marathoner452 is trying not to melt in the New Orleans heat.

become a teacher (read all 19 entries…)

Worth doing!

field experience  — 10 months ago

I start my field experiences today, in a middle school in Jefferson Parish (read: the suburbs). Ultimately what I want is an elementary school in New Orleans, but that won’t happen until the end of October thanks to the inefficient Recovery School District. (My background check will take a month because they’re implementing a new system, though what they’re doing with new teachers in the interim is beyond me.)

Anyway, I’m making progress and progress is good.

Comments:

all field experiences are good......

you never know where you’ll end up teaching and a mixture of grade levels plus different schools will add up to one impressive resume :) Good luck!

marathoner452 is trying not to melt in the New Orleans heat.

This is very true. My field experiences today were a huge eye opener.

tell me about them

what grade level? how many kids in the classroom?

marathoner452 is trying not to melt in the New Orleans heat.

I observed 3 middle school classes taught by 2 different teachers. One was a 2nd year teacher and the other has been teaching for about 2 months. The system in New Orleans is such that you can start teaching with no teacher education whatsoever, and the one with a couple months’ experience is a fellow student in my behavior support/classroom management class.

Let me put it this way, her heart is in the right place but she needs to be paying attention in that class. It’s not because of the class size either, as all three of the classes I observed had 20-25 students. No, her classes reminded me of my days of subbing when I accomplished very little. There was no structure. The other classroom, however, the teacher didn’t waste a minute of instructional time, but she wasn’t mean either. She was in control but the students seemed to be having fun along with learning.

My roommate says I should go to all different kinds of schools for my field experience, Jefferson Parish, St. Bernard, RSD, different levels, just to see what’s going on. I have to agree.

laurencresswell getting married in 7 days!

It takes time

to get used to keeping your eye on everyone and keeping the class moving. She would probably appreciate the feedback and some suggestions. It feels so much better when things are productive!

Where are you getting your certification? I’m right down the road from you in EBR… actually teaching middle school in the Baker district. Like New Orleans, Baker schools suffer from extremely low test scores and unqualified teachers.

I’m about to finish the MAT program at Southeastern (an alternate certification program which also leads to a masters). This is my 2nd year teaching… I was one of those teachers who started mid-year with absolutely NO experience, not even student teaching. I find that being “thrown to the wolves” and forced to either “sink or swim” teaches me more than any college course could.

And oh. I’m running my first marathon in January… the Mardi Gras Marathon.


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