Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

Do Teachers Need to Have Experience?
The conventional wisdom has always been that schools and students need experienced teachers committed to a career in education. But many charter networks are depending on young, inexperienced teachers who quit after only two to five years. Officials of the schools believe the young teachers remain motivated and energetic, unlike more experienced teachers at many public schools who might stay on even after they’ve burned out. Are they onto something?
* conventonal wisdom = 사회적(일반적) 통념/ (be) committed to ~ = ~에 전념하는/ charter = (대학, 기관 등에 대한 국가의) 인가서/ stay on = 계속 하다(남아 있다)/ burn out = 에너지를 소비하다(소진하게 만들다)/ be onto sth = 무엇인가 좋은 결과를 가져다 줄 것을 알고 있거나 그런 상황에 있는 경우

 선생님들은 많은 경험이 필요한가요?

1. Years on the Job Make You Better
Officials in many charter schools believe that if you hand a teacher a formulaic, scripted way to act in the classroom, kids will learn. Such a view is administrative arrogance.

2. Give It Five Years
I support the charter school movement, but it took five years and three different schools before I could consider myself a good teacher.

3. Focus Simply on Finding the Best
Traditional schools and charter schools alike need to get better at figuring out which teachers to keep and which ones to let go.

4. Create Stability for Communities, With Unions’ Help
When teachers stay for decades, they are saying, 'We are vested in your children. We believe in your hopes and dreams.'

5. Even Charters Must Value Experience
Rather than accepting that teachers would leave, my school offered professional support and worked to keep teachers.

6. Find Ways to Retain Excellence
We need to offer teachers higher pay and provide them with time to relax and reflect by replacing the summer break with more extended breaks throughout the year.

Sample Essay

Focus Simply on Finding the Best

Experience matters, but it does not guarantee effectiveness in the classroom. Indeed, we might prefer a new teacher who connects with students and brings a passion for teaching over an experienced one who does not. I’m certain this is the conclusion many charter networks have reached.

So how do they make it work? I’ve seen the summer training materials used with corp members just starting with Teach for America. I’ve seen Uncommon Schools' professional development videos. I’ve visited charter schools and witnessed really solid coaching and been impressed by the real-time feedback their teachers receive. The rich scripts and carefully designed routines are helpful when you are working 12 hour days in our most challenging schools.

But the best of what I’ve seen comes from both experienced and relatively inexperienced teachers who have the courage or freedom to depart from the cold war curriculum that remains pervasive in our schools. These teachers, working in diverse classrooms with kids living near or below the poverty line, recast the subject matter into themes that resonate with their students. What these teachers have in common is not that they work in charter schools but an abiding respect for the children they teach, a sense of purpose about the power of education in elevating lives and a thorough understanding of how to teach their subject. These are the all too uncommon teachers in the work force. They do not depend on scripts and routines.

If we are serious about all students graduating with a common core of knowledge, we’ll need many more of these skillful teachers than we have today, regardless of the path they travel into teaching. What we know is that new teachers perform at different levels and improve at different rates. Traditional schools and charter schools alike will need to get better at figuring out which teachers to keep and which ones to let go. How we attract, retain and deploy them in the teaching and learning process is what we should be debating.