I would be fired as a teacher under the new educational reforms.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Some may think that would be a good thing.

I have been out of teaching for a while. However if I was still in, I would last a nanosecond probably. If I stayed, I would legitimately give the measures a try. I would do my best to follow them.

However, I'm sure I would be caught not being on task or whatever if something important happened to upset the kids. I always preferred to talk about it a little bit so they would feel heard. It helped calm the classroom.

I would try to raise the 'scores.' (Jeebus it sounds like a BCS bowl game). How do you raise the scores of kids in science who are in the 7th,8th or 9th grade and read on a second or third grade level if that? I would look up reading levels to get an idea of where my classes were. I didn't want to condescend and make them feel dumb. I wanted to find a way to get science concepts across using steps to build them upward towards reading better.

I was a reading teacher disguised as a science teacher. I have always thought that every teacher should have to pass a course in teaching reading. I also think that all textbooks should be structured to teach content and reading. That would help. Some would say that's not their job. Well you bloody well aren't going to get anywhere if they don't understand. A lot of the kids could use some decent computer reading exercises with the appropriate science content or whatever.

Every kid should have a laptop at their desk with wifi so that a teacher could instruct them from that instead of the blackboard. It would probably catch their attention and be more effective. It would also improve their computer skills that they need to know beyond texting in the new language.Yes it is a new language or dialect. WTF u mean? LOL I don't speak it well.

They could learn to use search engines if they blocked bad sites. They could also be shown examples of sites that lie or misdirect. Everything on the intertubes isn't true. The teacher could have a screen with smaller screens that show what the kids are really looking at in order to monitor them better.

See. I'm off again on a tangent. Tangents get me, but tangents can teach. Tangents could help me approach a concept a different way to get an idea across. Tangents would probably get me in trouble.

I would be doomed.

[sammytko]

1. my uni requires 2 reading courses before graduation

content area and one other that i can't remember right now. the only issue is that they focus on elementary age students. those of us that want to work with older kids find it boring. I know, we are bad students.

[Bucky]

2. I teach now. I agree, you have to follow those teachable moments

You have to follow those teachable moments with the kids. You have to balance tickling their curiosity & respecting their curiosity with getting them up to speed with the skills & knowledge they'll need in life. But I do have to say that, after 10 years or so of living under mandated performance standards measured by standardized tests to the kids that it had introduced an element of intellectual rigor in my classrooms that wasn't there before. Balancing the fun with the accountability is actually a pretty good life lesson for the kids as well.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. It depends on how the

accountability is looked at. If you have some overseers that I had, there would be problems. Some steps away from a a mandated idea as they interpreted it would not be pretty.

As far as intellectual rigor, I don't know how you define it. I had goals that I wanted to meet based on what levels I was working with. I didn't expect kids to jump 2 levels. I also tried not to limit them if they could move faster than anticipated.

[livetohike]

3. Me too. I probably would have been doomed long ago

I left teaching in 1981, except for one year as a sub in 1994-1995. It was enough to know that my kind weren't welcome in the education field anymore. The things I used to do with my classes back in the 70's would probably get me fired :-(. I couldn't work like this now.