former public school teachers(was Greetings)
[email protected]
Hi all,
I 'm just curious as to how many other former (or current) public school
teachers are on this list. We're currently an "in-the-closet unschooling
family" as I teach at public school and do not yet have tenure. However, this year
is not going great right now for me because I'm having a hard time
justifying what my students face every day with how I feel about how education should
be.
I'm trying to do my part to make the school experience better for my group
of high school special education students, but still, the arbitrary rules and
obnoxious state testing (we're in NY- tons of tests!) have really been getting
to me lately. When they (students) complain about school I want to tell
them all - HOMESCHOOL!
But this seems to be the career I'm settled with for now (didn't word that
quite right but can't think of how to say it..)
Just wondering how many others have become (or always been) unschoolers
after having experiences working in the public school system.
Gotta go, the kids and dh are begging to play their Gettysburg game, but
tomorrow they are getting their own used computer just for games, yippie!
Amanda B.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I 'm just curious as to how many other former (or current) public school
teachers are on this list. We're currently an "in-the-closet unschooling
family" as I teach at public school and do not yet have tenure. However, this year
is not going great right now for me because I'm having a hard time
justifying what my students face every day with how I feel about how education should
be.
I'm trying to do my part to make the school experience better for my group
of high school special education students, but still, the arbitrary rules and
obnoxious state testing (we're in NY- tons of tests!) have really been getting
to me lately. When they (students) complain about school I want to tell
them all - HOMESCHOOL!
But this seems to be the career I'm settled with for now (didn't word that
quite right but can't think of how to say it..)
Just wondering how many others have become (or always been) unschoolers
after having experiences working in the public school system.
Gotta go, the kids and dh are begging to play their Gettysburg game, but
tomorrow they are getting their own used computer just for games, yippie!
Amanda B.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
beanmommy2
--- In [email protected], bokusfam@... wrote:
kids, and I loved it. I'm a music teacher and was always
given "something else," like, say a drama class.
It worked really well for me, and it was probably very different
from a "regular" teacher job ... because first of all, I was a
traveling teacher, so nobody ever really knew where I was and I got
out of a lot of meetings and stuff, because during the meeting I
would be at my other school.
Also, nobody really cares about the music and drama classes, unless
they're impressed, so I almost literally could do whatever I wanted
and people almost never complained. For my music classes, I always
made up my own stuff; I didn't follow the textbook or other
expensive supplies. For example, I taught my middle school kids
about the I-IV-V chording pattern and we played "Sweet Home Alabama"
on the Orff instruments, that kind of thing. We also played a
modified version of the board game "Encore."
Basically, I would bring to them anything I thought was interesting
or worth sharing.
And for drama there was *no* curriculum or objectives or anything,
so I just did whatever struck my fancy. I used to record Whose Line
is it Anyway and we would watch some, then do our own. I'm sure I
was breaking some district rules by doing that, but nobody ever
called me on it.
So, I didn't have to worry about standardized testing, or following
a specific set of books, or whatever it is that it sounds like
teachers often have to worry about. When I was told to do dumb
things like tie in my lesson to the "Value of the week" or whatever,
I would just smile graciously, then put the info in the trash after
the person left the room.
I still teach private music lessons. I also sometimes go into the
public schools as a contract worker, to accompany chorus concerts.
Even though I enjoy doing it, it is often sad for me because the
environment is so clearly unpleasant in most classrooms. I always
make an effort to smile a lot and try to chat with the kids a little.
Jenny
> Hi all,school
> I 'm just curious as to how many other former (or current) public
> teachers are on this list.I used to work FT in the the public schools before I had my own
kids, and I loved it. I'm a music teacher and was always
given "something else," like, say a drama class.
It worked really well for me, and it was probably very different
from a "regular" teacher job ... because first of all, I was a
traveling teacher, so nobody ever really knew where I was and I got
out of a lot of meetings and stuff, because during the meeting I
would be at my other school.
Also, nobody really cares about the music and drama classes, unless
they're impressed, so I almost literally could do whatever I wanted
and people almost never complained. For my music classes, I always
made up my own stuff; I didn't follow the textbook or other
expensive supplies. For example, I taught my middle school kids
about the I-IV-V chording pattern and we played "Sweet Home Alabama"
on the Orff instruments, that kind of thing. We also played a
modified version of the board game "Encore."
Basically, I would bring to them anything I thought was interesting
or worth sharing.
And for drama there was *no* curriculum or objectives or anything,
so I just did whatever struck my fancy. I used to record Whose Line
is it Anyway and we would watch some, then do our own. I'm sure I
was breaking some district rules by doing that, but nobody ever
called me on it.
So, I didn't have to worry about standardized testing, or following
a specific set of books, or whatever it is that it sounds like
teachers often have to worry about. When I was told to do dumb
things like tie in my lesson to the "Value of the week" or whatever,
I would just smile graciously, then put the info in the trash after
the person left the room.
I still teach private music lessons. I also sometimes go into the
public schools as a contract worker, to accompany chorus concerts.
Even though I enjoy doing it, it is often sad for me because the
environment is so clearly unpleasant in most classrooms. I always
make an effort to smile a lot and try to chat with the kids a little.
Jenny
Melanie Ilsley
--- In [email protected], bokusfam@... wrote:
hi I went to school for three and a half years to be a ps teacher, after working in a school
for 6 months, i realized that i could never be happy there. I wish i had remembered that
when Lil wanted to go to ps, i wish i could have convinced her how un happy she would
be, but i guess that was another thing she wanted to learn on her own. Melanie in vt>
> Hi all,
> I 'm just curious as to how many other former (or current) public school
> teachers are on this list. We're currently an "in-the-closet unschooling
> family" as I teach at public school and do not yet have tenure. However, this year
> is not going great right now for me because I'm having a hard time
> justifying what my students face every day with how I feel about how education should
> be.
> I'm trying to do my part to make the school experience better for my group
> of high school special education students, but still, the arbitrary rules and
> obnoxious state testing (we're in NY- tons of tests!) have really been getting
> to me lately. When they (students) complain about school I want to tell
> them all - HOMESCHOOL!
> But this seems to be the career I'm settled with for now (didn't word that
> quite right but can't think of how to say it..)
> Just wondering how many others have become (or always been) unschoolers
> after having experiences working in the public school system.
> Gotta go, the kids and dh are begging to play their Gettysburg game, but
> tomorrow they are getting their own used computer just for games, yippie!
> Amanda B.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>