I think that Beverlee's email also gives voice to the importance of Colleges of Education and the importance of preparing teachers as professionals in light of the many alternate paths to teaching that are currently available. I have a wonderful teacher in my graduate class who taught for "Teach for America". She was a bit offended when I mentioned that I was worried that 1-3 years teachers in inner-city schools were being replaced by TFA teachers. She had a wonderful experience and didn't see how undergraduate courses could have better prepared her to teach. However, I think that so many new approaches and concepts are thrown at teachers, that only by holding up real-world, packaged programs to a solid foundation of theory, research, "child development, and cognitive processes" can teacher make the hard decisions of how to effectively teach a student. Philomena
Philomena Marinaccio-Eckel, Ph.D. Florida Atlantic University Dept. of Teaching and Learning College of Education 2912 College Ave. ES 214 Davie, FL 33314 Phone: 954-236-1070 Fax: 954-236-1050 -----Original Message----- From: Beverlee Paul <beverleep...@gmail.com> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Mon, Jul 12, 2010 8:46 pm Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] a professor's reply And yet another perspective, that one of a reading specialist, lit coach, and university instructor: I understand how frustrating it may have been for you, and hope you had a good lit coach or grade level partner to help you through, but I'd like to speak to the issue of teacher education. What you missed in your teachers' college was what I call "training" which is different than education. The teachers' college really does have the responsibility to prepare you for the profession of teaching and what is known best practice. It sounds as if that's what they did. They educated you as to what we currently know about how kids learn and how you build on that to teach. How to be a professional educator. That took the 36 hours or whatever you had in your major. Now, within that, they certainly could have spent some hours talking about the "real world" but it couldn't take much time away from their obligation to educate professional educators. They needed all the time they could get to educate you as a professional. Fortunately, I guess, it doesn't take nearly as long to "train" managers/teachers to follow a basal reader or do the kinds of things required by NCLB/Reading First type programs. That's the kind of training a school district can do; it's not all that sophisticated and the decision-making that is required of a professional isn't involved. It takes no knowledge of child development or of cognitive processes or any of the other sophisticated knowledge that would be required by a program in which a teacher had the responsibility to design teaching and learning. Truly, a couple of days with some refreshers could prepare someone for the lower-level job of "delivering" the curriculum with fidelity and standardization, a one-size-fits-all program. So, from my perspective they probably did the best they could: they prepared you to be a teacher, and left the job to the district to train you for whatever they wanted. Hope you still have that knowledge within you! There'll come a day. . . . Bev A different perspective if I may... > > I graduated 9 years ago from a school that had a clear philosophy of > inquiry based learning. I had no exposure to a basal text, and direct > instruction was also considered "evil". While I believe that the ideas > presented in the Mosaic books is the best way for certain to learn, it is > very disheartening as a new teacher to learn that many school districts do > not hold similar views. Please expose your students to basals and whatever > the required curriculum is for your district or state. When I first started > teaching I was very angry that my school did not prepare me for what I saw > as the "real world". There was little to no discussion about standardized > testing especially those related to NCLB and AYP. > > Just another viewpoint. > > Rosie > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
