For those of you who are teachers or no teacher, teachers, what do you think of this proposal?
Some legislator in Tennessee has proposed a new pathway to teach in Tennessee.
A two year associate degree, instead of a bachelors degree
They must still pass the state require required exams
One year paid clinical experience
A Tennessee only license
Thoughts?
Personally, I think they want more teachers they need to raise the pay. Salaries for beginning teachers in Tennessee are only $42,000 a year. Closer to $50,000 in Nashville.
I think this is an important feature. I’m in PA and I went back to school to become a teacher after college. I can’t remember how long the student teaching period was, but I seem to remember it being 3-4 months. It’s not as big a deal if you’re an undergrad, but going that long without an income is tough as an adult. I think this will encourage adults looking for a career change to at least consider teaching.
I teach grad students going into healthcare mostly around ages 23-24 years old and some of them need to do some maturing. Can’t imagine 20 year olds in charge of classrooms.
I’ve had a teaching gig (on the side) of my main corporate job for over the past 10years.
I think the Associates degree would be hardly enough knowledge to qualify anyone to teach a subject. There are folks with Bachelor’s degrees in majors that still hardly know enough about a subject.
If the subject-matter doesn’t matter (e.g pre-K, Kindergarten, or really young), then the degree could be in something else (Teaching?), but should be more than an Associates level.
You have to know enough about something you teach, to be able to teach it.
There’s a lot that goes into an Elementary Education degree that doesn’t involve the actual subject matter being taught. It’s more about child psychology, classroom management, etc. If anything, an education degree is MORE important for the younger grades.
Given the important non-subject matter issues at the younger grades, I still feel an Associates is hardly enough. An Associates in child psychology, or education, or other isn’t enough.
Mrs. mck414 is a teacher. mck414 daughter is pursuing her teaching license (has an art degree), to teach art.
From a second hand view, I am not sure a 2 year degree and 1-year clinical enough. A teacher is expected from day one to be the expert in the eyes of the student, and the teacher must have demonstrated classroom management skills (the 1-yr clinical is a good start) but a 2-year degree doesn’t instill confidence in me as a parent, that that teachers knows their shit.
Even the Troops-to-Teachers program requires a bachelors or advanced degree.
Sounds like TN wants to hire glorified babysitters.
A 2-yr. Associates is sufficient for teaching, provided the program content is loaded with “Teaching Methods” classes and pre-clinical teaching experiences. As well as including the stipulation that the newly licensed teacher has mentorship with an experienced (10+ yrs.) classroom teacher, who is willing to designate focused attention to the rookie. The paid clinical experience is key as well.
I don’t see how a “TN only” license would prevent the new teacher from going somewhere (State) that would accept the credential.
Competitive compensation will bring more qualified (content expert) candidates to the profession initially, but classroom conditions and student disciplinary support are the conditions that will retain quality providers. Parochial/Private school students have traditionally done better because behavioral distractions, disruptions, and disciplinary issues are dramatically less in those environments. P/P schools and teachers simply expose their classes to more and deeper content daily. Reinforcement at home of both the importance of appropriate classroom comportment and content retention, as with P/P parents should probably be placed ahead of everything prior.
Maybe they could also offer a short weekend class telling them how to stay out of jail - by not having sex with their students.
It seems that just about every week there is a story about a female teacher having sex with a young student. I assume that they don’t post stories about male teachers with female students because it isn’t rare or salacious enough.
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