INFORMATION FOR NONTRAD TEACHING STUDENTS AND NEW INTERNS!
Now is the time when many nontraditional student teachers and first-year interns are finishing up their semester.
Some questions I have this year...
1. Are nontraditional students feeling supported by other teachers and school staff?
2. Will most nontraditional students go on to teach – either full or part time?
3. With the current job cuts at many schools right now, will new nontraditional teaching students be able to find a job at all?
And just as important, what do YOU think?
To find out more, I found some GREAT blogs today about teaching students who are going through their last training periods. But boy, were they ever hard to find!
And just where are the intern and student teaching blogs written just by nontraditional students? I could not find them. Please give me your blog so I can add it to my post, blog, and website.
In the meantime, these blogs and sites I COULD find today should prove interesting to new teachers of all ages. Are you a new teacher? Or are you an experienced teacher? Please comment at the comments section to let me know of your opinion and what other links are important ones.
Thank you!
STUDENT TEACHING
Read about final Student Teaching reflections at
Docere Est Discere
Musings on language and teaching
This student has now done student teaching 2 places – with two very different cooperating teachers.
The Clairvoy Site: Clairvoy Teacher Assistance is a new website “trading strategy in bite-sized pieces.” This looks really interesting. It is a Wiki site – or is it a Tiki site? I will have to explore it more to find out.
INTERN TEACHING links (Read blogs about that all-important first year of teaching...)
10 Rookie Mistakes of a First Year Teacher
http://teachyoualesson.blogspot.com/2007/08/ten-rookie-mistakes-of-first-year.html
Advice for your internship (Elementary Ed) from the WikiHow site:
Year One Teacher
The New Teacher on the Block
OTHER FASCINATING TEACHER BLOGS:
The Graham Webner Blog: The Open Educator
Written by an elementary Australian teacher
The Tempered Radical
by 6th grade teacher Bill Ferriter
Anonymous Teacher Blog (second year)
OTHER USEFUL SITES
Here is a life-raft to all teachers, beginning or otherwise.
It's the Harry and Rosemary Wong Effective Teaching page at Teachers.net.
Teaching Feedback – 5 tips to immediately improve your teaching – by a veteran teacher:
http://712educators.about.com/od/teachingstrategies/a/veterantips.htm
and these are really interesting too...
Why you can't find many teacher blogs online
But then I was really happy to find this!
50 Up and Coming Teacher Blogs from Teaching Tips!
And this!
Best of the Web – education/teacher blogs
*And I just added this:
Links to School Bloggers
You can get a free documentary about being a new teacher here:
Road to Teaching site FREE documentary
THE OTHER SIDE OF TEACHING
Keep in mind... like everything, the issues here and opinions show that, as always, there is MY side, THEIR side, and the truth.
But these websites can be very thought-provoking, and worth reading.
Why this teacher and other teachers are leaving the field
Teaching in the 408
Some stories about unfair treatment of teachers
Warning: very controversial!
The NAPTA site
The Massachusetts Teacher Site
This site also has its opinions why many new teachers leave.
What are your thoughts? Is this a good time to become a teacher at midlife? What is the teacher situation in YOUR area?
Is it a good time to become a teacher at any age?
I've come a bit full circle. I started out as a traditional college student working on a English Education degree. When I returned as a non-trad, I had pretty much decided that I didn't want to teach. Now that I have my degree, I'm actually going through my state's alternative certification program and I am working on a M.Ed. so that I will be certified to teach (journalism and eventually, English) and become a Library Media Specialist (which is my real goal).
ReplyDeleteAs for the questions you asked...is now a good time to become a teacher? Now is as good a time as any. Sure, schools are cutting back but EVERYone is cutting back. Your odds are just as good getting a teaching job as anywhere. However, in my state, the legislature is trying to pass a bill that will no longer mandate certified librarians at schools which has me worried.
Is it good to become a teacher at midlife? Absolutely. I think people should never underestimate the skills they have learned through parenting, "the real world" and their vocational and/or recreational activities. A teacher recently told me that the best skills she learned in classroom management came from motherhood (the old "evil eye" serves her well--lol!)
The main questions to ask for anybody considering education is "Do I love kids?" and "Do I love learning?"
Thanks for sharing these sites. I will definetely check them out!