Are you a teacher; or studying to be one?

Question

My cousin is studying to be an elementary school teacher and my other cousin is teaching history at a local high school.

We were having a conversation the other day about how “monotonous” the lesson plans have become and how they leave no room for a teacher’s input/creativity/ ...freedom.

Basically, the lesson plans that are given give you STEP BY STEP instructions on what to teach your class. How to teach your class. What to say. What kinds of gestures/ actions to use during a lecture.

I can understand the purpose of this, but I don’t know if I like it.

...also, these “lesson plans” have discouraged my cousin, a little, to become a teacher.

How do you feel about this?

Answer 1

Yes, I am studying to be one. My mom, grandma, grandpa, cousin, one of my sisters, her husband, and my x are/were all teachers. I called up my mom and asked her what she thought about this. She agreed (and this is from her experience as a H.S. Spanish teacher) that the lesson plans are very monotonous, but she feels as though she is the boss of her room and can do and teach whatever and however she deems best. The prospect of bringing some fresh and flavorful ways to educate young, darting minds is one of the most exciting possibilities of becoming a teacher to me.

...loVe...

Answer 2

I do feel like a lot of teaching right now is "teaching to the test." There is definitely room for making your lessons creative or different where I teach, but there is also a lot of pressure to drill the tested information into these kids' heads. It leaves little time to teach really important things like how to think, life skills, and even social skills. Standardized testing at such young ages I think is a major flaw in the education system today. It's great to see how children are doing with their education, but putting such high stakes into tests just breaks children. It's sad. But education moves in swings, and soon enough it will shift away from this (somewhat) and move on to the next big educational trend.

Answer 3

I am studying to be a teacher right now. I hear that schools give teachers what the students need to know. It's about standardize testing now. Teachers have to teach what is on the tests, even if the kids already know or should know that material. Teachers have to make sure these kids pass otherwise if the school doesn't get good scores than they could lose out on federal money. I think this is under to No Child Left Behind Act?? Standardize testing is so annoying in my opinion.

Answer 4

I think they'll find that the lesson plans aren't what restricts creativity, but the emphasis on test results. You can always deviate from a lesson plan, but going to work everyday and having your bosses hammer into your head that test scores are the most important thing is going to suck the joy out of teaching. It defeats the purpose of being a teacher. Having kids memorize and jump through hoops just so schools can get adequate funding is ridiculous and is just driving real teachers away from the profession.

Answer 5

when I taught in Chicago the curriculum was scripted because we had a lot of young inexperienced teachers in classes that were out of their area of expertise...but older teachers were able to work around it because of experience in the class room...scripting is not always bad because it ensures that there is a standard curriculum being taught to all the students in a school/district...here in NYC we have something called the 'prototype' which tells teachers how to stucture their classes but leaves the content up to the teacher...basically you can do whatever you want in your class as long as you jump through all the right hoops when the admins show up...it is a frustrating game to play but the longer you teach the better you get at it...also many cities are seeing people who do not have basic educational backgrounds applying for teaching positions, so they are not versed in basic lesson planning...

Answer 6

I have taught elementary school for 30 years; even with the specific learning objectives there are ways to teach those lessons creatively if you really work at it; for example one that I had to teach recently dealt with reading with expression; the students practice and preformed a holiday play; we covered the objective and had fun and I really believe they will remember the lessons learned about expression;

Answer 7

From a scholar factor of view, I might be extra willing to be a social reports trainer, for the reason that English is obligatory and so that you might get children that might fiddle plenty extra in most cases than in social reports, in which the scholars have picked the discipline for the reason that they revel in it. Both contain marking, but it surely relatively is dependent upon the trainer. My sociology trainer marks our books relatively thouroughly, however my English trainer simply ticks it on occasion. Your correct - the English direction might difference extra, however for social reports you might ought to be updated with present problems and debates, so each have their drawbacks... I might prefer the only you're so much fascinated about and that you just suppose you might coach the high-quality. :)

Answer 8

I want to become a teacher for the deaf myself. I am not going to be worried the lesson plans, they are irrelevant to me. What I am going to focus on are my students, well...my future students. They will be the best part of my job.

Answer 9

I don't know where he teaches but here in SC is not like that, i love being a teacher