How Has Teaching Changed?
Posted by Debra Liverman on 13 Nov 2008 | Posted in: Teachers and Teaching
As I was going through some old photos, I ran across a picture of my fifth-grade class from my very first year of teaching. I tried to imagine what some of those students, now in their midtwenties, might be doing. I’m sure they’ve changed so much that I may not recognize them. Then I started reflecting on all the changes I’ve seen in teaching over the years. There have been many of them!
So here’s a question for all the veteran teachers out there: how has teaching changed since you started your career?
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The purpose of education is to perform well on a battery of tests designed for profit by big business that are neither valid nor reliable.
Statistics can and are being manipulated.
Why are not the politicians fighting to get education funded as it is written in the US Constitution that “education is the responsibility of the State”. That certainly does not hold true in one of the poorest funded states in the Union- Illinois.
Why are classes being held on stages, closets and in bathrooms, sometimes in 90 degree heat? I have taught in all of them!
When I started teaching the standardized test were used to assess progress. The teacher’s professional insight and experience was far more important than the results of any capricious tests.
Standards have been raised under the illogical assumption that if you teach “higher” skills, if you cram in more material the children will learn more. Have these so-called bureaucrats ever heard of readiness skills?
The bureaucrats are so busy trying to teacher-proof the curriculum that they cannot see the underpaid, talented, dedicated, highly EDUCATED professional job pool staring them right in the face. We have already been trained as to how to teach and often forgo somewhat higher salaries as we are committed to the welfare of these children who lack advantages for a myriad of reasons.
The notion, the premise is absurd. The end result will be a dangerous lack of intrinsic motivation on the part of the students which is so crucial to success in education.
What will happen when the drop-out rate reaches an all-time high? What ever happened to the joy of learning?
Did you pursue an education to perform well on a standardized test?
Children learn by doing. They learn best through play. They work hard all day long and need time to be kids in order to assure their total physical development which is crucial to their intellectual growth.
Why not teach long division in first grade before the little ones can even count? I’d receive first graders inner city youngsters year after year who did not know how to even hold a pencil.
Although they lived a few miles away, many third graders had never seen Lake Michigan but knew the names of all the wrestlers on cable tv.
In this so-called information age, if one needs to know what a rhombus is, just how difficult would it be to access that information?
Children are not being taught how to think but rather to placate the bureaucrats with an extremely limited political agenda. It is a shame to watch the children suffer from their unADULTerated ignorance of the elected and appointed officials. FOR WHAT?
I have been teaching preschool at a Head Start program for 7 years. I feel that if I taught the way my director wants me to teach my kids would not be ready for Kindergarten. I am not suppose to have a letter of the week. I can not hang the alphabet up in my classroom. I am not allowed to hang anything store bought. Apparently only child made decorations are meaningful to the children. No patterns on our borders, no decorations on our door and no bulletin boards unless the children make everything. We are suppose to teach a theme every week. I thought I was suppose to get these kids ready for Kindergarten?? I do teach and focus on a letter of the week anyway and the children love it. I think that four and five year olds need to be prepared for Kindergarten. I don’t want my students to be behind. I love to teach and be creative. But I feel like they are trying to take that away from me!
In an effort to have some say in what I teach my kindergarteners, I took executive offices in our community teacher organization and started researching and questioning what was happening. (This year we started mandatory spelling test every Friday at the beginning of November! -Not to mention our grade card objectives are not developmental.) I was told to sit down and keep my mouth shut over and over. I agree with everything we are frustrated about, but I want to know what to do about it. Our building has had 100% turn over in 5 years, and our district teacher retention rate is below the Missouri average, but the only thing they seem to be doing is putting more mandates in place for new teachers. I know teachers need more control, kids need to be kids, and we have to quit teaching to the tests, but I want to know HOW??? I’m ready to fight for what I know is right. I just don’t know how. I’d rather be a leader than someone who just gives up.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’ve taught preschool for 15 years. We are going through our NAEYC accreditation process and I am spending hours doing paperwork to document all the activities we do to meet their hundreds of criteria. The irony being that now that I’m spending all this time on paperwork I don’t have time to spend preparing and adding new fun activities. The director fills in with associates while I’m out of the room doing documentation and for the first time ever I have children in the room who know less now than when they started school. I spend so much time assessing children, who has time to teach?
Ayesha;
I graduated from Zayed University in UAE. My major focus on Family Science Sciences. My courses were in consulting and social workers. I started my job as assistant Librarian and especially teaching kindergarten kids librarian skills. Also, I deal with different groups of years from Grade one to grade nine. but I could say that our education still related to teaching way which teachers required students to mom many of their subjects. In addition of all that, many subjects they must have as major classes. under this atmosphere they lose the real purpose from education. As being a students, mother, teacher-assistant librarian and based on my university education in my opinion, teachers can implement the official curriculum they should teach through it by using the play as way to transfer the curriculum in fun way to make the students interest in learning and created new generation who be able to start their own projects and ideas.
In many of the above comments the concepts of having fun and learning seem to be two separate things. As teachers we need to find ways for the government mandated curriculum to be fun and entertaining for the students. Mailbox is the answer. Many of the activities that they provide in their magazines are in alignment with the state standards. The students are tested on the state standards. If only administrators could see that good resources such as mailbox, provide fun activities that allow students to develop skills in ways that are fun and interesting to them, I think we could all win.
Teaching to the test…yes, that is what we do. On a daily basis I feel more and more like a Who in Who-ville. We are shouting out for help, but feel no one will ever hear us. It seems that those we can talk to, in our administrations, have too many pressures above them so all they can do (for their job security) is continue ‘believing’ in these tests.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend the past 6 years home with my children, and this is my first year in 5th grade. Each day I feel frustrated and overwhelmed with student behaviors, pacing guides and now budget issues. Right now I do not think that there is time to point fingers towards legislators, teachers, or parents. What we need to do is take back the autonomy that teachers should have within the classroom. We have been trained, we are professionals, and I feel extremely confident in my ability to teach these students. Even the bad ones; in fact, even more so the bad ones.
This is because I believe that the educational system is equally to blame as parents in the behaviors of these children. Since the focus, and implementation of NCLB has become so far off-balance these students have lost so much. They act out and display negative behaviors because they are the products of an unbalanced system. I would compare them to a soda bottle being shaken up, this is the pressures and constraints we place upon them, and we are the thumb on top. In fact, as a parent I would begin to blame the school for putting this turmoil on my child. A child who does not have the coping skills to deal with these formidable tests. Perhaps schools are to blame for these kids coming home and being ‘too much for their parents to handle’. At the end of the day we take our thumb off and shoot these kids out of the building.
So what do we do? For me I have come to the conclusion that I HAVE TO cover all the required strands, because my students WILL BE tested on them. But I do not have to always use the ’suggested’ methods and materials. I have two great Title I specialists at my school who have a focus on getting more students to pass the test, and they have many great instructional ideas. Yet, they are even limited to controlling their enthusiasm for what the classroom could be, to place their emphasis on improving students test-taking skills and overall district goals. These specialist roles have been bent towards studying the tests to determine exactly how to teach the students to “best” answer the questions. Our curriculum places more value in teaching test-taking skills over life skills, and I think we need to prepare our students for life rather than a multiple choice test.
How many jobs will they have which requires them to “best” answer the question with these four options? Not many.
In closing, I am glad to see this topic being openly discussed and I feel that teachers need to speak out more often so the TRUE tales of our classrooms can resonate into the ears of Horton’s (those willing and in position to take action) everywhere.
I have been teaching for 5 years and am also concerned with the NCLB and the impact within the normal classroom. My district does not have a GT program, but it is Title 1 school wide. However, the Title 1 teacher is only allowed to work with kindergarten and 1st grade!? One the district’s directives is to close the achievement gap. I agree that the lowest achievers need the most attention when it comes to learning, but in my district it seems to be at the expense of the average and above average students. I serve on my school improvement team and I made a startling discovery when comparing the data over the last 6 years. The data shows that the achievement gap is closing–the gap between the lowest and the highest is closer. I also noticed that the high and average achievement scores are on a noticeable decline. Yes the lowest students are making gains, but 75% of the student body has lower scores overall. Is this what NCLB is doing to other districts too?
My story varies a little…I taught for a few years and then was able to stay home when my children were born. When the youngest entered Kindergarten, I did too, again. What I noticed was the difference in the parents.
In the early years, I would have to deal with a fit or two a week, the screaming, stomping and yelling. These days, I and lucky if I have only one per day. In my opinion, too many parents are too busy to be parents. They find it easier to give in to allowing a child to eat a quart of ice cream for supper, since that is what he was hungry for.
In our state, we do not have to give the NCLB tests in Kindergarten, but I do see a difference in the maturity of the children coming into the classroom at five.
This is my second year teaching kindergarten. I taught pre-k in a private preschool for 7 years before going back and getting my degree. I agree with everyone that tests should be more balanced and teachers should have more say. I have painted two times so far this year and it is December. To me that is very sad. When I got my job it truly was my dream job and still is but I would love to have more time for painting, fun projects and just exploring. We spend so much time on behavior that my day just goes by so fast. We need to let kids be kids especially in kindergarten.
Have a great holiday!
This is my 9th year of teaching and I love my job, but loathe all of the paperwork and paper pushing that goes with it. I am gone twice a month to meetings to “make” me a better teacher, I do learn from these meetings-LETRS training (literacy) and 6+1 Trait Writing-but when I am gone, my students are receiving a substitute education…We are on such a time crunch and our state tests are in April, so May is such a joke to try and teach since the kids think they are done learning since we took the test. It gets kids so upset and worried and if they do poorly, we have to monitor them, put them in a special club to try and raise their scores. It is so frustrating. I live in Missouri and pray that Obama changes NCLB and gives us back some of the ownership that we earned with our degrees. I also agree with the woman who said we spend so much time teaching character education (which, yes, should be taught at home by the parents, not us!) that it leaves little time for “real” teaching. God bless you all, we are doing one of the hardest jobs in the world with little thanks. Have a wonderful holiday season!
This is only my 3rd year of teaching, and I must say that I’ve become very disappointed in our public school system. I went into teaching because I loved my elementary school experiences; sadly, those experiences no longer exist for children. Many things are done in my district to meet state and national standards and expectations, but as an educator I see very few things that are actually done for the betterment of our students. My 1st graders are not allowed to go out to recess, and are expected to sit quietly at their lunch table once finished eating (does anybody out there know a first grader that takes 30 minutes to eat their lunch and then is ready to rest quietly?). It’s very difficult to get through the afternoons when these children have had no time to run, play, laugh, and socialize as children should. As for me, administrative pressure, large amounts of paperwork, and too much time spent in meetings all wear me out and take the fun out of my job. I feel like a machine made to program students for higher test scores. On top of it all, I teach in the state that receives the least amount of funding per capita, and my district is in a financial crisis. Teaching these students how to be respectful, responsible, intelligent, and successful human beings on top of all these factors really makes me second-guess my career choice.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am a fifth grade teacher, but over my 10 year career have spent a little more than half of my career in primary grades. I too am frustrated by the need to complete numerous test preps and computer programs on a weekly basis. What always interests me is that we as teachers never seem to be heard! No one ever asks my opinion about what my students need to be successful. I get a chuckle out of the legislators who feel schools would be more successful if run like a copropate business. It is presented that if we teachers were somehow more organized and regulated we could take all children regardless of natural ability, interests, and IQ, and make them into fortune 500 business men and women. What’s the new saying? Every child college bound. In fact, we should have merit pay and be challenged to meet quotas and goals regardless of whether we feel called to teach gifted students or special needs students because if we were doing our job all children would progress and learn at the same rate and at the same time. Frankly, I would prefer enough social studies books for each student in the class, or enough glue, paper, and staples to make it through the school year.
The thing that bothered me when reading these blogs was the constant use of the word “fun” when referring to creative activities. These activities are not meant to be fun. As I recall, the highest levels of learning come when one uses knowledge in an origional and new way. It used to be that the worksheets were the lowest level of initial practice before the students was asked to create a story, project, or presentation to show that he/she has really assimilated the new skills. Now the worksheet and mandatory multiple choice test is the curriculum. Having a classroom projects are valuable lessons in cooperation, US history, time management, organizational skills, and ,yes, actual learned skills. Making a physical map, presenting oral presentations, making the solar system out of styrofoam balls all have the ability to encourage the higher level thinking skills and creativity that this country will need to change our currently floundering economy into a system that can compete with the global economy. The problem is that to be a truly inventive and innovative thinker takes time. Teachers can not cram truly meaningful activities into the allotted 30min. writing block, or 20 min. social studies block. Meaningful activities may even stretch out over several days. At the end of the day the larger question is not about whether or not the activities are fun, but is sitting in front of a computer completing Successmaker, Lexia, Compass, or Accelerated Reader tests after a long day of reading non-fiction passages and answering multiple choice questions and learning how to read the ever looming expository reading prompt really going to create a nation of inventive thinkers ready to solve the challenges of the future?
Testing has offered educators valuable tools for assessing the needs of our students. As we all know assessment drives instruction. NCLB has offered new more equitable opportunities for title I schools. However, as with any movement it has swung too far from a balanced educational experience. NCLB has unfortunately been renamed in my area as No Child Left Behind but also No Child Gets Ahead!
I see a lot of dissatisfaction with teaching to the test and I understand the frustration. Although it is tough to have to cater to the whims of legislators who know very little about life in the classroom, NCLB in some ways has improved opportunities for many of the children in this country. Before NCLB, many schools, such as my child’s school, which is a Title I school, were ignored by the system and did not receive adequate funding to meet the needs of its very diverse and disadvantaged population. Since NCLB, this school has become a shining star of the county we live in and the large number of children who come to school unable to speak any English now leave able to read and write on or above grade level. Before these children would have been lost in the system and many would not have ever even finished high school. It would be nice, however, if the legislation allowed some leeway as to how we assess students, using more authentic assessments, such as portfolios and teacher evaluations and looked at how much progress individual students are making as opposed to raw test scores. The system may not be perfect, but it is helping open up opportunities for children where they didn’t exist before. NCLB is a necessary evil in that it keeps the school systems from ignoring those schools with a large low-income and ESOL population.
Oh, my gosh! I really didn’t realize that these changes and activities with tests is all over. All I might want to add is the government isn’t their to help, but to hender our school’s growth! Every year new things are added, expected of us, and we are harrased to do parper work as it seems to us all as busy work of proof. Proof we are teaching what THEY want. I say why don’t they just place cameras in all classrooms and get it over with. (No, I feel that would be just horrible, but maybe the parents would not appreciate or approve their child to be under such a microscope.)
I live, work, and give each day as it comes, what ever I can!
I teach fifth grade in Florida.
Have a wonderful, peaceful holiday of thankful giving!
I’ve only been teaching for three years now, and in just three short years the amount of paperwork has increased tremendously. Also, we’ve begun the tier process as I’m sure you are all aware of.. I think it’s wonderful and these kids get the extra time they need for remediation, however, when kids are on computers their instructional time is decreased. I have three children this year that are all on tier three for one subject and tier two for another, which is an hour and a half on the computer for remediation. This prohibits me from moving on in class with the others because I can’t leave those kids behind. I wish their was some way to remediate these children after school so it wouldn’t take away from instructional time in the classroom. The paperwork that follows is also extremely time consuming in our district.
When are we going to let the parents assume some responsiblities for these kids also? I have parents who do their children’s homework. What is this teaching the kids? It’s so frustrating. These are kids who are already failing. They are not benefiting at all from their parents. Yet, if they fail it will all be on my back to assume their failures. It’s so frustrating.
1st Grade Teacher
As I spend a another Sunday writing lesson plans for the week I got sidetracked to this blog.
It interest me greatly that all of us are basically in agreement.The continuous testing and emphasis on only teaching those items that are tested ,have left little room for teachers to be creative and students to enjoy being children.
I too lament those days when we as teachers could take responsibility for our children’s’ days.We could take opportunities and seize the teachable moments that can’t always be planned and may never be tested on a state test!
A walk on our nature trail, birthday cards for the cook, a craft item they could proudly take home.Those days are sadly gone.
As we approach our Thanksgiving Holiday,this absence of control over content is extremely apparent.I cannot spend a day recreating a traditional feast. The students cannot dress in traditional attire.We cannot invite a classroom to eat with us as our Thanksgiving guests.
In all respect I don’t profess that all of these activities are extremely educational.I do know that they are the activities that my students remember and commit on as they grow up and leave school.
I believe that there is a need for both,the tested items and the teachable moments.Our job as educators is to find the happy medium and to then find leaders at the state and national levels who will work to put these ideas into law!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Vivian
26 years
Our public school system is selling out our children and taking the joy of educating children away from the teachers! We continue to lose valuable teachers who know it isn’t best for the kids and simply can’t do it any more. We need to return to offering what kids really need. I wish the governmental decision-makers could take a look at all of these passionate messages from long-term teachers who love their jobs, but are sharing their frustrations about what the whole teaching experience has become! Maybe they would see what a mistake has been made, and how young children are being stressed out, when there is so much emphasis on worksheets and test taking. Too many teachers are doing nothing but trying to manage unacceptable behavior. My own situation is a bit different. I have been offering a private preschool for 29 years, so I have the freedom to offer all the art, large motor skills, projects, hands-on science and open, child-directed, exploratory play opportunities that are supported by appropriate developmental practice. Eager, open, self-directed, socially respectful children go off to kindergarten after two years in our program. Then, a year or two later, they come back to visit and tell me they never get to paint or do a craft project or look at worms, and that there are no blocks and puzzles in their classroom, only worksheets. When are we going to wake up and put the children’s needs first? It just breaks my heart.
Wow!!! Must be the same everywhere. I’ve been in the system for 30 years. 18 of which have been first grade. We used to have 30 and 35 kids in a room and believe it or not , were able to accomplish so much more. Kids were allowed to be kids . Recess was 30 mins. and we could go outside and run even if the temp. went below 40*. Now we can’t. Teach to a test !! Yes we do. Do I like it, you’ve got to be kidding me. Where’s the fun and the natural love of learning? Gone to a TEST! Let government and higher ranked school officials that have not been in a classroom, Sit back, relax, collect their high saleries and PLEASE Let us do the job we all entered the profession to do. TEACH CHILDREN!!If they want tests, Test Parents !!
In a nutshell, teachers are not treated like the professionals we are and were trained to be.
The purpose of education is NOT to pass a battery of tests that do not measure what they are supposed to measure- they are not valid. Period.
The entire notion is tragically absurd!
Wow…interesting to read all of your responses. I have been teaching for six years, and I have done a little bit of everything from kindergarten to sixth grade. To me, the biggest way that teaching has changed is that social skills and values are no longer taught in many of the homes our students come from. By the time I done teaching the children to be kind to each other and how to sit on the carpet without purposefully bothering the child next to them, there is really very little time for real teaching. Forget the fun projects…I have to get through the meat before we can ever do any of those! Our district developed a science benchmark test this year starting in first grade. When I saw it, I thought, “Great! Let’s give our kids another test…woo-hoo!”
When I read Carla’s response I smiled. I have been a kindergarten teacher for 7 years and I seem to remember doing art projects at some time. I have files of cute projects for each holiday and months that just sit in my file cabinet. I honestly cannot remember the last time I took one out. I am just trying to get throught the new content expectations that we are to teach. There is no room for the fun little projects people associate with kindergarten. Kindergarten does seem to be the new first grade, but in my case only a half day first grade. It is impossible to fit everything in to my half day along with specials, snack and our 7 minute recess. However, I do love kindergarten, there is never a dull moment and you never know what is going to happen.
I think that children (and teachers) are pressured to do too much and parents are taking very little responsibility for their children. I have been teaching less than 5 years and I am already considering the possibility of another career. We can’t have fun in Kindergarten because they need to be reading, writing, etc. However, they come to me and barely know their name or why they are here. Many children are behind from day one and cannot catch up. And in trying to catch these children up I have little time to adequately stimulate those children who are advanced. I hear similar complaints form higher grades- too much teaching to the test and no fun.
And I, for one, am tired of being ruled by children. Children are physically and verbally abusive to teachers and it is allowed to go on with little to no punishment. A visit to the principal or ISS means nothing to these children and they are allowed to go on thinking that abuse of adults it ok. Kindergarten needs to go back to lessons of respect, caring and being a good friend.
When I started teaching in 1999 I really enjoyed teaching 3rd grade and as the years went by the state and the school focused more and more on Teaching to the test. Another thing that I as a teacher have taken on is more parenting responsiblities and having really young parents does not help matters. I have also seen an increase of behavior problems from students.
In our district, we are not even allowed to use The Mailbox activities in class. Every single thing has to be in preparation for THE TEST! If it doesn’t look like THE TEST so the kids can’t practice their strategies, we don’t use it.
Our librarian got rid of every single copy of our subscription from The Mailbox and Teacher’s Helper two years ago. I still squeeze some in when I can but now there is little time. I miss the good old days!!
I have been teaching preschool for 30 years. Some of the biggest changes are the families. In the late 70’s, there weren’t many single parent families or blended families. Now,most of the children fit in theses categories, and living with 2 original parents is rare. I watch kids cry as they transition from 2 days with mom and 4 days with dad, and lots of grandparents fill in the gaps.These children need extra love, and are at school all day 7:00 to 5:30,so the teacher spends time with the child more than the parents. The other change is that we used to do lots of art,free play, music and fun stuff….now we have to squeeze in all the academics too, because children learn to read in kindergarten, and the schools expect the children to be “ready to learn”. Despite it all, I still enjoy teaching, and you have to be creative to make sure there is a balance of academics and all the fun stuff preschoolers need.
I’ve been teaching since 2002, and when I first started, the higher-ups all said, “Don’t teach to the test [FCAT].” Now they are saying, “If it’s not on the test, don’t waste time on it” and “This is how it is on the test, so this is how you need to be teaching it” and basically “Teach to the test.” It’s ridiculous. In addition, there are too many people who think there is only one way to teach, and if you are not teaching it that way the kids are not learning. I know my students better than some company who comes in and demands (it is not suggested) that we teach the way they tell us to. Why? Because it produces better test scores. We need to concern ourselves with teaching children life skills rather than test skills.
I agree with each of the teachers that have replied to the question: How has teaching changed? I teach 1st grade also in a very competitive school district. My campus is the leader in the district in reading instruction. We use a small group, guided and leveled reading program based on Balanced Literacy. As I look back over the years, I have to admit that this is the only way to teach young children to read. Using whole class basal reading instruction just won’t cut it. But the “higher beings” need to realize that 6 year olds need to be 6 year olds. Lets stop comparing our educational system to that of China and Japan. Let’s produce well educated, well mannered, well behaved individuals that can cope with the world problems without having to self medicate with drugs and alcohol. We are producing a society that is a nervous wreck at a very early age. Let’s get back to the basics in the young years.
All I have are three words. Too Much TESTING! It’s sad.
When I started 10 years ago I was the cliche Kindergarten teacher who did all the cute projects. I have now been in 1st grade for the past 5 years and it is next to impossible to fit in any kind of project. They have loaded us down with the “quick fixes” so that there is no time in the day for the kids to be kids.
Like Jean we only have 15 minutes for recess, who is the person that thought a 6/7 year old child only needs 15 minutes. I wish that instead of worrying about performance the government would worry about how stressed these kids will be when they are older.
I am all for high expectations but if you don’t have the time to devote to the study of a particular subject what good is it going to do?
I agree with Darlene. We use a direct instruction reading program which doesn’t allow for much creativity. We have 105 minutes & they are packed with reading, spelling, language, & lots of worksheets (ugh)! Our writing block is a bit more free, but the children have a hard time being creative because they’re are so used to being told what to say & when to say it. There is little time in our day to do those “fun” learning activities because we are so afraid we will have a classroom walk-through & the kids will be a bit noisy. We usually have about 15 minutes to play outside, & for 1st graders, that just isn’t enough. Our children are learning a lot, but I wonder what the stress of our over-loaded day is doing to them in the long-run.
It seems that kindergarten is the new first grade.
Pre-kindergarten is the new kindergarten, and Head Start is the new pre-kindergarten. I feel so sorry for today’s children, adults seem to think that these young children are computers. They are not computers. They need time to paint, draw, play outside, and read (enjoy) as many books as they like. They need to use their imaginations much more that they are allowed to. There is too much testing and not enough actual learning and discovering life.