credits (there's a lot, really) are built up through optional courses, such as a second language (Spanish, French, German, etc), Arts (Visual Medias (including Photography, Video, and Animation branches), Art class, Drama, etc) and so on.
It gets confusing, but we have tons of options and ways to fulfill requirements. We also have different levels within all the courses, such as English 10-1. That's a grade 10 course and the 'uber' version of English. '-1' means it's the high level, and you need a certain grade to get into and stay in this course. There's '-2' and I think something like English 12 or 15 or something, which is even lower than -2, usually for special education/behavioral problem kids. For Math, there's Math 12 (Grade 10 Math, for special ed), Applied Math, and Pure Math. Thank god, the dashes are only in the main courses; options do not really matter about grades aside from, if you don't pass you don't go on to the next grade or get your credits.
Yeah. It's confusing when spilled all at the same time, but if given a bit of time, you could easily understand it.
Thank you for all the awesome feedback! I especially appreciate there being some people who don't think becoming a teacher is a bad idea.
Since I still have a bit of time before I go to College/ University. me being drafted in, I wrote an email to the education departments of Texas and New York. We'll see what they say. I chose Texas since I went there for a school exchange program and was absolutely overwhelmed by the school I was in (Clear Lake High School). Lots of people I talked to there also told me that living in Texas is quite cheap and that there are a lot of people with a German origin who live there. Not that I would want to meet them, but I think that there is a quite high demand for a German teacher in such a place. I picked New York as a state because I've heard it's quite liberal and I wouldn't want to be teaching in a state full of wacky religious people, though I understand that there are lots of them in the US. I'm open for any other suggestions. I think I would then pick a college in the state I choose to teach in. To get back to what someone mentioned about the amount of income: That is one of the reasons why I want to come to the US (besides me being able to identify more with most Americans than any close-minded German and speaking the English language as my mother tongue). The average salary in Germany is 2 358.24 USD. Not only that but finding a job here is really hard, I think the unemployment rate in my area is around 30%.
Here's how we dealt with the mean pranksters at my last school. (not the harmless, "ha you got me" guys, but the real bad ones). An older, white teacher in this 99% black school turns his back and a student throws an egg at him. No one will own up to it, nor will they snitch out who did it. Teacher buzzes the main office to bring an administrator down. Administrator brings campus security and the on campus sheriff. They proceed to search every student until they found the person with the eggs. That kid got hauled away in handcuffs in front of the entire school for assault. The rest of the class was cleaning lunch room tables for not giving up the kid. In tougher areas, tougher measures need to be taken to assert real authority.
Here's how we dealt with the mean pranksters at my last school. (not the harmless, "ha you got me" guys, but the real bad ones). An older, white teacher in this 99% black school turns his back and a student throws an egg at him. No one will own up to it, nor will they snitch out who did it. Teacher buzzes the main office to bring an administrator down. Administrator brings campus security and the on campus sheriff. They proceed to search every student until they found the person with the eggs. That kid got hauled away in handcuffs in front of the entire school for assault. The rest of the class was cleaning lunch room tables for not giving up the kid. In tougher areas, tougher measures need to be taken to assert real authority.
I'm not going to drag this out any further than to say this: All your 1351 places still suck. They might suck a little less than normal, but they are still rife with suckage. (Please take this in the way it was meant - more as a joke than anything else. The joke part being that I hate all high schools. Colleges and Universities are a different matter. I love most of them.)
We had security at IDEA Public Charter, but they would never do what you described. In fact, I'd be surprised if they would even think it was possible. Searching every kid in the room brings up some legal issues my old school wouldn't touch withe a ten foot pole.
Here's a story from IDEA: An administrator was standing with a group of kids gawking at police arresting someone across the street. One kid wanted to go across the street to get a better look. The administrator reached out and tried to pull the kid back by holding on to his backpack. The kid turned around and knocked the administrator to the ground. Then the kids started kicking him.
He wasn't hurt badly enough to be hospitalized, but we had a faculty meeting soon afterwards during which the principal told us how it was the administrator dude's fault that he was knocked down and kicked and how she had to really think to come up with a reason not to fire him. That's how much support we had: If you do nothing and let the kid cross the street, you're in trouble. If you try to prevent the kid from crossing the street, you're in trouble. If you lay hands on the kid, you're in deep trouble. If the kid knocks you down and a group of kids start kicking you, then . . . good luck.
Joe, you've now made it impossible to have a discussion. But, I'll try by asking what you suggest we do about those 4 years of schooling that you hate so much.
Joe, you've now made it impossible to have a discussion. But, I'll try by asking what you suggest we do about those 4 years of schooling that you hate so much.
It's not up to me. You're the member of the unique new generation full of hope and ready to solve all the ills that thousands of generations of your forebears have so heartlessy and negligently left for you. It's your problem now. Try to fix it and I'll come by later and tell you whether or not your solution sucks.
How about this for a start...cut out federal mandates for education (No Child Left Behind) and return control to the local communities/states. Offer a more diversified schedule of classes for students that includes career prep classes as well as college prep. Stop the myth that every child will go to a top tier university and succeed. Start putting the emphasis on actual learning rather than testing. Encourage the arts. Smaller teacher to student ratios. Build enough schools so that communities like mine don't have to use trailers to house the students. Have alternative education programs or job training for students who cannot function in a real learning environment. Start offering incentives to teachers for high achieving schools.
Care to continue criticizing while offering no alternatives?
See, most of what you say is what politicians say and have been saying for years. I'm surprised you didn't put school vouchers in there somewhere.
Most of your plan wouldn't lead to concrete, measurable results. With the exception of the trade school stuff - well, you don't actually call it trade school, you kinda talk around it, but what you really mean is trade school. That's fine. I think trade school would be a great idea. In 1948. There aren't enough actual "trades" left in the States anymore for a system of trade schools to be a good solution, unless you want to call "WalMart Associate" or "McDonald's Assistant Night Manager" a trade.
Care to continue criticizing while offering no alternatives?
I've done more years in the teaching trenches than you've been alive. I've earned the right to criticize.
Ah, so we are assuming I'm young and naive and therefore have no worthwhile thoughts or opinions.
Vocational training is still appropriate and useful. When I was building sets for a show we did a few years ago, I had students who showed no interest in any subject whatsoever come up and ask me how I was building the set. They had never been taught to use a drill or sketch out a basic structure plan. When I asked them to help they jumped at the chance. So, I guess offering a construction or real-world woodshop class (no bird houses, actual construction) wouldn't be beneficial to these students? Giving them the tools they'd need to go out and work for contractors wouldn't help them find jobs that pay well and give them the self-respect and responsibility they need? How about drafting? Or computer hardware repair? Basic engineering? Lab technician? Mechanic? These not worthwhile enough to encourage students to try?
Saying that I'm wrong because I'm younger than you and the solutions I gave (that you asked for) are invalid is no way to get a point across. You can criticize all you want, but if you don't have any better ideas, keep your old and tired bitching to yourself. It's teachers like you that keep me out of the teachers' lounge during breaks. This kind of worthless shit is what helps young teachers quit, keeping the old, bitter shitty teachers who are only doing it for a pension employed.
Most "good" vocational schools do this. The one my brother attened almost 20 years ago had the carpenter classes actually build a real house inside the school (they had a big hanger bay). I don't recall what happened to the house after they built it but they did build it.
Same thing with the automotive class. They would get a junk car in and spend the time restoring it. Those are good hands-on courses. They also involved students who wanted to be there. The general high school crowd is not the same.
Some of your ideas are good but, you are up against an institutional wall. A wall that is very hard to get past.
I'm sorry you feel that way Mr. Buzzed, but it comes down to this: It doesn't matter to me how young you are. You're not wrong because you're young; except when you think that your generation has some better attitude or deeper knowledge than all previous generations.
Similarly, I'm not wrong just because I'm old (actually, I'm not that old. Really.). You'll be old someday too; but never as old as me, keeping in mind that I'm not old.
I came by my opinions of American high schools through dreadful experience, and those opinions have ossified. OSSIFIED. I don't think you're wrong about American high schools because you're young. I think you're wrong about American high schools because you're saying stuff I've heard before. It all reminds me of stuff that has been tried and hasn't worked, like open classrooms and self-directed study. It also requires too much political will. Do you think any American parent would stand for having their kid go to trade school instead of college? Meanwhile, the kids are all having epiphanies that they're smarter than their teachers. It's a big suckhole of suck. It always has been. It always will be.
That's my opinion. I'm entitled to it, and I'm entitled to express it. I'm also entitled to warn Mr. Bird that I believe he'll not be happy. In fact, I even feel that I'm obligated to warn him away from teaching in order to try and prevent his unhappiness. That's all I have to say about this particular subtopic of this thread.
That's my opinion. I'm entitled to it, and I'm entitled to express it. I'm also entitled to warn Mr. Bird that I believe he'll not be happy. In fact, I even feel that I'm obligated to warn him away from teaching in order to try and prevent his unhappiness. That's all I have to say about this particular subtopic of this thread.
But I've met people who have taught and are STILL teaching who love it. Is the US schools that much different from Canada?
I'm very thankful for any advice that people give me. The only reason I hadn't decided to become a teacher earlier is, that ever second adult I talked to tried to tell me how much being a teacher sucks. I've now come to my own personal conclusion that I will try to become a teacher and try to have the best time possible, even if the chance is small of having a good time (at least from what I've heard most people say). I think that being a teacher would be much more for filling and fun than working in an I.T. department. But I also have to say that I'm very young and thus don't have much experience in life. So I can't really argue against it just being juvenility. I've finally had this discussion over with my family over moving away from Germany to the US. The next step is to find a college.
I thought I might just give you all a quick update on all of this:
I've now decided to go for a BA in German and Japanese (Joint Honours Modern Languages) at Leeds University. If possible I will also try to go for a Master of Education. With those degrees I hope to be able to work in Germany/ Europe, America and also in Japan as a teacher. The reason I've chosen Leeds is, because it's the only university I've found which offers such a program. If any of you know another college/ university please tell me.
So there you have it. After I'm finished with school and the draft I'll be on my way to becoming a teacher! ^_~
Comments
I have sat through far too many episodes of "Drake and Josh" and "iCarly" as of late. Yeah, funny to watch but I would ground those kids in a heartbeat if they pulled that crap in my house.
It's easy to get this attitude: "Y'know, I know all about this particular subject matter that you would probably find uplifting, helpful in organizing your thoughts, and practical in later life. However, since you're so happy and pleased with yourself that you superglued my new leather briefcase that my wife gave me for Christmas to my desk chair, I think I'll just keep that knowledge to myself. You think you're smarter than me anyway, and you've just had this 'epiphany' that you're a supergenius who doesn't need school, so maybe you can just pick this stuff up on your own." College level teaching is much, much different than high school. It's a much nicer experience and it's much more rewarding. As you said and as you might expect, the students are more engaged and much better behaved. Most of them have had an epiphany that they need a degree and that their degree programs are designed to give them certain skills, so their classes must be important.
Tutoring can be okay too. It's a really terrific part time job. All you have to do is put up an ad and work however much you want.
If you are thinking abut teaching in the US you need to look carefully at any state you are considering. Each state has very different rules, benefits, pay scales, and requirements. For one thing not every state requires a masters, although there is usually a pay bump for getting one.
For mine, an Albertan high school, you need English 30, Social Studies 30, a Math 20 and a Science 20, a Career and Life Management course (CALM, 3 credit), and at least Physical Education 10-T (a one time, 3-credit course), plus so many credits to graduate. For a full time course (once a day, every day for one semester) you get 5 credits. For a part time course (once every second day (on a day 1 or day 2) for one semester), it's 3 credits. The required courses, such as the English, Social, Sciences and Maths are 5 credits each. The other credits (there's a lot, really) are built up through optional courses, such as a second language (Spanish, French, German, etc), Arts (Visual Medias (including Photography, Video, and Animation branches), Art class, Drama, etc) and so on.
It gets confusing, but we have tons of options and ways to fulfill requirements. We also have different levels within all the courses, such as English 10-1. That's a grade 10 course and the 'uber' version of English. '-1' means it's the high level, and you need a certain grade to get into and stay in this course. There's '-2' and I think something like English 12 or 15 or something, which is even lower than -2, usually for special education/behavioral problem kids. For Math, there's Math 12 (Grade 10 Math, for special ed), Applied Math, and Pure Math. Thank god, the dashes are only in the main courses; options do not really matter about grades aside from, if you don't pass you don't go on to the next grade or get your credits.
Yeah. It's confusing when spilled all at the same time, but if given a bit of time, you could easily understand it.
Since I still have a bit of time before I go to College/ University. me being drafted in, I wrote an email to the education departments of Texas and New York. We'll see what they say. I chose Texas since I went there for a school exchange program and was absolutely overwhelmed by the school I was in (Clear Lake High School). Lots of people I talked to there also told me that living in Texas is quite cheap and that there are a lot of people with a German origin who live there. Not that I would want to meet them, but I think that there is a quite high demand for a German teacher in such a place.
I picked New York as a state because I've heard it's quite liberal and I wouldn't want to be teaching in a state full of wacky religious people, though I understand that there are lots of them in the US. I'm open for any other suggestions. I think I would then pick a college in the state I choose to teach in.
To get back to what someone mentioned about the amount of income: That is one of the reasons why I want to come to the US (besides me being able to identify more with most Americans than any close-minded German and speaking the English language as my mother tongue). The average salary in Germany is 2 358.24 USD. Not only that but finding a job here is really hard, I think the unemployment rate in my area is around 30%.
Here's how we dealt with the mean pranksters at my last school. (not the harmless, "ha you got me" guys, but the real bad ones). An older, white teacher in this 99% black school turns his back and a student throws an egg at him. No one will own up to it, nor will they snitch out who did it. Teacher buzzes the main office to bring an administrator down. Administrator brings campus security and the on campus sheriff. They proceed to search every student until they found the person with the eggs. That kid got hauled away in handcuffs in front of the entire school for assault. The rest of the class was cleaning lunch room tables for not giving up the kid. In tougher areas, tougher measures need to be taken to assert real authority.
We had security at IDEA Public Charter, but they would never do what you described. In fact, I'd be surprised if they would even think it was possible. Searching every kid in the room brings up some legal issues my old school wouldn't touch withe a ten foot pole.
Here's a story from IDEA: An administrator was standing with a group of kids gawking at police arresting someone across the street. One kid wanted to go across the street to get a better look. The administrator reached out and tried to pull the kid back by holding on to his backpack. The kid turned around and knocked the administrator to the ground. Then the kids started kicking him.
He wasn't hurt badly enough to be hospitalized, but we had a faculty meeting soon afterwards during which the principal told us how it was the administrator dude's fault that he was knocked down and kicked and how she had to really think to come up with a reason not to fire him. That's how much support we had: If you do nothing and let the kid cross the street, you're in trouble. If you try to prevent the kid from crossing the street, you're in trouble. If you lay hands on the kid, you're in deep trouble. If the kid knocks you down and a group of kids start kicking you, then . . . good luck.
How about this for a start...cut out federal mandates for education (No Child Left Behind) and return control to the local communities/states. Offer a more diversified schedule of classes for students that includes career prep classes as well as college prep. Stop the myth that every child will go to a top tier university and succeed. Start putting the emphasis on actual learning rather than testing. Encourage the arts. Smaller teacher to student ratios. Build enough schools so that communities like mine don't have to use trailers to house the students. Have alternative education programs or job training for students who cannot function in a real learning environment. Start offering incentives to teachers for high achieving schools.
Care to continue criticizing while offering no alternatives?
Most of your plan wouldn't lead to concrete, measurable results. With the exception of the trade school stuff - well, you don't actually call it trade school, you kinda talk around it, but what you really mean is trade school. That's fine. I think trade school would be a great idea. In 1948. There aren't enough actual "trades" left in the States anymore for a system of trade schools to be a good solution, unless you want to call "WalMart Associate" or "McDonald's Assistant Night Manager" a trade. I've done more years in the teaching trenches than you've been alive. I've earned the right to criticize.
Vocational training is still appropriate and useful. When I was building sets for a show we did a few years ago, I had students who showed no interest in any subject whatsoever come up and ask me how I was building the set. They had never been taught to use a drill or sketch out a basic structure plan. When I asked them to help they jumped at the chance. So, I guess offering a construction or real-world woodshop class (no bird houses, actual construction) wouldn't be beneficial to these students? Giving them the tools they'd need to go out and work for contractors wouldn't help them find jobs that pay well and give them the self-respect and responsibility they need? How about drafting? Or computer hardware repair? Basic engineering? Lab technician? Mechanic? These not worthwhile enough to encourage students to try?
Saying that I'm wrong because I'm younger than you and the solutions I gave (that you asked for) are invalid is no way to get a point across. You can criticize all you want, but if you don't have any better ideas, keep your old and tired bitching to yourself. It's teachers like you that keep me out of the teachers' lounge during breaks. This kind of worthless shit is what helps young teachers quit, keeping the old, bitter shitty teachers who are only doing it for a pension employed.
Same thing with the automotive class. They would get a junk car in and spend the time restoring it. Those are good hands-on courses. They also involved students who wanted to be there. The general high school crowd is not the same.
Some of your ideas are good but, you are up against an institutional wall. A wall that is very hard to get past.
Similarly, I'm not wrong just because I'm old (actually, I'm not that old. Really.). You'll be old someday too; but never as old as me, keeping in mind that I'm not old.
I came by my opinions of American high schools through dreadful experience, and those opinions have ossified. OSSIFIED. I don't think you're wrong about American high schools because you're young. I think you're wrong about American high schools because you're saying stuff I've heard before. It all reminds me of stuff that has been tried and hasn't worked, like open classrooms and self-directed study. It also requires too much political will. Do you think any American parent would stand for having their kid go to trade school instead of college? Meanwhile, the kids are all having epiphanies that they're smarter than their teachers. It's a big suckhole of suck. It always has been. It always will be.
That's my opinion. I'm entitled to it, and I'm entitled to express it. I'm also entitled to warn Mr. Bird that I believe he'll not be happy. In fact, I even feel that I'm obligated to warn him away from teaching in order to try and prevent his unhappiness. That's all I have to say about this particular subtopic of this thread.
But I also have to say that I'm very young and thus don't have much experience in life. So I can't really argue against it just being juvenility. I've finally had this discussion over with my family over moving away from Germany to the US. The next step is to find a college.
I've now decided to go for a BA in German and Japanese (Joint Honours Modern Languages) at Leeds University. If possible I will also try to go for a Master of Education. With those degrees I hope to be able to work in Germany/ Europe, America and also in Japan as a teacher.
The reason I've chosen Leeds is, because it's the only university I've found which offers such a program. If any of you know another college/ university please tell me.
So there you have it. After I'm finished with school and the draft I'll be on my way to becoming a teacher! ^_~
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