IAmA "retired" 6th grade, Title I public school teacher who left after one year. AMA!

I taught 8th grade "Earth Science" for three years at two different middle schools simultaneously. I now teach at a university. I was fortunate: Both schools provided me with a access to a "master teacher" mentor. The curriculum/pedagogy was standard and very detailed. Instead of concentrating on "what" to teach, I concentrated on "how" to teach the required material plus some fun extras. I also concentrated on getting to know the students. Student assessments consisted of variations of curriculum guide questions and material handed down to me from the previous teachers. We also had state mandated standardized tests.

My experience teaching has consistently been that enthusiasm is contagious. I'm thrilled to spend every day talking about topics that interest me. I didn't think about it at the time, but some of my students probably never saw anybody excited about science before me.

Here's and anecdote: I got the impression student experience of science was restricted to memorization and worksheets. My class was about "doing" science. One of the master teachers told me that even adults have a maximum ten minute attention span. The trick is to reset the clock every ten minutes with a "disruption". Her suggestion was having the students switch from reading the textbook to completing a short quiz or starting a 10 minute lecture or starting a demonstration. I took the suggestion to an extreme: Each table of 4 or 5 students was assigned a roughly 10 minute task such as measuring or designing a test procedure or making predictions about test results or researching the topic online. I'd then scatter the students to different tables where each student would present their previous table work to the new group. Sometimes in the middle of class, I directed students to rearrange the furniture. Most of it was on wheels. It provided the disruption on days when the class consisted primarily of lecture/demonstration. The next class then discovered the new arrangement. Students tend to sit at the same table every class, but the tables move so they are near different students from day to day. I took students into the parking lot with the Principal's permission to look at clouds. We built rockets and electric circuits and played with "toys". Every month, I introduced a new "perpetual motion machine" and challenged the students to debunk it using the knowledge they gained.

I never really had any serious student behavior problems. There were inappropriate outbursts and general adolescent absurdities. The worst cases were hygiene issues. I had half a dozen children of migrant workers. Those children tended to start school 5 weeks into the first semester and leave school 5 weeks before the end of the second semester. Many had weak English skills as well, but we had a dedicated ESL teaching assistant available more or less as needed at each school, and it wasn't too much of a problem.

The rough part was that our school conducted the state mandated tests earlier in the Spring than almost any other school. Our students' performance was measured so early that I couldn't cover some of the test material before the date. Nevertheless, I never has a single student score less than "proficient" on the admittedly small science section. I credit the kids more than anything I did. They tended to come to me already at grade level, and I endeavored to pass them along ready for high school.

My biggest disappointment was how few students enrolled in the more advanced math course offered in 9th grade. We had guest speakers talk to the students about the advantages of taking more math. One guest, a retired MIT professor, told the kids that each year of math after high school was worth $100,000 extra earnings over a career. She said it was like winning the lottery except that it was almost a sure thing. In our school system, if a student didn't take Algebra I in 9th grade, Algebra II in 10th grade, and Geometry in 11th grade, they couldn't take Calculous in 12th grade. Too many students shut the door on a free college level Calculous course with decisions they made at age 14. I had great students who would perform well on the more advanced math track, and they wouldn't take it. I wanted to pull my hair out.

I'm sorry for your experience. I just wanted to toss some hope that not situations are as bad as the one you experienced. My school was in an urban area, but Title I wasn't a thing yet. We had demographics similar to the nation as a whole.

/r/IAmA Thread Parent