School Teachers... What do you teach?

Off-topic
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Hey fellow school teachers!

I’ve noticed there are several of us… at least.
School is out May 31st in Southwest Louisiana!

What grades and subjects do you teach?
How long have you been teaching?
When is your last day this year?
If you are retired, what DID you teach, and for how long?

I teach high school art and Fine Arts Survey (art, music, dance, theatre appreciation/history of / combination). I was the yearbook adviser until this year, but now I just do the arts. I’m just finishing my 18th year teaching in the public school system. Prior to that I taught private piano lessons.

Happy Summer Vacation!

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Sixth grade Earth Science!!! I’ve taught for 9 years. Before that I was a truck driver. I like the teaching hours MUCH better. We get out (sounds like leaving prison) June 16. Three more weeks. They should fly by.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE

I teach 4 weeks of summer school. Really hard classes too ;). Movie critiquing (where I mostly just push “play”) and two classes of math games. The hardest part of summer school is finding good movies rated G or PG.

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I’m going to school for Music Education. Hopefully I can give an update soon after I graduate in 3 years.
Hopefully there will still be music programs in PA schools in 3 years >.>

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I have had two distinct teaching careers. For 20 years I was a university professor (psychology) and I primarily taught courses in experimental design, neuroscience, and evolution, as well as introductory psychology. I also taught for many years in the university honors program.

After moving to a new city as my wife pursued career opportunities that could not be passed up, I decided to try something new. I am now in my 3rd year as an 8th grade special education teacher, and my primary teaching responsibility is physical science, but in most terms I teach a little of everything. Today is the last day of school, and I am looking forward to the summer!:slight_smile:

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Wow! YOu taught evolution psychology?!

are u in the USA?

maybe you could help, I’ve got some monkeys that need some family therapy:p

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I teach sailing to kids between ages 9-15 during the summers.

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Must they all wear life jackets?

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Only the smart ones cause they’re not as “air-headed” lolololoolol

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Hello, teachers!

I wonder if we could open up the discussion a bit. I knew what this thread was about, yet today I still managed to misread the thread title – partly because the mouse was obscuring part of the word ‘What’. I read the title as why do you teach. And it got me thinking…

Why do you teach? What do you get out of teaching? Shaping the lives of young people is an important job! I hope it is highly rewarding. I’m sure it is highly demanding. Does it get easier as the years go by? Does it get easier as the school year progresses and you get to know your students?

Do you have a preferred age group? Are older kids (old enough where it’s cool to be cool) more difficult to handle?

What’s the first day of school like? Is there any anxiety or nervousness? You will want to make a good first impression. And you are meeting the kids that you will either be stuck with or blessed with for a whole year.

There are a bunch of movies about exceptional teachers who inspire and change kids’ lives for the better (I just ran across a new one called “That’s What I Am” starring Ed Harris). Do you seek out those movies? Are they realistic? Do you aspire to inspire? Do you inspire? Try as you might, I think you also need receptive students in order to make that connection. Is that a rare thing? Unicyclists are the most amazing people, so I wouldn’t be surprised if every teacher posting here was truly exceptional. Plus, it must help to be a kid at heart, which so many unicyclists are.

How do you deal with student apathy? Both in terms of providing maximum benefit to the student as well as your own emotional needs (coping with talking about something every day to people who just don’t care).

How often do you encounter that exceptional student? The one who is going somewhere in life. The one who you remember long after they have graduated.

How strongly do you bond emotionally with the kids? After all, you spend a whole year with them. And then they are gone. Do any keep in touch with you? I’ve recently reconnected with my old band director from high school on Facebook. I got a chance to thank him and tell him how deeply special band was to me and that he was a big part of why that was so. I’m pretty sure he remembers me (so as not to put him on the spot, I proactively gave a one-paragraph summarization and put some old pictures on Facebook).

I regret just disappearing after high school. Why didn’t I go to a single marching band event? Stop by and say hello? Something? Anything? I expressed this regret to my band director. But I think it’s what normally happens. You close one chapter in your life and you excitedly move on to the next without looking back.

Are you good at recognizing and remembering faces? I’m not. I could never be a teacher unless everyone wore name tags all year long. Are you good at remembering names? I’m not. Who are you again? How can you remember who so many people are? If you see a kid you had last year in the hall, do you recognize him and call him by name? What if you encounter him or her a few years later? What if that exceptional student walks up to you as an adult and introduces himself. Would you remember back that far? Do you feel bad if you don’t remember a former student?

I would love to hear some insights from the teachers here. Obviously, I’ve asked far too many questions. But those are only the ones off the top of my head. I’m sure I have more. If you would like to open the discussion to teaching in general, I for one, would certainly enjoy getting a glimpse into what it means to be a teacher. If you are interested, pick an aspect of teaching and tell us about it!

As an afterthought, I just remembered that we have many young people on these forums (I know… duh!). Should that fact influence how you discuss your profession and what you reveal? I think it should. A magician should not reveal the trick (okay, crude analogy!). A card player should not tip his hand or reveal whether he was bluffing when everyone folds. Or would insight into the life of a teacher be beneficial to students?

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P.S. - This is not a homework assignment. Feel free to ignore or just respond now and then if the mood strikes. No burdens or obligations. But if you feel like talking about your profession, know that you will have at least one very interested reader. I’m old, yet I’ve spent a full third of my life under the fine tutelage of teachers. And I’ve got questions!

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Woah uni57 !

First, after reading your comments I had to go look at your profile again to see if you were the psychologist I remember seeing here somewhere.
Nope. Software Developer with an interest in computer programing.

What kind of software do you develop?
I’ve done quite a bit of computer graphics and have a real interest in animation, but I have not persued the animation much more than to get my high school art students involved with a FLASH assignment one year. Prior to that we actually did animations in PowerPoint that worked out rather nicely. I was a dancer and have a music degree. What I would really enjoy is choreographing animations to music. I think that would be something I could really get involved with due to passing up the chance to make a career of dancing (ballet). The animations would combine my interest in dance, music, and art. (Sounds like that’s what I should do next, huh. Not sure why I am not consumed with it already.)

You have taken a mundane, mindless post and transformed it into quite an engaging conversation. I wish we could change the title so it might attract more people, but maybe the people who will be interested will eventually find it. (I thought about copying your post into a new thread, but decided to just leave it like it is.)

Second, I thought maybe you were thinking we teachers might need something to do during the summer break! Because it might take that long to respond adequately to your ponderings!

So…
Thanks for the really interesting questions and comments!
I will have more to say, but I think it will be easier to read (and write) if I take it in smaller bites.

I suppose I haven’t even addressed ANY of your ponderings yet, but I will.
Just wanted to say what a great post you have here and let you know I will be back with more comments. I think your questions could be answered in BOOK form, but I will answer in smaller portions.

Thanks uni57!

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Okay, me first, I guess. Fair enough. I’ll try to be brief (no jokes, please), mostly because this is a bit off-topic for this thread. I know that people in general like to talk about themselves. And those passionate about their careers love to talk about what they do. That’s why I unleashed my torrent of questions. I assumed I would find a receptive audience. And I’m relieved that that’s the case!

First, let me explain that first sentence in the quote. In my profile, I put Software Developer as my occupation and computer programming as one of my hobbies. The two terms are somewhat interchangeable. A software developer does computer programming. And more. There’s more to software development than just programming (also called coding). Managing release cycles, supporting customers, ensuring backward compatibility, working in a team, product design, documentation, quality assurance, and so much more. To some people, ‘computer programming’ means all of the above. And to others, it means the actual act of writing lines of code – the core part of that larger picture. I like to think that in working at a software company for almost 20 years I evolved from a computer programmer into a software developer. But again, that’s just my take on the terminology. There’s no universal definition.

I’ve worked on all sorts of platforms over the years. IBM System/38, IBM AS/400, various Unix platforms, Windows, and currently webOS smart phones (Palm Pre and family). My work at the software company usually involved back-end technology. You know; under-the-covers stuff. Really no jokes, please! How to explain this… my users were the application developers. I was part of a team that delivered infrastructure to other programmers in the company. We had two groups: the technology group and the applications group. The application programmers would write financial software, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and purchasing systems (and later, email archival and compliance software, which blurred the boundaries between the two groups of developers). The technology group (that’s where I was) would write layers of software that would enable the application programmers to write cross-platform applications that would run on AS/400, Unix, and Windows. We developed screen handling packages, database abstraction layers, etc., so that the same applications could be compiled to run on various platforms connecting to various databases (Sybase, Oracle, SQL Server) and with various front-ends (native character cell, Windows client, web interface, etc). The application programmers didn’t care whether their applications ended up running on an RS/6000, a Windows box, or an AS/400. It was all the same to them. They could focus on developing world-class applications without worrying about the differences in technology and the constantly changing technology. This was the magic that the technology group wove.

Currently, I’m unemployed and starting my own business writing apps for webOS phones.

That’s as brief as I can go! I also want to say that I think everyone should learn to program. It changes the way you think. I’ve been wanting to start a thread about that idea. Also, I just discovered that I would much prefer to talk about “what I do” (who I am, the art of my career) rather than “what I’ve done” (my resume, a.k.a. the above). I think my questions to teachers are in that spirit.

P.S. - Do you know – well, at least this was true every place I ever worked – that computer programmers almost never say the word ‘computer’?

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What do they say instead of saying: i just bought a new “computer” that’s 10 times faster than my last one.

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Machine, usually. The machine went down. Sometimes server or even box. That’s a Linux box. This machine is the database server.

Or we anthropomorphize. Say that you wrote the server part of the software – you wrote the business logic and the database access. I wrote the client part of the software. I make requests to you, you pass me the results, and I format and display the results to the user. See how I just did it? We were each a stand-in for the part of the software that we wrote. It’s all about the software.

Okay, time to talk about teaching!

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I teach people the locations of various items in WalMart, when they ask.

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I taught for 25 years in Montana and then retired at the age of 50. I taught 7th and 8th graders quite an assortment of classes. I had science, math, band, and computer. After 25 years of teaching I was quite happy to go to only working at part time jobs.

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Hi uni57,

Okay, here’s a start on responding to your thoughts.

I’ve printed your post so I can read it and think, rather than having to refer back to it on the “machine.”

I want to start with something positive, and I like your comment about people who ride unicycles, so I will relate a rather recent event.

This year is my first year at this particupar high school. There is a really long and involved story about how I got here, but suffice it to say (for now) that the move was nothing short of traumatic, and the school year has been the most stressful of the entire 18 years I have been teaching.

Yes, it DOES get easier as the year progresses and you get to know your students. Usually along about January, right after the Christmas holidays, things are noticably more relaxed.

Sometime this spring my students heard about my unicycle. A few of the students saw me bringing it to school in the morning or rolling it to my car after school in the afternoon. They began to ask me to ride the thing before the year was over.

The last week of school is usually pretty relaxed, and during that last week… it just happened. One of the boys asked me to do a cartwheel so he could include it in his video. I don’t even think I can still do a cartwheel, so I said I would ride my unicycle for him. His eyes widened and, as I pulled the unicycle out of the storeroom, the class filed in behind me as I rolled it to the hall. My room is on an isolated hall where we would not be bothering another class at that time. Freemounting was not an option just yet, so I held on to the wall and took off down the hall, stopped at the end, mounted using the wall again and rode back to my classroom door. THIS was fun. They couldn’t believe I could really do it, but what came next was quite memorable to me. The kids wanted to try it… so I let them. Seeing one of my more “challenging” students struggle to even get on the unicycle was just really amusing.

The unicycle activity was so much fun, I let it happen again in about 3 other classes. I rode it and then let the kids just have fun with it (within the classroom) while I worked on grades or some other teacher activity. They had so much fun. They wanted to know where I got it, how much it was, etc. At the end of one of those classes, one girl (also a challenging student) was so excited, she said “This was the best class all year!”

Events like that are rewarding and, at the same time, inspiring to ME. They teach me about my kids and help me to think about how to reach them. Besides, it makes me look real to them and gives them a glimpse of who that mean old lady is that’s trying to cram all of that “boring information” into their heads. We see each other as real people who have personalities and interests other than what we normally see in the classroom.

You ask about student apathy. THAT is a huge issue. It’s hard to reach some of them. The boy who was attempting to mount the unicycle is a perfect example. I imagine the main thing he will remember about taking my class is the day he videoed the teacher riding a unicycle and afterward his own attempt at even sitting on it. I know I won’t soon forget it myself!

That’s enough for now.
Just a bit of fun.

Thanks for that uni57!
I enjoyed reliving it.

More later…

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Hello syver !
It took me so long to write the unicycle story, you had posted while I was in the middle of it.

That IS quite an assortment of classes!!
You must be quite a well rounded person!

My dad was a high school chorus teacher. When I was a little kid I used to love to go next door to the band room and play with the percussion instruments, especially the “coconuts” which were played with some sort of mallet.

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And Hello BillyThe Mountain

I love Walmart.
When I run out of thing to do, I go to Walmart!

Right now though, they have the store turned upside down, and nobody can find ANYTHING!

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how many teachers agree with these statements:

My idea of teaching is to fill the board with enough work to keep the kids busy and quiet for the whole class, so I can read the newspaper.

I taught for 25 years so I can sit on my ass collecting a pension equal to what I’d be earning if I was still teaching. I can really delay gratification, and now I’m enjoying the results. Mix me another martini, please, dear.

I teach because I love children, and love to watch them grow.

I teach to inspire students.

I Teach for America, so that America will remain superior to all other nations in math and science and technology.

I teach so that students will be able to detect that Uni57 and 57UniRider are the same person, having a conversation himself.

I cannot believe any students I taught voted for George W. Bush, TWICE!