NO TEACHER LEFT BEHIND!!
By: Nicole Gillespie
Providing consistent learning opportunities for teachers!
I know in the schools I have been a part of they only offer professional development maybe 5-6 times a year. This only covers issues from classroom management to updating current grading programs. Not much of the times went towards actual teaching practices that would affect the learning of the students. So I definitely agree that there should be consistent learning opportunities for teachers.
Siminars, lectures, and hands-on work shops should be available on a monthly basis and teacher should be responsible for taking a certain amount of these in a given period. Teachers should also be evaluated on in class practices to ensure that these techniques are being delivered in the classroom.
Teachers across the country should use certain practices!
There should be a national standard of minimum practices that teachers MUST follow in order to become certified and be evaluated every so often to ensure that these practices are still implemented after initial certification.
This would ensure that all students in the nation are receiving an equal, quality education that would properly prepare them for a current global economy. It would also ensure that teachers are teaching to all intelligences and students are actually retaining information regardless of how they learn.
Should there be a consistent standard for all teachers to meet, just as students must pass high stakes tests?
Are teachers being prepared to master the ISTE Standards for Teachers standards in their classrooms?
In the experiences that I have had and from what I have witnessed in the classroom, educators as a whole are not being prepared to master ITSE standards in their classroom. A lot of teachers that I have experienced at a secondary level are looked at as a babysitter rather than an actual educator and are not even able to implement these standard due to having to discipline as opposed to actually teach.
When you actually find a teacher who can instruct their students have to truly have a passion in order to implement these standards in their classroom. Instead of having a passion for it, I would encourage that teachers actually be properly prepared with the tool to be able to implement these standards in their classroom.