Re: [Phys-L] teaching credentials +- qualifications +- administration

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

Absolutely correct (about the relative ease of hiding a lack of subject knowledge vs sufficient control of the classroom)   Most principals are just happy to have a a teacher who shows initiative and runs a well organized, well disciplined classroom.  If he knows some physics, too, that's a bonus.  Now, I'm talking about the inner city, but this hold true for many middle class suburban schools as well.  The upper-class, wealthy suburbs may be different, but I maintain, as Philip seems to say, and BC will admit,  that, in the city and mid-socioeconomic level districts, classroom maintenance and control is as much or more vital to success than  a rich knowledge of the subject.  
 

On Oct 20, 2013, at 4:20 PM, Philip Keller wrote:

> On 10/20/2013 2:30 PM, Marty Weiss wrote:
> > Successful teachers must possess a lot more than just similar academic or socioeconomic credentials.  Successful teachers must have the right personality and ability to hold a class, maintain discipline and control, be interesting (yes... there's a lot of that necessary in high school teaching), and maintain focus despite some rather obvious distractions ( p.a. calls from the administration, students pulled out for various reasons, lesson plans that go awry, fielding off topic questions, and a myriad of other things that you in university do not have to deal with.).   There are so many things that mentors have to get prospective teachers from outside the field to understand and do... eyes in back of your head when someone in the front of the room is texting while you are in the back of the lab instructing;  knowing when to separate two boys who are about to go at it over some girl;  some kid who tries to show you up because his father is an engineer so the kid thinks he knows it al
> l.
> >      These things can happen anywhere, not just in the city.
> I agree that teachers need those things.  The question is: are these things any less likely to be found in an alternate route candidate with a sub 2.75 GPA from a more challenging school (and a degree in the subject area) than they are to be found from a education major with a 3.2 and a science minor?  Those from either group who lack the ability to control a room are going to wash out pretty quickly. And I hate to say it, but an insufficient grasp of the subject matter is easier to conceal than an inability to maintain a disciplined classroom.   Considering that those who hire and evaluate you probably don't know the subject either, you could be well and tenured before anyone discovers that you just don't know what you are doing!   If I were a principal making a hire, I know what I would want to do.  (But my own back story leaves me with a clear bias.)
>
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