For the past several months, I am looking for any new view
or interesting occurrence while substituting. I had few long terms
assignments, one to three weeks long, and many daily jobs, mainly at good high
schools, mostly close to home, in many cases at schools that I know, and for
teachers I identify, but nothing seems to change my mind of the likelihood of becoming
an effective teacher.
I keep asking myself; would I be able to do things better next time around?
Working at different classrooms I observe
what other teachers do, how they handle discipline, how they make sure students
are on task, and how they verify their knowledge, and I still can’t see an effective
way to do a good job.
With an average of forty students in class, no assistants at
the General-Ed track, lack of students’ motivation to succeed, absence of bar
to meet, minimal parents involvement, or even care, and with budget cuts to all
the support staff, there is just no way to succeed; no way to achieve real
academic results, no way to motivate, or to compel, students to strive to a
goal.
I am in good schools, with excellent staff, fine student
body, and yet I don’t feel I could be successful as a teacher, and worse, that any
of the other teachers meet my definition of success. Some of them are effective
with some of the students, yet the majority of the student population is still untouched
by the light …
