The school district in which I have been observing no longer wants their
teachers to be dependent on teachers’ guides or teachers’ manuals. The
administration is discouraging teachers from using these reference
materials.
Administration is considering eliminating text books and, as a
result, teachers are being
encouraged to search out on their own material in order to find all of the worksheets
and materials needed for their lessons.
Administration appears to believe that this approach would benefit
students more than the present reliance on teacher manuals. My biggest concern about
this approach is for myself and ultimately for my students… when I begin my
student teaching will I be able to
find good material for my students? Will I be sure that what I am finding is
actually beneficial to my students?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I would find such material and how I would
know that the material I find to help teach my lessons would be educational and
beneficial to the children? Does
anyone else work in a setting in which teachers are discouraged from using manuals
or teachers’ guides? At
the same time, do you think that the teachers that you are observing rely on
the teacher’s guides that go with the student textbooks? Explain.
I look forward to hearing your responses.
Hi Donna and ED 449,
ReplyDeleteI think there has to be a balance in using manuals and other guides. I have heard teachers, including a professor say that relying heavily on teachers manuals and guides greatly lowers student interest. I do agree that does happen too often, however I also agree with you and the concerns that you have. So far, I do not think that the two cooperating teachers I have rely too heavily on these materials. For example, a math lesson I observed on factors used SMARTPALS. Which, are like dry erase boards, except that worksheets we create can be inserted. This was a great lesson, because it appealed to different learning style's and Gardner's Multiple Intelligence's. I also like Prezi presentations which allow artistic creativity in the classroom. I do think that teacher manuals should still be permitted, but well balanced with creativity, differentiation and promoting technology. M Forte
Another good website is Flocabulary which provides educational hip hop music for all grades and subjects.
ReplyDeleteHello All,
ReplyDeleteI know we spoke about this in class, but I figured I'd add some thoughts.
I feel like administration's decision to eliminate textbooks could be a blessing or a curse, for both the teachers and the students. With the advancements of technology, even in the past ten years, information is available with one click of a mouse. School's pride themselves on their technology; smart rooms, iPads, laptops, and all of their electronic equipment available. Why not utilize it more?
Us, being the new and upcoming teachers, shouldn't have much to fear since we have not been exposed to the repetition of teaching from textbooks. Essentially all of our lesson plans, our assignments have been full of ideas and concepts that we have searched, discovered, and developed on our own with the help of other materials. Experienced teachers who have had the opportunity of teaching from teacher guides, and textbooks, should be delighted with change, especially if the technology is provided.
Students are technological fiends. They love anything that beeps, buzzes, and lights up, and school can become so repetitive. Getting children's noses out of textbooks could result in grade changes, and participation increase.
Regardless, I don't think that schools would brave a decision like that any time soon, and to answer your question about where to find information IF the administration were to remove such accessories then you would have the whole interweb at your finger tips, and many acquaintances who could offer a hand. Like I said in class though, if administration did decide to do this, they would need to be very clear about what they wanted their curriculum to be, because otherwise they'd essentially be setting you up for failure.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI feel the administrative staff should not completely take away the privilege of using teachers' guides or manuals. These textbooks can be a helpful tip/guideline a teacher can use. Now, I disagree on having teachers rely on the manuals or guides all throughout their entire years of teaching. Being a teacher means to be creative. There is no problem using the textbooks as a guide, but make sure to include fun activities for students.
In fact, the school I'm observing in now just recently received a full class set of Ipads for each grade level. Each class is assigned to a certain day for the students to use the Ipad for a full class period. During this time, they're to work on educational apps or websites. Also, at this school there is a website distributed by the district called Study Island. This website is set up according to the grade levels and different units. This is a great opportunity for the students to practice what they know by educational games. In most cases, I feel the teacher I'm observing doesn't rely on textbooks, but is trying to incorporate lots of technology.
There are many educational websites that can be found on the Internet. An excellent website you could look into is PBSkids.com, but there's a section that links to the PBSteachers website. It provides fun activities, videos and blogs from grades K-12 based on any content area.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI think getting rid of all teachers guides and manuals could be kind of scary for anyone. I don't think teachers should solely rely on them, but I think they're good to fall back on, if you need it. Tuesday afternoon I spoke with my cooperating teacher, who has been teaching for 30 years. Last year was her first year teaching 2nd grade (she has always taught 1st), and none of the 2nd grade teachers were given any science materials. She said it was crazy to try and figure out what they were supposed to do, given that they didn't have anything really.
I think if you're completely lost about a subject or a particular topic, it could be useful to use a teachers guide just to get some ideas. Again, the internet is full of resources as well, it would just be extremely time consuming to look for resources for all subjects all the time.
As for resources that you could use, a website that I have found to be really useful is TheTeachersCorner.net, it has resources for all content areas, along with printables and other things that could be helpful.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI believe that to say all teachers resources should be removed is unfair. Teachers, especially up and coming ones need something to help them fall back on. All students learn differently therefore although teachers should be able to come up with their own lesson plans even the best need help. If the issue is about saving money then their should be an alternative plan such as letting teachers use more technology. If our primary concern as educators is to give our children the best possible education, then surely this idea needs to be looked at a bit more carefully.
Hey all,
ReplyDeleteI think that teachers should be able to have resources such as teacher's guides to help them with any part of lesson. The guide should be just as a guide and not as something to base a whole lesson on. Students learn in different ways and resources and things teachers already know can be used to make a better lesson.
And I agree with Nicole, the website TheTeachersCorner.net has great resources for almost everything.
Hi Donna,
ReplyDeleteAs with all the other comments, removing teacher manuals is unfair and scary to a new teacher. However, I do not foresee a district removing these tools and throwing you in a classroom and saying "good luck". They would have to provide you with some sort of structured curriculum that they would like you to teach to your students. With that said, in today's technological world, there are so many sources you can use to get ideas for lessons and topics to teach. Teacher blogs of teachers who have great ideas allow you to pick the brains of others all over the world. In addition, there are some great websites that can help you review topics to your students such as brainpop.com and funbrain.com. Another site I found helpful was superteaherworksheets.com. They have worksheets to review and practice almost every subject! Good luck!
Kourtney
Regarding teacher guides and manual being removed I think is a bit unfair. I agree with everyone in not having them taken away completely, but it is something that should not be used for a word for word bases. Teachers do need a guideline to go by to keep them on track and a bit organized, but creativity is what makes the lesson. Teachers need to just continue to use it as guideline and not as their exact lesson because there so many different ways that students learn material. As more above comments have mentioned there are many internet sites that can help with teaching lesson which I feel is very helpful, especially in the generation that we all live in today.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is very popular and is right at our hands, students love it and become engage.