Class 8 Readings

1.      Typically, on one wall, a “Big Goal” poster proclaims the class objective: “Students will, on average, achieve 80 percent of their learning goals based on state standards.” (Alex Diamond-TFA)

This is why I am worried about Teaching for America, because once again the school systems are focusing on state standards as their main goals. The government enforced this strategy in order to try something different to help our education system, but by making the focus state standards again, the education system is going in circles and not forward. I mean this is what the students are going to see once they enter the classroom. Don’t you think if high school students saw this poster they would be intimidated?  Once again education is asking these kids to live up to a certain standard, they want them all to be molded into the same person, but different bodies. I thought teachers were here to promote creativity and individualism, but by bringing more teachers that are promoting standards into school is only adding fuel to the fire that actual educators are trying to put out.

2.      Very few of us, including me, had formal education training prior to joining TFA. Our ideas of how to teach come mostly from a five-week summer training institute that promises to give new recruits the tools they will need to be successful teachers. (Alex Diamond-TFA)

As a future educator I don’t believe that a five week summer training program is going to help the teachers working for TFA. I am a five year senior and as I am about to go out into the field I still don’t believe I am as ready as I can be to teach to students yet. Don’t you think these people should have formal teaching education prior to teaching students? I think they should because they are taking jobs away from people like me and I find it unfair that I m going through the education undergraduate program, busting my ass, and these people are getting to teach students only having 5 weeks of training. What does this say about education? It seems to me that education is easy and anyone can do it. No, that’s false. People who choose to go into education want to make a difference in student’s lives and it is not like I have just been going through the motions these five years. I actually want to be a teacher and I don’t really agree with how these people who are in Teachers of America find something that sounds easy and gives good pay and jump at the opportunity. It is unrealistic that these teachers can get the best tools in five weeks; it is just not going to happen. And maybe this is why the teachers are unsuccessful in their first year.

3.      Because of the way we’re trained, TFA teachers tend to be very test-, data-, and standards-driven. TFA teachers are taught to begin with state standards, break them down into specific skills, and then write test questions for each skill. (Alex Diamond-TFA)

So a TFA teacher admits that the training he received was test, data, and standard driven. So the program is five weeks long and concentrates only on standard driven teaching. Now I definitely do not have anything good to say about Teachers for America. I just don’t understand how the United States is trying to fix the problem by actually using the problem their trying to fix. Standard based teaching is the problem in the first place, so why is TFA using that type of teaching to train the TFA teachers? They are just enforcing the problem. To be honest, if they want success in this strategy they should actually use certified educators to teach in their program. I think people who went to school for education would be great for this program, but the only think they wouldn’t like is usually leaving after two years are spent at one school. The United States needs to let the teachers do their jobs and stop trying to fix something they cannot fix.

4.      From the perspective of TFA, my lesson would be successful if students were able, on average, to recall 80 percent of that information on my test. (Alex Diamond-TFA)

First of all, who are they to say what measures success in school? And how do they come up with the number of 80 percent? To me TFA is setting the students up for failure again. 80 percent is an unlikely number, especially coming from teachers who do not have the background in education. They are expecting students to recall information that is not being taught well and probably being taught in a teacher centered way. If TFA actually thinks 80 percent is how you measure success than they are never going to see a positive outcome because they are basing this statistic on standardized testing and teaching. You cannot measure of a lesson based on recalling information on a test. There are many things that go into recalling information, yes the lesson is important, but it is how you teach the lesson. But if the students improve from past test scores, isn’t that considered success? In my mind any type of improvement is success especially when looking at previous grades or test scores. TFA does not have the background needed in education to set a bar that high for students, they just don’t understand education.

5.      But TFA training has not included many of the strategies that I find most effective. TFA’s test-based and standards-driven orientation stifles creativity, and nowhere in TFA training did anyone present the type of lesson that I taught on World War I. (Alex Diamond-TFA)

Once again we have someone who is a part of TFA stating that the program has many flaws. Being a future educator it is pretty obvious that TFA does not have the strategies that are the most effective. As a teacher, you strive for the students to utilize creativity and self expression, but test based and standard driven orientation does not promote this type of learning. When reading this quote Alex has learned how to improve is teaching by just being in the field. The last line of this quote proves that he used his student teacher interaction in order to make a successful lesson. This goes back to when I said the best way of learning on how to teach is being in the classroom with the students. I am a semester away from student teaching and I know I still have a lot to learn before I can be a full time teacher, but I know I am going to come away with a lot of knowledge when I go out and student teach. Being in the classroom setting for 16 weeks is going to make a huge difference in how I teach, negatively and positively.

6.      But now, just as my fellow 2008 corps members and I come into our own as teachers, we near the end of our two-year commitment. The students of low performing schools tend to already be victimized by relatively inexperienced teachers who don’t last that long. TFA perpetuates that problem. (Alex Diamond-TFA)

Alex makes a great point in this quote by bringing up the 2 year commitment each teacher has when being a part of TFA. How can students have relationships with their teachers if they are only at the school for 2 years? Maybe the TFA program could work if they make some slight adjustments to it. These teachers will learn how to be better once they get experience under their belt, but how can they make a connection with students if they leave after two years. This school hopping is a huge disadvantage to the teachers and the children; 2 years is just not enough time. As a teacher coming into these students’ lives, you are supposed to gain their trust. By doing this you show your students that you actually care about them and want to see them do well, not only in school, but in life as well. What does this show the students if you just get up and leave with no problem? It gives the students the idea that you never really cared about them and you are like every other educator they have been dealing with since they’ve been in school. And this may also hit home because some students may not have a mother or father, but they saw you as that role model and adult figure, and here you are leaving their lives without any hesitation. It might seem a little too familiar with them.