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Old 12-16-2007, 08:19 AM
 
419 posts, read 2,016,169 times
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I am over 50 and have no kids to ask and am to old to remember, so I will ask the Education Board:

When a High School teacher speaks in front of the class, is he/she reading from materials given from his/her own self developed research- or are they given the course materials from administrators? I would think it would be extremely difficult for a teacher to develop class materials for 180 days. If there are three different teachers teaching the same class, are they all teaching the same materials?

In a class like social studies, does the teacher operate by reading from established materials or do they talk off the top of their heads?
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Old 12-16-2007, 08:21 AM
 
Location: Chicago
2,467 posts, read 12,225,109 times
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They generally use a guide from the text book company, etc but they come up with the course plan themselves. The administration may require that certain material is covered (especially due to No Child Left Behind testing) but generally doesn't give them the plan.
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Old 12-16-2007, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Papillion
2,589 posts, read 10,530,230 times
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I am not a teacher but have 2 children who recently finished the public system... Its totally up to the motivation of the teacher. Are they there teaching because its a job or is it a passion?

1) I have seen teachers who use the materials provided and pretty much teach to the plan provided.

2) I have seen some that take a little inititive to bring other materials/sources into the classroom to supplement the canned plan.

3) I have also seen some really motivated teachers that have really put their soul into their classroom/kids and made the program their own - in these cases, its generally been teachers who are teaching as a second career and are molding their class teaching around a wealth of reallife experiences.
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Old 12-16-2007, 10:36 AM
 
Location: in a house
3,574 posts, read 14,317,185 times
Reputation: 2400
Quote:
Originally Posted by questioner2 View Post
I am over 50 and have no kids to ask and am to old to remember, so I will ask the Education Board:

When a High School teacher speaks in front of the class, is he/she reading from materials given from his/her own self developed research- or are they given the course materials from administrators? I would think it would be extremely difficult for a teacher to develop class materials for 180 days. If there are three different teachers teaching the same class, are they all teaching the same materials?

In a class like social studies, does the teacher operate by reading from established materials or do they talk off the top of their heads?
You are required to cover certain content for the particular subject you teach. How you do it is wide open. Yes, it is a challenge to develop material to cover the content for an entire school year AND keep the students engaged and somewhat motivated. Different age groups, different methods, different roadblocks. Thank heavens, it is semester break. Time to polish material for next semester.
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Old 12-16-2007, 04:24 PM
 
1,428 posts, read 3,153,833 times
Reputation: 1475
Quote:
Originally Posted by questioner2 View Post
I am over 50 and have no kids to ask and am to old to remember, so I will ask the Education Board:

When a High School teacher speaks in front of the class, is he/she reading from materials given from his/her own self developed research- or are they given the course materials from administrators? I would think it would be extremely difficult for a teacher to develop class materials for 180 days. If there are three different teachers teaching the same class, are they all teaching the same materials?

In a class like social studies, does the teacher operate by reading from established materials or do they talk off the top of their heads?
Speaking for myself personally, I am not "reading," but I am discussing materials from my own self-developed research. For example, right now in my literature class, we are discussing a piece from 18th-century Austria. It was my own decision to discuss this piece (although my syllabus was reviewed and approved by my administrator prior to my teaching it). I teach certain set concepts and background information necessary for intelligent, informed discussion, but largely the discussions past that point are done by the students' responses to questions I've generated or that they've generated about the work. It's not scripted -- nor should it be, because if it were, it would allow no room for the students to develop their own understandings of the work's meaning based on the evidence in the text. It would be just regurgitation of what I wanted them to think.

In our school, though we have identical state standards (e.g., "Students will learn to appreciate the diverse works of world literature and cultures"), we have different ways of teaching that particular standard and different texts to teach it with. One person may be teaching Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrranos; another may be teaching selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran; another may be teaching Kafka's Metamorphosis. Theoretically, each text could meet that particular standard.

Does that help?
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Old 12-16-2007, 05:27 PM
 
Location: City of the damned, Wash
428 posts, read 2,436,825 times
Reputation: 261
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave1215 View Post
I am not a teacher but have 2 children who recently finished the public system... Its totally up to the motivation of the teacher. Are they there teaching because its a job or is it a passion?

1) I have seen teachers who use the materials provided and pretty much teach to the plan provided.

2) I have seen some that take a little inititive to bring other materials/sources into the classroom to supplement the canned plan.

3) I have also seen some really motivated teachers that have really put their soul into their classroom/kids and made the program their own - in these cases, its generally been teachers who are teaching as a second career and are molding their class teaching around a wealth of reallife experiences.
re: real life: I would deviate from script out of sheer boredom (maybe to keep the students interested too), and I suspect that a lot of teachers get political out of boredom.
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Old 12-17-2007, 09:28 AM
9/9
 
Location: Durham, NC
383 posts, read 563,951 times
Reputation: 221
Teachers are given topics and specifics to cover, and usually a schedule to cover them. However, the specifics of how it is taught and the activities that occur in the classroom is at the control of the individual teacher.
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Old 12-17-2007, 09:59 AM
 
Location: Camberville
15,832 posts, read 21,346,463 times
Reputation: 28114
Many teachers CAN'T develop what they want to teach themselves because they have to teach to the test.

I had several teachers in high school get into big trouble because they taught how they wished (so, you know, we'd actually learn) but only spent the day before the test briefly going over what would be on the state exams. I found this completely reasonable because the state exam for juniors was something I probably could have passed in elementary school... but the 3 teachers I had that did this received disciplinary action because one person failed the exam and complained. The vast majority of the rest of us missed one or two questions tops. It's frustrating to be a high school student because the good teachers aren't allowed to be good teachers in so many cases.
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