tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post3099452492255407698..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Quality Teachers vs. Small Class Sizeed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-39245838951927156682008-02-28T06:17:00.000-05:002008-02-28T06:17:00.000-05:00I agree with all of this, of course, but I want to...I agree with all of this, of course, but I want to make one point:<BR/><BR/>Regarding the large classes, you write: " And there are superior people who can handle it all . . . "<BR/><BR/>It is one thing to "handle" these large classes -- it takes a combination of personality, humor, dignity, organizational skills, deep knowledge of the subject, good working knowledge of the kids, etc. -- and altogether another thing to make it an administrative GOAL to get all teachers up to par to teach at this level.<BR/><BR/>Large classes are for universities, where student minds are going the intellectual distance.<BR/><BR/>They will never be for public schools, where student minds are being formed. Pre-college minds call for a much different arena, where kids need to develop an array of cognition skills that can only be learned in smaller settings, with INTERACTION, and TIME to process, experiment with, and manipulate language until it all becomes second nature. <BR/><BR/>And teachers have to be given time to CORRECT the homework they want us to assign, because in those big classes, as sure as night turns into day, they ain't gonna be giving homework every night that they're willing to put the hours in to correct -- I'm talking real, "old school" type of marking that takes hours and hours on a daily basis. You just can't get better at writing until you do it a lot and get all those corrections from the teachers in the margin.<BR/><BR/>So our goal should not be "handling" these large classes. That amounts to a bunch of survival techniques in this crap environment.Under Assaulthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222267229529062957noreply@blogger.com