What is good teaching?
The question is rarely posed and almost never answered.
This topic deserves attention and not just from teachers, but colleges, high schools, school boards and parents.
For example, do teaching colleges teach class managment? Not much. They’re training people for a profession.
But classroom management is huge…ask anyone who has taught unmotivated or at-risk students.
THE ODDS ARE STACKED AGAINST THE KIDS
Joe Nocera, in the New York Times op-ed pages, writes about how to guage teaching.
He gives the example of Kevin Greer who worked with highly motivated grade 12 honor students and then with poorly motivated grade niners.
Not remotely the same experience. It led to great frustration on Greer’s part and excellent changes in his style.
Mr Nocera also came upon a film, The New Public, produced and directed by Jyllia Gunther which tracks a class for a year and, asks serious questions and gets the beginning of serious answers about teaching in inner city schools.
You never heard of it, but teachers and some teachers’ colleges love it.
I’ve taught in colleges where some of the same problems encountered in this piece are front and center.
Read More HERE.
I can’t help you with the individual school questions but I can address un-motivated students.
If you are one of those students and want to change that or, if you are the worried the parent of a student at-risk, contact me for real help.
I know these kids and I know teaching.
Frank Daley
