Becoming a teacher requires work....lots of work.....long hours, lots of classes, projects, clinical hours, student teaching and much more.... we come out of college with our degree and our ambition but are we really prepared to manage a classroom completely on our own?
NO!
I will tell you right now that we are not prepared to deal with real life classrooms with real life children and real life drama. THE DRAMA IS REAL GUYS!
I am not here to poo poo my professors and teachers that I had at good ol ISU. They were wonderful. I learned so much and I definitely wouldn't have the teaching skills I have now if I hadn't taken those classes.
The problem I am seeing with the whole education system right now are teachers who have been prepared for a classroom of 17-21 students who listen when you say something, know how to tie their shoes, would never think to cuss at you let alone put a hand on you and have the basic skills to behave in a classroom setting.
The reality....most classroom teachers are faced with students who don't hear you the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 15th time you give a direction and when you go over to kindly but sternly explain the direction just ONE MORE TIME they tell you to F**K OFF because we "do too much" or they smack their lips at you because HOW DARE YOU try and help them learn....God forbid!
The kicker? This special friend needs to stay in your classroom....this special friend cannot spend his or her day hanging out in the office and let me tell you now that if you try to send said special friend to the office they will come beeboppin back after having a talking to about their disrespect lookin at you like "Im back b**ch" and your blood will boil. It will actually boil.
I am getting off topic.
I've been chatting with a coworker lately about how colleges need to teach teachers how to properly manage a classroom. These classes need to be taught by ACTUAL TEACHERS! Teachers who are still actively teaching and can give real life examples and ways to help in different situations.
I did not have this. I don't even remember taking a classroom management class....I might have but it made such little impact on my teaching that Ive literally forgotten about it. I do remember making an entire unit binder with tabs and color coded things and sheet protectors and it was lovely...BUT ASK ME HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE CREATED A UNIT IN MY 5 YEARS?!?!?! never...not once...because thats not real life.
I know I babble and this might not be a cohesive post at all and I KNOW its full of grammatical errors....obviously I didn't take much away from my college English classes...but do you get what I'm saying?
There is such a high turnover rate in teaching because
-yes we are underpaid (you all know it....)
-yes teaching is stressful in any school in any classroom in any city
-yes we purchase a lot of our own materials and thats difficult on our already tiny salaries
-support is sometimes lacking greatly
-but truly I think that there is a big turnover because sometimes teachers are just truly not prepared for what teaching is really like.
Universities need to start having a Coming to Jesus 101 course (I cannot take credit for the name) especially for teachers who are planning to teach in an urban setting. This course will be blunt and straight forward and eye opening. It will teach real life skills to manage a class when you have to do it all your own. It will point out instances you never thought would happen....
EXAMPLE-student A stands on his table and screams at the top of his lungs throughout your entire math lesson because "HE DOESNT LIKE SCIENCE" which makes no sense...because youre teaching math...but to him, this makes sense and he is PISSED... when you try to get him down he jumps like a lemur from table to table, he then gets to the book shelf....and continues to climb.....you have 20 other students in your room watching this unfold...you call the office and request assistance but NO ONE COMES....what do you do....
Yes that happened to me one year....no I didn't know what to do....I think I cried at lunch that day....
Will this Coming to Jesus class fix our teacher shortage? No. Will we still get burnt out, cry, scream, lose our temper and maybe think about selling our organs to make money when we quit teaching? Yes. However I still think that we need to be better prepared.....I will teach the class, you are all welcome to sign up.... it. will. be. riveting.
Honestly sorry about how long this was....and how scattery it was.....I need spring break....
