Teacher Training

[laughing lioness]

Ran across this quote in What the Dog Saw by Gladwell;

"Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half's worth of material. The difference amount to a year's worth of learning in a single year. Teacher effects dwarf school affects; your child is actually better off in a bad school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher."

 

Do you think that this is true of homeschooling as well? If so, what do you do for teacher training?

Conferences? How do you determine that you've been "trained?" Do you see a distinction between training and encouragement?

 

Books? How do you decide what to read?

Other?

[KrissiK]

Interesting. Well, I'm not sure about how much training makes a good teacher. I used to teach school and many people say I was a good teacher. I think what made me a good teacher was a) I had good classroom control. Children will not learn in a chaotic environment. b) I was interested and enthusiastic about my subject matter (I taught jr. high science) c) I liked what I did and this was conveyed to my students. I liked them, too. Bad teachers don't teach. They make assignments and then they just sit at their desk and read a book. Seriously. Or they use the same lesson plans for 10 years in a row. I was constantly tweaking my lessons, making them better.

 

I think that can translate into a homeschool environment. If a parent is glad they are homeschooling, if they put some effort into what they are doing, if they care about their child's education and they enjoy learning themselves, they will be successful. I think for a lot of good teachers (not just credentialed teachers, but people in general), teaching is just innate. THey can't help themselves. That's me. I teach. That's just what I do.

[Julie in Austin]

I would think that the teacher would make *more* of a difference in a homeschool because s/he is also completely in charge of curriculum, whereas in a school the best (and the worst!) teachers are somewhat limited by the curriculum they are required to use. Other constraints (for good or ill) on school teachers would include things such as time constraints, district guidelines, parent expectations, etc. Obviously, those don't exist for homeschoolers--meaning that we might do much better or much worse on those fronts.

[ElizabethB]

My time to teach a remedial student to grade level has gone from, on average, 20 hours, to, on average, 6 hours. It went down from about 20 to 10 over the first year of tutoring, the rest of the gains have gone generally slower. After finding Webster's Speller, the average grade level I can get my students to have improved markedly, I can now get most of my students at least one grade above grade level and I can get a fair number up to 12th grade level. Before Webster, I did not get a single student to 12th grade level.

 

I just kept reading things and trying different methods based on what my reading led me to.

 

For math, reading here and other places led me to switch to Singapore, and my daughter's ITBS scores and general level of math understanding have greatly improved since the switch. (I also supplement with a bit of the RS abacus and games.)

 

I read current and older educational things, from Quintillian (unfortunately, not yet in the original Latin) to Rice (late 1800s) to Liping Ma to The Teaching Gap.

[alpidarkomama]

I think that what makes an effective homeschool parent and what makes an effective school teacher are VERY different things. School and learning at home are also completely different experiences, having spent many years in a classroom before kids and homeschooling!

[Catherine]

I have seen similar information quoted in NYT articles on education as well. Not sure if any of you have had children in ps but I have so I have NO trouble believing it, none at all. But teacher training and teacher skill are different things-I'm ont sure training is that closely tied to performance. I'm just speculating based on experience, not quoting actual data. But I suspect teacher performance is also at least somewhat dependent on emotional factors too, because kids learn better (IMO) when they feel safe, supported, cared for, even, loved! You saw my other thread-laughing lioness-I think this matters and I think it's one of the important factors in homeschooler's success. Trust and affection are overlooked as factors in education in public schools.

 

My middle ds had the most wonderful teacher for second grade. She loved the kids, plain and simple, and she *respected* them, treated them like human beings, and they adored her and wanted to behave, to please her, to make progress. After my experience with her, and the others who were so different from her, I'm a believer in both teacher quality and teachers as substitute attachment figures for young schoolchildren.

 

I don't do conferences or much formal training. I learn ahead of them, and hope that it's enough.

[Rosie_0801]

 

"Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half's worth of material. The difference amount to a year's worth of learning in a single year.

Do you think that this is true of homeschooling as well?

 

I don't know if those details are true, but the general idea is, I think. My mother insists that there were a few years in primary school where we didn't learn anything of note, thanks to some rotten teachers. There was one excellent teacher who had us doing dictation and mental arithmetic, and most parents felt confident their kids would be prepared for high school if they had this teacher in grade five, even if they didn't have him again in grade 6.

 

If so, what do you do for teacher training?

How do you determine that you've been "trained?" Do you see a distinction between training and encouragement?

 

I self study, read here and read books on education theory and child raising. I've already bought a couple of curriculum items and I've learned a lot from reading through them.

 

Can any homeschooler feel fully trained before they've graduated all their kids? It's a work in progress, isn't it? I'm better trained now than I was, but my current training is nothing compared to what it will be in 5, 10 and 15 years time. I think my years as a girl scout leader will help with teaching, and parenting in general, I suppose. I worked with a lot of different kids and learned a lot about how to encourage and motivate different types, and some important lessons in determining what is important to work on/ insist on, and what isn't.

 

Training is locating and absorbing new information and encouragement is what makes you keep doing it, yes?

 

 

 

How do you decide what to read?

Well there's this chick on the WTM forum called Laughing Lioness who has a habit of reading things I would benefit from, and mentioning it so I hear about it and can do something about it :tongue_smilie: (Of course you're not the only one, but it's often your posts that bring books to my attention, so thanks! :) ) You know how it is on here. Someone will post about a great book, someone else will read it and post about it and eventually you hear enough about it that you have to read it so you don't feel uncool :lol:

 

I also read through all the "out of the box" threads that show up on the logic stage boards. I'm not a very creative thinker in those sorts of ways, so I'm hoping I will absorb some of these ideas/ styles of thinking over time so I'll be able to access them without having to be creative and think of them myself :lol: I'm noticing some benefit already. Not with my kids, of course, because they are too little, but they have helped me make sense of the way dh learns (strange whole to parts type guy, not at all like my parts to whole self!) Now I have vocabulary for that phenomenon, I can identify it when it shows up, if that makes sense. A mum asked a question on here recently about her daughter, and the description sounded just like my dh, so I was able to tell her what my hubby does and why. If my kids turn out like that too, I should be able to do better than bellowing "ARGH! You don't make any sense!" Hehehe. I guess the more I read of these sorts of things, the more I will be able to think "Ah, that sounds just like X and they did Y" and that's got to be useful.

 

Anyway, I should stop blathering and go make dinner, huh?

 

Rosie

Edited February 8, 2011 by Rosie_0801

[Sugarfoot]

It's interesting that you quoted that tonight, as I just started re-reading The Seven Laws of Teaching. It seems like I'm constantly trying to learn more about everything that I want my kids to learn, and I have a pretty extensive education. I'd like to find more ways to make them more enthusiastic about learning,;) but I sometimes wonder where my part of that leaves off and theirs picks up, if that makes sense. I want them to feel responsible for learning, too.

[Heather in Neverland]

A good teacher is the make it or break it issue in education. Good teacher training is wonderful...unfortunately most teacher training programs are a joke. In my years in the education world I have noticed that "great teachers are born, not made". Some people are just born with that teacher gift...others try and can do well but the truly gifted teachers are just that...gifted.

[Nan in Mass]

You might see if you can get Teach Like a Champion from the library. : )

-Nan

[angela in ohio]

I agree, though I think the effect is slightly less in homeschooling, because students often use materials that give more direct instruction than those used in public school.

 

I've seen many studies in that vein. For example, researchers found that the one thing that would successully turn around failing inner city schools (not money, not moving the kids to other schools...) was highly skilled teachers.

 

And my dh used to get new special education students and routinely advance them by 2-3 grade levels in the year he had them. Last year, he attended the graduation of a boy he worked out of special education many years ago, and the parents sent the invitation because dh changed the boys life. A skilled teacher can do what others can't.

 

I have said before, though, and I'll say it again: I think some people are naturally better teachers than others. I think, like art or music, some people can learn to be competent, but there are those who can take the same training and be truly gifted at it.

 

I think that homeschool parents should get some basic training in educational psychology and instructional methods. (I often explain some of these concepts to struggling homeschool parents, and the info creates a "lightbulb moment" for them.) Beyond that, though, I think we have an advantage over school teachers, because the best training is to actually learn the material to be taught. We can choose how we train, and we can focus on learning the material.

 

There is little training available at homeschool conferences/conventions. I can count just a handful of exceptions: SWB, Tom Clark, Christopher Perrin, MCT, the lovely women from Geography Matters and WriteShop whose names I can't remember. These speakers actually teach material and how to teach it. That is rare.

[angela in ohio]

It's interesting that you quoted that tonight, as I just started re-reading The Seven Laws of Teaching.

 

That is the first book anyone should read if they want to learn about being a more effective teacher! :001_smile:

[angela in ohio]

I don't know if those details are true, but the general idea is, I think. My mother insists that there were a few years in primary school where we didn't learn anything of note, thanks to some rotten teachers.

 

My mother joined every school committee, etc. Then she would listen carefully to all the other parents' complaints about teachers. You weren't allowed to request a teacher, but you could request NOT having a teacher. So each year, she would compile her notes and request that I not have all the teachers she had heard were too easy or couldn't teach. I look back and think how much they must have disliked us. :D

[thessa516]

That is the first book anyone should read if they want to learn about being a more effective teacher! :001_smile:

 

 

Thank you ladies for the recommendation. I couldn't find the book at my library, but I found it online for free at this website (in case others are interested in reading it, too).

[Jean in Newcastle]

The teacher training I got in college was on instructional strategies and classroom management. I don't feel like that applies so much to homeschooling - at least to the point where I need more of it. I do need to focus more on individual subject matter as my ds gets into high school material. We're on a break in logic right now because I have to sit down and review/learn formal logic so that I can teach it to him. Many other subjects he's been able to learn directly a well written text without input from me.

[Karen in CO]

I think for a homeschool parent, training is important too. You can't just buy a teacher manual, sit down with your kids and be a good teacher. I think a deeper understanding of the subjects being taught is important.

I figured this out when I pulled my ds from school in middle school. I can do algebra, but I couldn't teach math. I had no skills or extra mathematical knowledge to be able to figure out what he was missing and help him to overcome that. I learned the same lesson again when my bright dd became stuck in second grade math. I just couldn't see how to help her because she couldn't understand the math the way I understood it.

Since those experiences, I have been working hard on my own education so that I have a deeper understanding of math, science (other than physics which was one of my majors), writing, literature, grammar and history.

I know I can't teach everything as deeply as I would like, but I try to increase the breadth and depth of my knowledge and look for outside resources to help my weak areas.

I think that is the type of training that homeschooling teachers need, not training in classroom management or teaching methods or strategies.

[laughing lioness]

Thanks so much for the replies and reading suggestions- ordering the 7 Laws of the Teacher.

Rosie, you are so right. I've learned so much from these boards, books, thoughts, ideas, etc!!

Heather- what would "good teacher training" look like? Seriously, you know, beyond class room management.

Angela- I SOO agree about the LACK of teacher training at homeschool conventions! And thanks for the book recommendation!

Karen- What you said. I understand Algebra but I am a horrible, horrible upper level math teacher (though I am a GREAT at teacher eled math).

[FaithManor]

Heather,

 

Thank you for the born not made remark. I was one of those "born" teachers. I was not certified for anything but music ed. When I wanted to teach science and run the lab at a private school, the principal recognized that "born" thing and let me do it though my only background for teaching science was all of the gen-ed science and electives I took in college. She told me she'd rather have a "God made teacher" any day over a "man-made teacher". It was a wonderful, magical two years. The kids learned a ton, I had a blast!

 

As for teacher training, I do an absolute TON of reading though I have taken a couple of conferences on neurological/reading issues and using music training to strengthen the corpus collosum in children exhibiting deficiencies.

 

Faith

[Rosie_0801]

Heather- what would "good teacher training" look like? Seriously, you know, beyond class room management.

 

I'm clearly not Heather, but one complaint dh had about his teacher training was there was no kind of child development components. Others here have said they had such classes in their teacher training courses, so I guess dh just did a particularly crappy course. It was great fun for him teaching year 7s after having years 11 and 12, with half the class having started puberty when the other half hadn't. He didn't know how to negotiate both when their academic, emotional and social capabilities were so different.

 

I suppose some framework like the trivium would help. We all know it is just a guideline, but it gives us some info to use to judge when the kids are moving to the next stage, and what to do with them until then and afterwards.

 

Rosie