![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
From Latinteach:
>>>But I did not fit with this middle school mentor teacher. Notice I said I did not fit with the teacher, not the school. I did leave that middle school to return to Mrs. Fugate's high school to complete my student teaching, but not because I could not handle the students. In fact, that middle school was nothing compared to where I am now. I returned to Susan because I felt like I had learned so muchfrom her and her million years of experience. I would not be the teacher I am today were it not for her mentoring. True mentoring.
I was that middle school teacher. She had real classroom management issues, and I tried to tell her what she was doing wouldn't work--but I didn't really have a better solution--and the next thing I knew she was gone and I had no lesson plans ready to go.
I don't fault her in some ways.
But she's saying that I didn't do any true mentoring. And I also remember a number of things she didn't like about Mrs Fugate's teaching method.
But this hurts. She goes on to say this:
>>>I guess that is one thing that I think new teachers, not just Latin teachers, need: a good mentor. Again, as KZ said, teacher retention problems are not just unique to the Latin teacher profession--I see it all over the place. From my own experience, I can say that the first mentor teacher I was given (the middle school one) was just not what I needed/wanted, and I sincerely feel if I had stayed with this teacher, I would probably have quit teaching. Really. And that is not to say that this teacher was a bad teacher, but just did not fit my needs and desires. Fortunately, I knew where to go to for guidance, and so I requested a switch.
I lead NLTRW and learn this... I always, always felt she left because she didn't know what to do with those students. She never wanted to listen to anything I had to say. She didn't understand, for instance, that these students--these low income students with next to no academic expectations--wouldn't/couldn't read the culture on their own, but it needed to be covered thoroughly in class. Did I hold their hands too much? Maybe I did. That was my worst year with Latin 1a at Porter--30 kids in one class (if not two?), several with learnding disabilities and emotional disabilities. It was after that year that I explored better classroom management via Wong's _First Days of School_. I explored cooperative work strategies so that more students would and could complete assignments. I did have students that year in Latin 1b who got medals on the NLE. So I wasn't doing all bad.
But hercle this hurts. I have enough issues with self-doubt. I constantly question the quality of my Latin instruction, culture instruction, pacing, grading, EVERYTHING. I don't blame the students until I know that *I* personally have done everything possible to help that student achieve, including teaching test taking strategies, mnemonic devices, quia reviews out the whazoo, you name it.
I thought the difficulty had been teaching in an inner city school.
She said it was working with me. I would have driven her from the profession.
She added this:
>>>Colleges and universities need to really think about who they place their student teachers with, and personally, I just don't think I am quite ready to have a student teacher, maybe in a few years, but not now. So, I guess what I am saying is that we need to develop a new list of "master teachers" and mentors for our student teachers, give these to the colleges, and provide more than 1 choice for those new teachers because sometimes they just don't click.
So I guess I would not be on a master teacher list in her book. And as for having 2 teachers, well, that's hardly applicable in most cities.
Man, I am still highly agitate about this. I just wrote this as part of my reply to her note:
>>>Be glad you could leave your first situation that sounded so dreadful and go to your second at the IB school. Did you ever have the courtesy to discuss your problems with your first mentor? Communication, so often, is the key. For all you know she's (or he's?) probably just thought you couldn't handle the students and had no earthly idea that the problem was with her/him. I'm assuming you let your university professors know? Well, with luck she hasn't had any student teachers since you.
Probably too catty of me; I probably shouldn't have done it. But I really am pissed. She left me in the lurch, never wanted to hear my take on the problem students, and thought all the problems there were MY FAULT.... Ok, the classroom management issues in part WERE my fault. AND I FIXED THEM the following year.
But sheesh.... what I had originally used for classroom management had worked in previous years. The kids that year were just really, really challenging.
gotta go & calm down.
>>>But I did not fit with this middle school mentor teacher. Notice I said I did not fit with the teacher, not the school. I did leave that middle school to return to Mrs. Fugate's high school to complete my student teaching, but not because I could not handle the students. In fact, that middle school was nothing compared to where I am now. I returned to Susan because I felt like I had learned so muchfrom her and her million years of experience. I would not be the teacher I am today were it not for her mentoring. True mentoring.
I was that middle school teacher. She had real classroom management issues, and I tried to tell her what she was doing wouldn't work--but I didn't really have a better solution--and the next thing I knew she was gone and I had no lesson plans ready to go.
I don't fault her in some ways.
But she's saying that I didn't do any true mentoring. And I also remember a number of things she didn't like about Mrs Fugate's teaching method.
But this hurts. She goes on to say this:
>>>I guess that is one thing that I think new teachers, not just Latin teachers, need: a good mentor. Again, as KZ said, teacher retention problems are not just unique to the Latin teacher profession--I see it all over the place. From my own experience, I can say that the first mentor teacher I was given (the middle school one) was just not what I needed/wanted, and I sincerely feel if I had stayed with this teacher, I would probably have quit teaching. Really. And that is not to say that this teacher was a bad teacher, but just did not fit my needs and desires. Fortunately, I knew where to go to for guidance, and so I requested a switch.
I lead NLTRW and learn this... I always, always felt she left because she didn't know what to do with those students. She never wanted to listen to anything I had to say. She didn't understand, for instance, that these students--these low income students with next to no academic expectations--wouldn't/couldn't read the culture on their own, but it needed to be covered thoroughly in class. Did I hold their hands too much? Maybe I did. That was my worst year with Latin 1a at Porter--30 kids in one class (if not two?), several with learnding disabilities and emotional disabilities. It was after that year that I explored better classroom management via Wong's _First Days of School_. I explored cooperative work strategies so that more students would and could complete assignments. I did have students that year in Latin 1b who got medals on the NLE. So I wasn't doing all bad.
But hercle this hurts. I have enough issues with self-doubt. I constantly question the quality of my Latin instruction, culture instruction, pacing, grading, EVERYTHING. I don't blame the students until I know that *I* personally have done everything possible to help that student achieve, including teaching test taking strategies, mnemonic devices, quia reviews out the whazoo, you name it.
I thought the difficulty had been teaching in an inner city school.
She said it was working with me. I would have driven her from the profession.
She added this:
>>>Colleges and universities need to really think about who they place their student teachers with, and personally, I just don't think I am quite ready to have a student teacher, maybe in a few years, but not now. So, I guess what I am saying is that we need to develop a new list of "master teachers" and mentors for our student teachers, give these to the colleges, and provide more than 1 choice for those new teachers because sometimes they just don't click.
So I guess I would not be on a master teacher list in her book. And as for having 2 teachers, well, that's hardly applicable in most cities.
Man, I am still highly agitate about this. I just wrote this as part of my reply to her note:
>>>Be glad you could leave your first situation that sounded so dreadful and go to your second at the IB school. Did you ever have the courtesy to discuss your problems with your first mentor? Communication, so often, is the key. For all you know she's (or he's?) probably just thought you couldn't handle the students and had no earthly idea that the problem was with her/him. I'm assuming you let your university professors know? Well, with luck she hasn't had any student teachers since you.
Probably too catty of me; I probably shouldn't have done it. But I really am pissed. She left me in the lurch, never wanted to hear my take on the problem students, and thought all the problems there were MY FAULT.... Ok, the classroom management issues in part WERE my fault. AND I FIXED THEM the following year.
But sheesh.... what I had originally used for classroom management had worked in previous years. The kids that year were just really, really challenging.
gotta go & calm down.
