Who Among Us Are Teachers?
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Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
I'm going for my doctorate in Composition and Rhetoric.
I've taught classes for two years and done writing center tutoring for two before that.
Been a guest lecturer for high school, but mostly I've done college kids. Undergraduates with the occasional grad looking for editting help.
Non-traditional students are my fav and I actively seek them out.
At this point in my career I appeal to most of the top third, a good half or more of the middle, and I mess up the waters of the bottom third. Some of them come out of it and others of them drop into it from other places and then out entirely.
Constructivist approach works for me in terms of general theory and assignment construction, but the small group work approach is something I have yet to master. It's not fast enough. I loose people's attention, but it is something I'm determined to work out.
DnD has certainly been a profound influence as have games in general. I like to set up systems and see how students play with them. Let them know where the penalties are and then give them means to overcome them. If I work it right I get some of the same responses as throwing them candy without the health issue or people complaining they didn't get any.
Tutoring is certainly where it's at, though I think people underappreciate the genre of the lecture and its value.
Oddly enough I would say a math teacher had the most explicit and profound influence on my method.
I've taught classes for two years and done writing center tutoring for two before that.
Been a guest lecturer for high school, but mostly I've done college kids. Undergraduates with the occasional grad looking for editting help.
Non-traditional students are my fav and I actively seek them out.
At this point in my career I appeal to most of the top third, a good half or more of the middle, and I mess up the waters of the bottom third. Some of them come out of it and others of them drop into it from other places and then out entirely.
Constructivist approach works for me in terms of general theory and assignment construction, but the small group work approach is something I have yet to master. It's not fast enough. I loose people's attention, but it is something I'm determined to work out.
DnD has certainly been a profound influence as have games in general. I like to set up systems and see how students play with them. Let them know where the penalties are and then give them means to overcome them. If I work it right I get some of the same responses as throwing them candy without the health issue or people complaining they didn't get any.
Tutoring is certainly where it's at, though I think people underappreciate the genre of the lecture and its value.
Oddly enough I would say a math teacher had the most explicit and profound influence on my method.
Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
arwink said:
ooooo, what sort of writing and writing theory? In the state's it's generally divided between creative writing, technical, and composition with rhetoric providing some unifying context for the last two. Then there's Journalism and literature running around doing their own things.
Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
S'mon said:
I teach Law at a University, some of my students are 18 year olds and still pretty much children (ah, the wonders of the British education system)
Hmm, I was going to say that here in US 18 pretty much is kids. Adults yes, but not not kids.
But now I'm wondering if the real issue is 18 years olds doing law. Here that's a real exception. Aside from some pre-law stuff law is a graduate issue.
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Dr. Strangemonkey said:
Writing in Australia, as it currently exists, is largely focused on creative writing with some time devoted to the realities of working as a freelancer or professional writer (that is, training in technical writing and touching on areas such as journalism and finding work). The buzzword in favor with the faculties at the moment is the notion of the professional "portfolio writer" that moves easily between the two. The theory is partially literaterary theory and partially practiced based - studying texts from a writers perspective and learning how it works.
My areas largely tend to be poetry, scriptwriting and radical narrative (which, strangely, includes a lot of stuff about gaming and writing for computers), and my initial degree included a lot fo film and TV journalism in addition to studying novels. It covers a lot of ground and they don't really know where I fit in, so I usually get thrown to the wolves every semester when they need someone to fill spaces in the teaching team
johnsemlak
First Post
I've been teaching English as a Second Language abroad for nearly 10 years; though now I'm on the admin side more than the teaching side. I teach to Adults, mostly employees of Western multinationals.
Dr. Strangemonkey said:
British higher education has become more American in that, as you say, these days 18 year olds at University are still childlike*, that didn't used to be so much the case - the extension of teenagerhood to age 20 is quite recent I think.
In Britain Law has always been an undergraduate academic subject, taken from 18-21, but if you want to practice law you need an additional vocational qualification which takes another year. Recently in UK Law has been offered at secondary (high) school so many 18 year olds now have a vague smattering of legal knowledge when they arrive at University. Perhaps the biggest difference from US, other than it being an undergrad not postgrad subject, is that most UK Law lecturers (professors), like me, do not have a legal practice qualification - I have a BA from Oxford and a PhD - and we get paid the same as other academics, rather than as lawyers.
*edit: and treated more like children. Traditionally in UK 18 year olds are treated as adults, whether they are or not - so eg 18 is legal drinking age. Apart from voting, in UK age 16 was traditionally more like US age 18 - age of consent, age when you can buy cigarettes, etc. This is changing due to global harmonisation, eg I believe the British army is no longer allowed to send 17 year olds into battle; 16 & 17 year olds are now counted as children for child-pornography laws, etc.
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I've been a General Science and Biology teacher for about 12 years now. I teach General Science to Years 7-10 and Biology to Year 11 and 12 at a private girls school in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney.
I'm also studying for my Masters in Education with an emphasis on Educational Psychology and Teacher Education.
Teaching is a fantastic profession; never be rich; often thankless; everyone's an "expert"...
But you get to shape the future...and there isn't anything that compares...
(And the skills learned through gaming transfer over really well to the classroom...)
I'm also studying for my Masters in Education with an emphasis on Educational Psychology and Teacher Education.
Teaching is a fantastic profession; never be rich; often thankless; everyone's an "expert"...
But you get to shape the future...and there isn't anything that compares...
(And the skills learned through gaming transfer over really well to the classroom...)
Shemeska
Adventurer
As I've been working my way through grad school for molec. biology I've been teaching freshmen biology for the past 2 years more or less. But as of this week that's over and I'm not planning on teaching again (defending soon). But those of you who do, God bless you. My mom, my uncle, and one of my cousins are all teachers and they seem to enjoy it.
Not a teacher, per se, but if you've got a PhD then you spend a lot of time while getting it doing some for of teaching. Currently I tutor the occasional student in maths, physics and electronics for a little extra money, though it's not my full-time job. Back when I did my PhD I taught a few classes in electrical/electronic engineering.
Pinotage
Pinotage
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