Comments on: Sunday afternoon at school http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/ If you find yourself here, hello. Mon, 21 May 2012 21:58:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Heck Of A Guy » Teacher Appreciation #2: A Gift For Teacher http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-1081 Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:23:52 +0000 http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-1081 [...] and Mindspinner writes about teachers showing up at school on Sundays as commonplace). [...] […] and Mindspinner writes about teachers showing up at school on Sundays as commonplace). […]

]]> by: Phil Roberson http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-43 Sun, 06 Nov 2005 02:30:13 +0000 http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-43 One of the great challenges of teacher preparation, which is what I claim to do, is to introduce teacher candidates to the REAL LIVE good teachers. You know, dispelling the old "summers off, home every afternoon by 3:30" myth. What I have come to know over the past 15 years visiting schools and getting acquainted with the kinds of teachers who volunteer to take wannabe teachers under their wings year after year, is that we could never pay them enough for the work they do, and the magic they work with troublesome kids. They see it as a "service to the profession" AND, in some cases, as an opportunity to take on an eager young learner and actually USE them to benefit the kids in their classrooms. Others see the task as a necesary evil or lending a helping hand to the college down the road. Others do it because they are made to or because it was "their turn." You can guess which type of mentor teacher helps to keep the profession somewhat vital and, well, alive for another generation. In Wyoming, where more than a few schools are hosted on expansive ranches miles and miles from anywhere, teachers host future teachers for a full week, so they can "live the life of a real teacher." The teacher may have five or six kids who drive in from surrounding ranches to attend the one room school house that is a modular unit on the ranch, where the teacher also lives sometimes. Now that's an experience, especially for the teacher candidate who was drawn to the profession by the myth. I would that all future teachers had a similar, brief,live-in experience with a teacher like some I know and like you and the "yard man" you have described, you know the "Sunday afternoon" teachers. The growing trend is otherwise, with more and more teachers on alternative licenses, with little or no training or support, living the myth. Worse still, they are drawing the same low wage as the real teachers, the Sunday afternoon yard men, and Photoshop women. One of the great challenges of teacher preparation, which is what I claim to do, is to introduce teacher candidates to the REAL LIVE good teachers. You know, dispelling the old “summers off, home every afternoon by 3:30″ myth. What I have come to know over the past 15 years visiting schools and getting acquainted with the kinds of teachers who volunteer to take wannabe teachers under their wings year after year, is that we could never pay them enough for the work they do, and the magic they work with troublesome kids. They see it as a “service to the profession” AND, in some cases, as an opportunity to take on an eager young learner and actually USE them to benefit the kids in their classrooms. Others see the task as a necesary evil or lending a helping hand to the college down the road. Others do it because they are made to or because it was “their turn.” You can guess which type of mentor teacher helps to keep the profession somewhat vital and, well, alive for another generation.

In Wyoming, where more than a few schools are hosted on expansive ranches miles and miles from anywhere, teachers host future teachers for a full week, so they can “live the life of a real teacher.” The teacher may have five or six kids who drive in from surrounding ranches to attend the one room school house that is a modular unit on the ranch, where the teacher also lives sometimes. Now that’s an experience, especially for the teacher candidate who was drawn to the profession by the myth.

I would that all future teachers had a similar, brief,live-in experience with a teacher like some I know and like you and the “yard man” you have described, you know the “Sunday afternoon” teachers. The growing trend is otherwise, with more and more teachers on alternative licenses, with little or no training or support, living the myth. Worse still, they are drawing the same low wage as the real teachers, the Sunday afternoon yard men, and Photoshop women.

]]> by: Squirrely Jedi http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-41 Wed, 02 Nov 2005 04:32:21 +0000 http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-41 It's a great gift people like that exist in the world. Who knows where we'd be otherwise. It’s a great gift people like that exist in the world. Who knows where we’d be otherwise.

]]> by: jo(e) http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-40 Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:09:49 +0000 http://mindspinner.net/wordpress/archives/70/sunday-afternoon-at-school/#comment-40 <i>The best things that happen at school happen not because of testing, accountability, standards and whatnot but instead because someone cares to tend to kids and to making school a good place to be and to learn, on and on.</i> You are so right. The best things that happen at school happen not because of testing, accountability, standards and whatnot but instead because someone cares to tend to kids and to making school a good place to be and to learn, on and on.

You are so right.

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