[etni] Helping teachers teach
- From: "David R. Herz" <drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2012 11:18:22 +0300
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There are so many wonderful points that were brought up yesterday that I
don't know where to begin.
First Adi, I agree. As an organization dedicated to excellence in English
teaching, we should be active in trying to influence the educational
policies that try to run a teacher's classroom. As a lawyer, I am very
interested in seeing our by-laws (which I have requested at least five
times, my first request having been made in 2006) to determine whether we
can do this.
Second, I agree with Rafi that we are missing the damned point. I can not
tell you how often I encounter some student who proudly informs me he has
five points in English, and then can't proceed to produce a coherent English
sentence. These central conversations about grades seem to miss the point
that grades might simply not correlate so well to proficiency in usable
English. Maybe we should implement another program to find out. Sorry, I
forgot that I have some scientific training. Maybe we should conduct
research on our target population before we force programs down people's
throats.
Maybe we should also conduct research on how people perform when their
experience is one of being coerced. I apologize again. There is research
on that as well, and it doesn't look good.
Maybe we should just admit that we don't know, or that what we do know is
not necessarily so easy for others to know or get. Or maybe we should give
teachers a chance to follow their own lights and see where it leads them,
and when they find gold, to let them share it with others, and let others
choose what to take and how to wear it.
I keep coming back to Ms. Geffen's theater work. I thought it was amazing,
but also think that to try to force teachers to be directors would be a
disaster. I think it is the same for any particular teaching method. If
it's good and you want to encourage it, help each other out, but if another
teacher gets more out of book days, or science fairs in English, or
Singlish, or reading thousands of years of world poetry in English
translation, or doing critical analysis of children's books, or project or
games-based learning, or on-line or actual publication of student materials,
we should encourage that too.
But instead we sit and argue about the fairness of rubrics (can we say
"teaching to the test"), or whether one blasted mandated method gives better
grades than another. How much of our time is wasted on discussions of how
fair the last module X was, or what dictionary the Ministry will allow, or
which book is now approved as literature.
It shouldn't matter whether teachers like HOTS or not, because HOTS, just
like every program that came before, should not be mandated. This mandate,
like any, chips away at the fun and love some portion of our teachers feel
for their work and their subject. If we want to teach respect, maybe we
should show some respect and empathy for them as well. Maybe we should just
let them keep doing well what they have been doing well, and give support
and suggestions to those who may not be feeling like they are succeeding in
their chosen profession. We might even cut the attrition rate a little.
And last, 500 at ETAI out of 14,000 teachers. Do we have these 14,000
teachers e-mails and demographic information. If we want to market
conferences, a good e-mail list would be a start. Then we might also want
to ask if they think there is something to be gained, or what would make it
worthwhile for them to show up. If they feel like their teaching is
circumscribed by the latest program, for which they just might be taking
hishtalmuyot, they might find that the enrichment - provided by such
thoughtful and engaging programs as Mr. Volk's on the Handyman, Ms. Esses'
on Role Play, Ms. Schowahne's on Blogging, or Ms. Stone-Herman's or Project
Based Learning - is surplusage that they could not fit into their program
anyway.
Consistency is not only the hobgoblin of small minds, but the bread and
butter of the bureaucrats of the Israeli Ministry of Education. The English
teacher's job is to help people learn English. It is possible that teachers
might just do this best without being shoe-horned into either program A or
B, or being micro-managed from above at all, or being held to account on one
national test.
The test is meaningless anyway. I presume that one purpose of knowing
English in this English dominated world is so that people can review the
literature relative to their profession. I can't tell you how often I have
offered literature related to education - in English - to educators only to
have them tell me they don't do English.
So in sum, I say we should get out of good teachers' ways, support the
teachers who need and want help, and spend our bagrut and inspectorate money
on such worthwhile things as building age-appropriate English libraries.
David R. Herz
<mailto:drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx> drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:davidrherz@xxxxxxxxx> davidrherz@xxxxxxxxx
Skype: drherz
972-52-579-1859
1-203-517-0518
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