Re: 2 million teachers in 2007!

[Sampere <sampere@SUHEP.PHY.SYR.EDU>]

Way ahead of you  on this one.  I've been doing this sort of stuff since 1990.  At
one point, a group of us had NSF funding, more recently, I've gotten Bauder Funds for
these activities.  These experiences are in some ways more worthwhile and meaningful
than working with college kids.  I've found that the most disadvantaged kids (inner
city, English as a 2nd language, etc) provide for me the most positive experience.

Sam

"Daniel L. MacIsaac" wrote:

> > I like to make these contacts WITHOUT the school of education.  How do you
> > think these teachers got this way in the first place?  Like Lois said, most
> > teachers are pretty enthusiastic about such opportunities.  Once one teacher is
> > bitten, the disease usually spreads.
> >
> > Sam
> Sam:
>
> - look for a nearby school that you could fit into your busy schedule 1-2X
> month, weekly if possible for 1-2 hrs.
>
> - visit that principal.  Describe your background and interests, express
> that you are willing to make a committment to visit classrooms and help
> on a regular basis.  Ask that your name be mentioned at the next (usually
> weekly) teacher's meeting or put in the teacher's announcements
> together with your phone number.  Start with ONE teacher, hopefully the
> one that shows most initiative by contacting you first.
>
> - I am willing to help suggest resources that my wife and I have found
> valuable for doing this over the last 3 years in our daughter's schools.
>
> And thank you in advance from this parent,
>
> Dan M
>
> PS: a few other quotes regarding teacher shortages excised from one of my
> brochures recruiting science teachers:
>
> BEGIN QUOTES REGARDING TEACHER DEMAND
>
> Shortages of qualified teachers have already reached critical proportions
> in our high-poverty communities; in many fields such as science,
> mathematics, bilingual education, and special education; in states
> experiencing the greatest population increases (for example, California,
> Nevada, Florida, Texas [and ARIZONA], among others); and in the
> population of teachers from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic
> backgrounds.
>
> Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve
> Teacher Quality, U.S. Dept of Education
> ***
>
> The number of [middle and] secondary school teachers employed in the
> US in 1996 is 1.19 million, growing by 19% to 1.41 million by 2008.
>
> Projections of Education Statistics to 2008,
> National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
> ***
>
> ...56% of high school students taking physical science have teachers
> who don`t have a physical science background. ...30% of high school
> math teachers don`t have a college major or minor in mathematics.
>
> ...students in urban areas have less than a 50% chance of getting a
> secondary math or science teacher who has at least a minor in that
> subject.
>
> What Matters Most: Teaching for America`s Future,
> National Commission on Teaching and America`s Future
> ***
>
> A search of the DANTES online teaching jobs database found well over
> two hundred western school districts still searching for middle and
> secondary math and science teachers in mid-semester 1998.
>
> AZ Department of Education Website
> http://internet.ade.state.az.us/
> ***
>
> Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
> danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner

--
Samuel M. Sampere
Laboratory Manager
Syracuse University
Department of Physics
Syracuse, NY 13244
315-443-5999 or 315-443-9705
fax 315-443-9103