The teaching profession

This will be a mostly-lame update on my schooling progress and schooling future.

I am nearly finished with my first semester at CU in the teaching licensure Post BA program. I was not sure what to expect from this program or the classes, but I can say that by and large I have thoroughly enjoyed my classes. They have not seemed very hard to me, for the most part they are interesting, and I feel as though I am learning valuable information. I can say with certainty that they are nothing like any of the classes I took at UCLA. Some of it is due to educational changes with college classes in general, some due to the differences between UCLA and CU, and some due to the specific nature of education/teaching certification classes. Friends have insisted that the biggest change is the fact that I'm 35 now and not 22 and immature. I wish I could say that was the case... I don't feel significantly smarter now than I did 13 years ago (although certainly more mature), and I worked about 20 times harder at UCLA for sometimes meager achievements. If I had 4 years of classes like these at UCLA, I can surmise that I would have sailed through with close to a 4.0 GPA.

The licensure requirements for teachers is increasing at a rapid pace. Part of it is due to No Child Left Behind and some of the teacher qualifications listed as a part of that bill. Policy makers are also learning a lot about students and the best environments for learning. Elementary school is very different now than when I went to school, and some of the changes are huge improvements on some outdated, cookie-cutter curriculums.

A week before spring break CU announced that they were discontinuing my current program and making some drastic changes going forward. The state is changing some of their requirements and they have also done research over the years to see what graduating teachers found most useful in their first years of teaching. CU is not all bad here in making this change, but it comes at a very inopportune time for me. The worst news of the program switch is that they are discontinuing a number of the existing courses and there is a very short time period where I can take those classes. Since I am taking the fall off because of baby deux this affects me in a big way. Also I am a part time student and had hoped to stretch my classes out for a very long time. Now this will be much more difficult.

My advisor was very understanding and tried to make some accommodations for my situation. The bottom line is that I'm going to have to take some classes with the new program students and some of the classes I take may be repetitive from what I've already completed. The new program is called a "cohort program" where a group of students get accepted and have to take the same classes together at the exact same time. So there is no part time option for new students. And it will be strange to be in classrooms with a group of people who all know each other well, but I can get over that pretty quickly.

I am constantly amazed at the sheer number of courses and requirements I need in order to become licensed. This is one of the lowest paying professions in America. How can they make you complete a year of full time school, a half-year of student teaching (for no pay), and a national license exam for a job that often has starting salaries at $40k? I can think of a lot of other jobs (some that I've had) that paid a lot more than that and required no formal education. I know this is one of the most important jobs in this country but I feel like maybe the state regulations are overpreparing us from a coursework perspective. One of the largest intangibles in becoming a proficient teacher is experience and the ability to relate to children. How can you teach that in coursework? When I think back on my best teachers, I think about teachers who had passion, enthusiasm and an ability to relate to students. There has not been one mention of that in my coursework so far, and I don't see any courses titled "how to reach your students" or "how to motivate your students". Instead we focus on how much they should be writing, reading, learning about science, etc.

The financial stress of my schooling (and childcare) is going to weigh on the family heavily over the next year and a half. But I just keep telling myself that it's all going to work out somehow. I know it's a somewhat blind faith, but if I didn't have it I would go insane.

For now I have to write a few more papers and finish up a bunch of projects before my last day of school on May 1.