You’ve taken the education courses, content courses, psychology courses, statistics courses and ESOL courses. You’ve completed the practice teaching. You have your certifications. You have your first position. You’ve gone through new teacher orientation. You have your curriculum guide. You have your curriculum calendar. You’ve made your lesson plans.
Within a month you will find yourself tempted to teach the way you have been taught by your teachers. This will be a continuing temptation throughout your career. Why?
You are facing the dichotomy of using what you know about the learning process versus the school district’s curriculum and curriculum calendar. For example, we know that effective concentration for the brightest is about twenty minutes, and your class period is sixty minutes. You will have twenty five to thirty students whose abilities and life experiences range the full spectrum, but you will be expected to individualize instruction or PLP for each. You will be expected to follow district wide dictates to be applied K through twelve when they are only appropriate for k through sixth. You will face learning objectives that are obtuse and don’t define measurement.
To survive, you will be tempted to teach the way you were taught because the system you are working under is unchanged from when you were a student. To obtain that “exceptional teacher” designation, you need to teach the way you were taught. You will find yourself the square peg in the round hole screeching silently as you are forced to fit.
SOLUTIONS beginning in part II..
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