Elementary Teachers: What is your favorite grade to teach and why?
Before I left the classroom to stay home with my own children, I taught 5th grade. I loved it. Why? Because I didn't have to wipe their noses, tie their shoes, or button their pants. And, to top it all off, I was able to expand on the basic skills the other teachers worked so hard to teach them. This past year I have been reminded, often, why I enjoyed teaching upper elementary. See, my youngest son was finally old enough to go to school, so I decided to ease myself back into the workforce by substitute teaching. Substituting is something I highly recomend when a perspective teacher is trying to identify which grade level he or she is most comfortable teaching. Many days this past year I was placed in a Kindergarten or First grade classroom. These paticular days felt like they would never end. But, many times I was placed in a 4th, 5th, or even 6th grade class and the day passed by before I knew it. It all depends on your own personal preference. For me, I love the upper grades. The one negative thing I might have to say about the upper grades is that some of the students do tend to get a little "mouthy", but that is part of beginning to spread their wings. You must let them know that you appreciate their individualism, but they must follow your guidelines which includes being respectful of everyone around them. Also, I've observed over this last year how viscious upper elementary girls, in paticular 6th grade girls, can be to their peers. It can be quite disturbing at times. Hope this helps!!
Teaching: Who's smarter: elementary teachers or middle school teachers?
I now teach graduate students but I don’t teach graduate school because I’m smarter than middle school teachers. I really loved teaching middle school and I quit and never went back because I hate getting up early enough to be at school by 8 am. People laugh when I say that because it’s true.I don’t think I’m any smarter now than when I taught middle school, but I didn’t teach middle school because I was smarter than elementary teachers. I taught middle school because there is not enough Prozac manufactured every year for me to handle a class of kindergarteners. It’s like herding cats. I have no idea how primary school teachers keep from losing their minds. I taught judo to small children once a week and there were enough conversations like this to make that more than enough:Michael! Kirk is crying because he says you licked him. Did you lick him?Yes.WHY did you lick the kid next to you, for God’s sake?I don’t know.This experience makes me want to say middle school teachers are smarter because they are smart enough not to teach primary grades!I think my daughter, who is a middle school teacher described it best. She said, “Elementary school teachers love the students they teach. High school teachers love the subject they teach. Middle school teachers love their students and their subject.”If L.A. Unified ever goes to starting class at 10 am, I’ll be right back in the middle school classroom.
What are the pros and cons for an earlier elementary school entry age, say 4 year old instead of 7?
If we are talking about a regular curriculum based education, then I would say it is all cons. There is nothing that is good about. There is a lot of research out there that earlier elementary school is not only a bad idea but could also be detrimental to the childs’ growth.At a young age, children need to learn how to play, socialize, develop listening skills, speaking skills, learn to collaborate and play, so on and so forth. They are not ready to do complex problems in math or read higher level books.Some countries that are touted to have the best education systems in the world are South Korea, Singapore and Finland. South Korea and Singapore are known to place a lot of emphasis on primary education. Their overall ranking when compared to other countries in the world has sky rocketed in the past few years. The students are known to go to school 7 days a week. At the same time, both countries are noticing a lot of anxiety and stress issues in young children.Now looking at Finland. It is again one of the top education systems in the world. The kids there do not start school until they are 7 yrs old. There is no homework and no standardized testing until they reach high school. They have shorter school days. All schools follow a national curriculum. Students and teachers spend less time in schools in comparison to their American counterparts. Finland also provides 3-years of maternity leave, subsidized daycare and pre-school for 5-7 year olds where the emphasis is on playing and socializing.You can decide what is best for a child.Thanks for the A2A Yan.
Elementary vs. High School teaching?
I sure hope you have a better time of it than I did. I tried an internship in a high school with a lot of special ed kids in my classes, and I finally had to just walk away. There were things going on in my life at the time that weren't related to the teaching which may have been factors, too, though. I did a lot of substitute teaching before I got to the internship, though, and the best time I had was with the kindergarteners and first and second graders. At that age, the kids love any attention they get, they love to make their teachers proud of them and they (generally) are willing to obey class rules. As they get older, they begin to kick against the traces and so on. Also, parents are usually more willing to work with teachers on the elementary school level, while parents of high school students often take the kids' side against authority. There are pros and cons to everything, but the main differences I saw involved the time and expense of putting together games and bulletin boards and other teaching aids for elementary students, while high school teachers don't have to do all of that. High school teachers have a lot of things to contend with because of the way the system works. I didn't see a lot of teamwork among the high school teachers, but I did among the elementary school teachers. At the high schools, it was "every dog for him/herself" while the elementary school teachers freely passed along ideas and helps, sometimes even offering to take certain classes for one another. Honestly, if I had it to do over again, I'd pick elementary school, especially K-3. Best of luck to you!!
What is your opinion on Pass/Fail grading system in elementary/middle/high schools?
Generally there are two purposes of the grading system in school. One as a measure for how well students master the subjects and guide the learning path. The other is to rank students in order to be able to place graduates into matching career and higher education tracks.These two objectives are not always well allienged. Should the teacher be primary someone that gives educational instructions, or is the role of the teacher to be someone who gives out grades and judgements?I think PASS/FAIL is an interesting concept that should be explored. One idea would be to split the curriculum into skill sequences and require to get nearly 100% correct in order to pass. Stepping up to the next level would require having mastered previous levels. In this system it would be possible to repeat the test and courses as many times as desired.Instead of differentiating by a GPA number, students would accumulate a portfolio of passed subjects and skills.In order to prevent a system that just teaches to the test, skills would overlap and form a logical progression. For example, if you want to pass the integral-calculus test, you need be able to be able apply skills that were learned in algebra.