FOCUS QUESTIONS - What are the advantages and the
disadvantages of being a teacher?
- What are the satisfactions—and the
complaints—of today's teachers?
- Is teaching a “good fit” for you?
- Can we consider teaching to be a
profession?
- How has teacher preparation changed
over the years?
- Are America's schools a secret success
story?
- What steps can you take now on the
road to becoming a teacher?
CHAPTER PREVIEW This chapter looks at classroom life through
the teacher's eyes. You may be thinking: I
have spent years in a classroom, watching
teachers and what they do. If there is one
thing I know, it is teachers and teaching!
But during your years in the classroom,
you have looked at teaching through
“student-colored glasses,” a unique but
somewhat distorted view, like looking
through a telescope from the lens that
makes everything tiny instead of large. In
this chapter, we will view the classroom
from the teacher's side of the desk, a very
different way of looking at school. Some of you are taking this course
because you want to learn more about
schools and teaching. This text will answer
many of your questions and offer useful
information. We know that many of you
taking this course are considering a major
decision: Do I want to be a teacher? This
first chapter is especially designed to help
you answer that question. The chapter is also about “us.”
Yes, us. We are now a team, this textbook,
the authors, and you. When your
authors were students, we did not much
like our textbooks. They were far from
exciting to read. By extension, we feared
that we might not like teaching. In the
end, we loved teaching—but still hated
our textbooks. We want this textbook to
be different—to be not only informative
but also enjoyable. This first chapter
offers us the opportunity to
introduce the textbook and, in a
sense, to introduce ourselves. Welcome to our classroom. |