Teaching

[krista]

Are there any Armadillos out there who are majoring in English to teach? If not, have you ever thought about teaching?

Also, what do you wish you had been taught in your English classes in middle school or high school? I just graduated a few weeks ago and I'm preparing to step into the big ol' world of teaching and I'm really interested to see what "missed the mark" in English classes and what caught your attention!

[Dodger Thirteen]

I have wanted to teach since I as in second grade, simply because I believed I could do it better. ...And because I really wanted to have my own library in my classroom.

That being said, I do not have the patience for teaching, though I could probably still manage it. Teaching the humanities is also quite competitive; math teachers are in higher demand.

[Silva]

I wish my high school had assigned really long term papers, so we'd be more prepared for them in college. We instead got taught the five paragraph essay or two page essay for the AP Exam.

[krista]

May 31, 2011 13:40:43 GMT -5 Dodger Thirteen said:

I have wanted to teach since I as in second grade, simply because I believed I could do it better. ...And because I really wanted to have my own library in my classroom.

That being said, I do not have the patience for teaching, though I could probably still manage it. Teaching the humanities is also quite competitive; math teachers are in higher demand.

Patience is something I learned a lot about this past semester during my student teaching experience! I thought I had mastered it before but I felt like my face was slapped a thousand times every day with how much patience you truly need to have.

I completely agree about English/history teachers being so widely available. Through my job search, math and science teachers are currently heavily needed in MA. :/

[krista]

May 31, 2011 13:42:58 GMT -5 Silva said:

I wish my high school had assigned really long term papers, so we'd be more prepared for them in college. We instead got taught the five paragraph essay or two page essay for the AP Exam.

I could NOT agree with you more! I taught a senior C2 class this past semester and they had to do a "LARP" the last month of school. It is supposed to stand for "Litearary Analysis Research Paper." Do you know how long it was? A page. I don't want to sound high and mighty because I understand that it was a lower level class, but that certainly will not prepare them for writing college papers. And, yes, every single one of my seniors is actually attending college. My mind was blown but I clearly could not control the school system--a frustration I've just started to encounter.

As far as the 5-paragraph essay goes, I also had to introduce that awful technique to my grade 9 students. My school had a precise way of writing a 5-paragraph essay and you could not deviate from it--unless you wanted to get points marked off. I also had to introduce the triangle/upside down triangle technique for introductions and conclusions as well.

I'm happy I'm not alone in my frustrations and I hope that the school that hires me will allow me to include more research papers in all grades and levels!

[Olive]

May 31, 2011 13:53:46 GMT -5 krista said:

May 31, 2011 13:42:58 GMT -5 Silva said:

I wish my high school had assigned really long term papers, so we'd be more prepared for them in college. We instead got taught the five paragraph essay or two page essay for the AP Exam.

I'm happy I'm not alone in my frustrations and I hope that the school that hires me will allow me to include more research papers in all grades and levels!

I had to write a research paper in 8th grade, and it wound up coming out to... 27 pages, I think? And yes, this was in a regular public school. Needless to say, most kids hated that teacher, but I think it really was helpful in the long run, even if a lot of it was in-text quoting.
It was a good style for a broad research paper. Each kid got a word (mine was "imagination") and she had an outline of what sources you had to use at different points, and how to pull a thesis from all of it. Very well done.

[mapachita]

Hopefully, in two more years I'll be an EFL teacher (English as a Foreing Language)
I'm very nervous about it; everybody hates English teachers in Chile because, you know, "English is so useless in a spanish-speaking country" (?).
Guys, at least you were taught how to write essays! When I was in high school nobody taught us that! Then, university teachers ask you to write a paper and no one knows how to do it. I was introduced to the classic and horrid five-paragraph essay in my second year, when I took the "Introduction to Literature" class :S

[embonpoint]

I would actually love to teach (at a sixth form level probably, so 16-18-ish), but I couldn't deal with all the bullshit administration and stuff. My maths tutor last year was re-training as a teacher, but I'm not sure if she's going to do it because she just couldn't hack all the paperwork and basically, interference in the classroom - syllabuses (is that the right plural?) and curricula and teacher targets and student targets and blah blah blah. I would find it really, really hard to play by the rules.

[brosephargh]

I'm currently in my undergrad going into teaching English as well!

Something we did in high school that I absolutely loved was explicating poetry. It helped immensely when this year in college for my American Lit. class when we had a brief poetry section - I knew exactly how to go about it. We also had to write our own poems and present them, which was a great way to get creative and break the nervousness of public speaking.

Something I wish we had done more of, though, were comparative essays. Taking two pieces of literature and comparing one or two aspects of them. We simply didn't do much of that in high school, for whatever reason, but I certainly have so far in college.

[krista]

May 31, 2011 14:56:41 GMT -5 Olive said:

May 31, 2011 13:53:46 GMT -5 krista said:

I'm happy I'm not alone in my frustrations and I hope that the school that hires me will allow me to include more research papers in all grades and levels!

I had to write a research paper in 8th grade, and it wound up coming out to... 27 pages, I think? And yes, this was in a regular public school. Needless to say, most kids hated that teacher, but I think it really was helpful in the long run, even if a lot of it was in-text quoting.
It was a good style for a broad research paper. Each kid got a word (mine was "imagination") and she had an outline of what sources you had to use at different points, and how to pull a thesis from all of it. Very well done.

Wow, 27 pages! I have to say that while I think 8th graders need to do a research paper (~5-8 pages sounds promising), 27 pages is a bit much for that level. However, I commend your teacher for truly helping you and your classmates for your future classes!

I would personally like to try a "word" technique "paper." I've seen so many students use a plethora of common words throughout their papers and I think they need to explore the use of a thesaurus. In my future classes, I want the students to pick a piece of paper out of a bag and create a paper focused on that word. For example, say a student picked out the word "apple." They would then have to create an entire paper discussing how the apple looks, tastes, smells, etc. I think/hope it would be immensely useful to understand and learn new words and phrases!

[krista]

May 31, 2011 15:07:49 GMT -5 mapachita said:

Hopefully, in two more years I'll be an EFL teacher (English as a Foreing Language)
I'm very nervous about it; everybody hates English teachers in Chile because, you know, "English is so useless in a spanish-speaking country" (?).
Guys, at least you were taught how to write essays! When I was in high school nobody taught us that! Then, university teachers ask you to write a paper and no one knows how to do it. I was introduced to the classic and horrid five-paragraph essay in my second year, when I took the "Introduction to Literature" class :S

You shouldn't be nervous! Also, have you looked into possibly teaching abroad? I'm sure people have positive/negative assumptions about English teachers over here in America as well.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I love how writing is taught in public schools period--although that is something that teachers themselves will not be able to change. When I got to college myself, my expository writing teacher had to teach us how to write at the "college" level. It wasn't difficult, to say the least, but it was hard to get out of the high school mindset of only writing an essay the "correct" way. There are many ways to write a paper!

[krista]

May 31, 2011 15:23:48 GMT -5 embonpoint said:

I would actually love to teach (at a sixth form level probably, so 16-18-ish), but I couldn't deal with all the bullshit administration and stuff. My maths tutor last year was re-training as a teacher, but I'm not sure if she's going to do it because she just couldn't hack all the paperwork and basically, interference in the classroom - syllabuses (is that the right plural?) and curricula and teacher targets and student targets and blah blah blah. I would find it really, really hard to play by the rules.

It definitely is a lot harder now to teach how you want to teach. My state has strict regulations and categories that we need to hit for each grade/year, not to mention what regulations each individual school district wants us to hit! However, I feel as though you're still able to be creative but you really have to work hard to maintain that creativity.

It is also difficult to focus on what you're teaching or trying to teach with discipline problems as well. That was a huge focus for me during my own student teaching experience. You can plan out an entire class, taking up 4 hours of your time, but when you get to finally teach your lesson plan, it could completely blow up in your face because of power struggles in the classroom! UGH!

[krista]

May 31, 2011 16:53:58 GMT -5 brosephargh said:

I'm currently in my undergrad going into teaching English as well!

Something we did in high school that I absolutely loved was explicating poetry. It helped immensely when this year in college for my American Lit. class when we had a brief poetry section - I knew exactly how to go about it. We also had to write our own poems and present them, which was a great way to get creative and break the nervousness of public speaking.

Something I wish we had done more of, though, were comparative essays. Taking two pieces of literature and comparing one or two aspects of them. We simply didn't do much of that in high school, for whatever reason, but I certainly have so far in college.

I'm so happy you're joining the field! That is wonderful to hear!

I really enjoy explicating poetry as well, but I feel as though some students will love it and others will hate it--there is no middle ground. I think it will depend on how it is taught and what poems are selected during the process.

As much as my students may hate me for this statement, I really love public speaking opportunities. I believe it is an important life-skill to have and children need to learn how to speak in front of a group. In college, we had to take a General Education class for "Introduction to Speech" where we had to create topics and give impromptu speeches for credit. It really helped me perfect the technique and I hope I can add something like this to my future units.

What grade levels are you hoping to teach in particular? And what are you dying to teach? I just had a job interview the other day and I spent 20 minutes discussing how I'd love to create a Harry Potter unit for 8th graders. ;D

[brosephargh]

May 31, 2011 19:09:37 GMT -5 krista said:

May 31, 2011 16:53:58 GMT -5 brosephargh said:

I'm currently in my undergrad going into teaching English as well!

Something we did in high school that I absolutely loved was explicating poetry. It helped immensely when this year in college for my American Lit. class when we had a brief poetry section - I knew exactly how to go about it. We also had to write our own poems and present them, which was a great way to get creative and break the nervousness of public speaking.

Something I wish we had done more of, though, were comparative essays. Taking two pieces of literature and comparing one or two aspects of them. We simply didn't do much of that in high school, for whatever reason, but I certainly have so far in college.

I'm so happy you're joining the field! That is wonderful to hear!

I really enjoy explicating poetry as well, but I feel as though some students will love it and others will hate it--there is no middle ground. I think it will depend on how it is taught and what poems are selected during the process.

As much as my students may hate me for this statement, I really love public speaking opportunities. I believe it is an important life-skill to have and children need to learn how to speak in front of a group. In college, we had to take a General Education class for "Introduction to Speech" where we had to create topics and give impromptu speeches for credit. It really helped me perfect the technique and I hope I can add something like this to my future units.

What grade levels are you hoping to teach in particular? And what are you dying to teach? I just had a job interview the other day and I spent 20 minutes discussing how I'd love to create a Harry Potter unit for 8th graders. ;D

I agree completely! I absolutely loathe public speaking, but I wouldn't say I'm bad at it. I just have to force myself to get past it, and once I do, I become comfortable.

And oh my lordy, if you were only my 8th grade teacher...

But for now I'm aiming at high school English - I'll do that for a few years until I go back to school to get my Ph.D, probably. And then teach at the college level.

[krista]

May 31, 2011 19:11:57 GMT -5 brosephargh said:

May 31, 2011 19:09:37 GMT -5 krista said:

I'm so happy you're joining the field! That is wonderful to hear!

I really enjoy explicating poetry as well, but I feel as though some students will love it and others will hate it--there is no middle ground. I think it will depend on how it is taught and what poems are selected during the process.

As much as my students may hate me for this statement, I really love public speaking opportunities. I believe it is an important life-skill to have and children need to learn how to speak in front of a group. In college, we had to take a General Education class for "Introduction to Speech" where we had to create topics and give impromptu speeches for credit. It really helped me perfect the technique and I hope I can add something like this to my future units.

What grade levels are you hoping to teach in particular? And what are you dying to teach? I just had a job interview the other day and I spent 20 minutes discussing how I'd love to create a Harry Potter unit for 8th graders. ;D

I agree completely! I absolutely loathe public speaking, but I wouldn't say I'm bad at it. I just have to force myself to get past it, and once I do, I become comfortable.

And oh my lordy, if you were only my 8th grade teacher...

But for now I'm aiming at high school English - I'll do that for a few years until I go back to school to get my Ph.D, probably. And then teach at the college level.

I hated giving oral presentations in high school, but I flourished with speeches in college. I'm not sure how it exactly happened, but it did! Since I started taking over classes and teaching, I've found myself to be more comfortable outside of school as well--especially in large groups of people.

I'm happy my Harry Potter wit thrilled you! There are so many books I want to teach to students that aren't considered part of the "normal" curriculum. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the classical literature we're "forced" to read in public school, but I definitely think there should be a balance of modern lit and classical lit in our English classes.

That sounds fantastic! I'm certified 8-12 myself but I'm considering a double certification in 5-8. I have to get my Masters within the next few years, but I'm also interested in getting my PhD. Whether or not I'd try to teach college is up in the air but it has been something I've been thinking about these past few weeks!