After the early afternoon class horror show, I was reeeeally hoping that my last class of the day would be at the appropriate level for me. And, YAY! It was! It's a course on the Trends and Issues in Elementary Language Arts/Literacies. There's a nice mix of doctoral and Master's students (well, just a few Master's kids, but a few is better than none!) and many of them are currently teaching.
THAT is how I hoped and imagined grad school would be: current teachers, doc researchers, and ex-teachers (like myself) sitting around and discussing issues related to education. We read some stuff prior to class and spent some class time relating the points in the readings to our experiences. We talked about actual examples of things that go on in classrooms, struggles we had, successes we found, and so on. Okay, cool -- this is the stuff that (as it progresses) has the potential to concretely make me in to a better teacher. Sweet!
A friend posted this link on facebook. Some of it seems right on, and some of it is questionable. But now it's time to do the dishes.
Thing to study and comment on later: http://www.mastersdegree.net/grade-inflation/
Another thing to think about later: Leaving murdered bugs on the bathroom floor: does it REALLY deter more bugs from coming inside?
Glad you found a class for you. Sounds like there are people in that class with opinions you respect, which is the key to making almost any class worthwhile. Also: infographic. Makes me wish I still taught algebra :( Also: murdered bugs. Hilarious and gross. Call me a skeptic, but I don't think it will work. You probably won't study insect morality systems until you do your PhD, so for now it's a mystery...
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