The Divide Among Teachers

Once I settled into the course work of my M.Ed, I began to really focus on doing my absolute best. I think the direct pipeline from high school, to undergrad, to grad school helped me stay focused and have the stamina to handle 6 hours straight of classes per night. However, it was a difficult to get used to some professors treating us like elementary students. I remember some of them having us “teach ” in front of the class and the professor encouraging the “students” to act out. To me, it felt like such a waste of time and did nothing to prepare anyone for actually being in the classroom.

Another thing that really stood out to me, was the lack of friendliness among the cohort. While, I certainly did make friends along the way that I’m still in touch with, I was surprised how negative some of my fellow classmates were. For example, for every lesson we created, we had to incorporate some form of technology into it. Myself and and the majority of the class had no issues doing this. However, some of the veteran teachers really dug their heels in and refused to do this. They would balk that this was the lazy way out and not “real teaching.” When the professors told them it was a requirement, they would be befuddled how it took the majority of us significantly less time to complete the lesson requirements while they spent hours trying to incorporate some element of tech. Once, I was paired up with one of the anti-tech teachers for a project. I can still see the look of contempt on her face being paired up the ” lazy, wanting to use tech to do my job” teacher. Something that the anti-tech group failed to see was how the majority of students would be using some form of tech in their jobs . It was literally a life skill.

As the night’s project progressed, she refused to listen to my ideas, belittled most of what I said and made me feel less than her because I wasn’t teaching for the last 30 years.

This was my first taste of how unkind teaching can be & certainly wouldn’t be the last.