Another school year is upon us, and the orientation/introduction/inservice meetings are in full swing. In the last week, I’ve met several teachers fresh out of preparation programs, hoping their student teaching and internship experience will guide them into the wild beyond. My goodness, I love them.
It makes me think about my own teacher preparation program and the only two classes I remember: Educational Theory and Classroom Management. I honestly do not remember another EDUC course. (Maybe it’s because I am aging, but more likely it’s because nothing else was pertinent once I was baptized by the fire of first-year teaching.)
Educational Theory is potentially the most boring class to be offered on the planet, but I was fortunate enough to have a professor who was a master at Socratic questioning. He challenged every thought, belief, and theory I even considered entertaining. He encouraged creativity in assignments and discussion. When he offered complete freedom in completing the final project, I wrote my assignment as Cantos of Theory, a humorous look at the evolution of educational theory written in verse. I’m sure it was terrible poetry, but he facilitated real interaction with the material. Directly and indirectly, he showed us how to care about our students to maximize what they learn.
The other invaluable course was Classroom Management, a short six-week course taken right before student teaching. The professor was a retired principal who openly told us he enjoyed teaching the class because he could go fishing the rest of the semester. The text for his class was a book of scenarios intended for role-play. Every day we acted out various scenarios. One student (who played the teacher) would walk out of the room to wait. The professor gave us roles—these varied from note-passing to a student choking in class to a fight breaking out and everything in between. The teacher would walk in on a situation in progress and have to act. Each scenario took less than five minutes. Then as a group we discussed the situation. I can honestly say that I immediately used experience from that class as a student teacher. It was invaluable to think through what I would do if X, Y, or Z occurred, and to listen to a variety of viewpoints on how to handle various crises in the classroom.
Many teachers will attest that their preparation programs did not prepare them for that first year of teaching AKA Humanity Unleashed. If I were designing a program, I would add the following courses:
EDUC 110: The Operation and Mechanical Repair of Copy Machines
Even if a teacher rarely uses copies, this one course would save districts around the country thousands of dollars and at least a million headaches. Alternative course: Paperless Teaching (I can dream, right?)
EDUC 220: Human Development as Experienced by Parents and Teachers
Most programs require Human Development 101, but fall FAR short in communicating reality. This course would require field trips (and possibly valium).
EDUC 250: Advanced Human Development: The Middle School Mind
They are crazy. But they are wonderful, too. Embrace the irrationality.
EDUC 301: Method Acting for the Classroom Teacher
Let’s face it: some days, a great performance is all that stands between you and administrative leave.
EDUC 350: The Art of Negotiating: How to Talk to Students, Parents, and Administrators
EDUC 355: Advanced Negotiating: Department Meetings, Hostage Situations, Kindergarten, and Parents of Honors/AP Students
EDUC 400: Negotiating Nonsense: Education Legislation and Standardized Testing: How to Stay Sane in an Alice in Wonderland System
I’m sure there are more. Since none of these courses exist yet, let me suggest the following advice for new teachers: Don’t take yourself too seriously, get help when you need it, and know your janitors and administrative assistants by name, thanking them every chance you get.
Hope all my teaching friends (at school AND at home!) have a terrific year.