Wow, this is new!  What a great idea!  I look forward to reading future posts in here!  Thanks R&R!

Peace-

Nora

I plan on home-schooling so I guess I teach?!?  :)

I will never forget my 9th grade English teacher.  I never really let her know how much of a difference she made in my life but she certainly did.  That age was a difficult one, also the ones to follow.  She encouraged me to write EVERYTHING and to never stop reading.  So Stephanie, even if you do not think you may be "getting to" all of your students, remember that you absolutely are.  That it is a time where nobody really knows who they are or who they want to be.  It is full of experiments and tests of their being in all aspects.  Writing and reading are the keys to discovery.  I commend you for working so hard to better the future of our children.

I have now gone over this a few times, hoping that I will not have to many red marks!  I am off to spell check and then finally post!  ;)

Peace-

Nora

Oh, no spelling errors were identified, that is promising!

LOL, Nora. You crack me up. I have a friend who has a PhD in English. I always cringe when I e-mail her. I know she'll catch something I didn't. In truth, I doubt she notices! (Unless I'm grading papers, I turn the redlining instinct off!)

You are absolutely a teacher. Funny thing about me being a teacher.. I never attended a single day of high school. I was home-schooled by my teacher-mom. :-) Now, looking back on it, I think there are some very important life lessons you learn from high school. That's probably why we have so many home school kids that enroll as of 9th grade -- well, that and transcripts! I teach sign language to a group of home school kids, and I see how much time their mom puts in. Wow. And no paycheck involved!

How old are yours?

Steph

I know some homeschooling parents that enrolled their children in high school because they wanted to go to the proms.  I know of a lot of them were sad  to put their child or children in the public school system after being laid off at their job up here. The homeschooling parent had to go to work to provide an income for the family while the other parent had to continue to look for another job.

There are other reasons for homeschooled children to be enrolled into the public schools besides all of the life lessons you think they may learn there. Some may do that because of the transcripts. Homeschooled children have friends that are not homeschooled also. They have many ways to get socialization like 4-H, bowling, field trips, co-ops, gym classes, baseball, soccer, etc. They are with people out in the world also.

I know there are good and bad people everywhere. I found out in school who the people were that took drugs and offered them to me. I told them I wasn't interested in doing that. I also found out about all of the bullies that were in the school that would beat you up if you tried to live right and do the right thing. 

You know I did learn all of those great things from growing up and going to public school. I learned the best thing I ever learned that with the schools being worse now than they have ever been when I attended them with safety issues, drugs, bullies, etc. that I don't want my child to attend them. 

I pray for everyone that attend or teach at a public school that they are safe. It is scary nowadays. 

 I know some good public school teachers that are great with children. I have also seen some teachers that were great when there was another parent helping them out in the classroom or another adult coming in the classroom and acted totally different and rude to some children when they thought that no adult was paying attention.

  Some schools up here have so many children that they have to have trailers outside of the buildings for extra classrooms. The teachers can't give each child that needs extra help the attention they need in certain subjects.  There are some great teachers that will set up time for children that need extra help outside of the classroom hours, but there are also some teachers that do not do that after hours.  There are some that don't go the extra mile. They believe that is their time and they aren't going to stay after hours. 

I know I had a couple of great teachers in school but I also had a few that actually were abusive to me. One busted my lip by throwing a basketball and hit me in the mouth with it when he was said he was trying to hit a down syndrome child beside of me and missed.  She didn't hear him talking to her at the time. A kindergarten teacher bruised my arm by pulling me by my arm and pushing me into the front seat of a school bus because I had felt sorry and talked to a little boy that she paddled for playing with a car. My mom came up to the school when these things happened to me.  These teachers were still working in the school system years later.  They may have retired now.

Now I know if teachers act like this they can be fired and sued, but some of them can still get away with being rude with children or screaming at them. There are good teachers you remember and there are bad ones you will never forget.

Thank goodness that most of the teachers in public school are very good ones but unfortunately there are still some other ones there also. 

I just thought i would stop in and say hi to everyone that is posting in here.  I am currently at Central Washington University getting my degrees to teach K-8th.  I will also have a minor in TESL/bilingual education.

 I want to be one of the great teachers that every one remembers.  And my main goal is to be a Mrs. Frizzle (from the magic school bus) and i already have a lizard for a future class room pet. 

 I dont agree with the teachers that tell students that they are stupid and wont go to college (like what happen to me).  Or the teachers that dont care and hate being at school. 

 So there is alittle bit of my imput.  Talk to you all later

Cassie 

Cassie,

You sound like you will be one of the great teachers that will be remembered as being a great teacher when you become one. You already have your lizard :)

Sometimes we see things that have been done wrong in the past and we can change those things in the future. You are doing Great! Kids love to have nice, friendly teachers in their classroom and they learn more from them also. They will enjoy your classroom. :)

I love to hear every-one's input!  This is great!  My son will be 3 in August so we are just in the beginning stages.  I have also had thoughts of letting him attend HS.  I am thinking probably not, unless we move and things change. 

You both sound like the teachers that will be remembered and cherished! 

Thanks for posting!

Peace-

Nora

Stephanie,

You sound like you are a great teacher too.  I have a friend that used to teach sign language classes.  I would like to learn how to do that sometime.  They move their fingers so fast, I don't know if I could get mine to move that fast. I could probably learn to sign to someone if they didn't mind if it took me longer to do it. I guess you get faster with it as you use it more.  I think it is great that you can help children in this way. I have some books on sign language but the only ones I can do are the simple ones.

Parents, teachers, and homeschooling parents are all teachers. It is great when you see so many people that are concerned about children and their education. It is good when we can all help children with their education whether it be at home with homework after work, in the public school systems, private schools or homeschooling. I think all of these people do a great job! As long as they put 100% into it. 

Bobbie, if you are interested in sign language the best thing to do is to enroll in a community class (a lot of churches offer them -- with varying levels of "correctness"), and get involved with deaf people! You'll be surprised how very patient they are. I'm sure we'd feel the same way if we were suddenly transported to China and met someone who wanted to learn English and talk to us! We'd be very willing to help them learn, so that we'd have someone to talk to. Same thing with the deaf community. They're usually very encouraging of sign language students! And, I love this website: www.aslpro.com -- it's an online dictionary of signs.

Tracey, teaching is my second career, too! I spent 10 years as a marketing executive, making MUCH MORE money, but away from my kids far more than I wanted. I decided to teach when we had our little one. I haven't regretted it once!

Just found this site.  Dropping in to say Hello.  I teach high school social studies (Government, U.S. History, Psychology, Sociology) at an alternative education school working with high risk adolescents.

Always great to connect with other teachers and find new ideas. 

Just thought I'd drop in too. :) I'm studying Early Childhood Education right now, and am probably going to try to teach 1st or 2nd grade, at least for awhile. I would love to become a reading tutor eventually, and, above all, would absolutly love to be able to homeschool my own little ones, when/if they come along. My mom homeschooled me up to highschool, when I went to a very small, but accredited, private highschool that met 2 days a week.

I have to say, that, with homeschooling, I think that it's important to give your children the choice to attend public or private school at some point, if they want to. I would probably wait until they're at least middle school age, but it could be a good thing. Also, it can help to instill more of a sense of ownership in his or her own education. I realize that homeschooling can offer a lot more ownership than most other schooling will, but if your child feels like you are holding them back, it can be a harmful thing to them in the long run. If they plan on attending college, I think that having some experience in a formal classroom can be very beneficial.

Sometimes I wish that I had attended a more "typical" school, but only in the sense that I feel it might make it easier for me to grasp concepts of classroom management and such. Growing up being homeschooled, the thought of so many children in one classroom is an extremly overwhelming thought to me. I love working one on one with students, and the classrooms that I have been in for observations always seem to lack a certain "spark," a love for and desire for learning, that I had growing up. I hope that I will someday be able to bring that into a classroom of my own, but it is no simple thing.

It is fun seeing all the differnt subjects taught.  I taught middle school special ed, then Kindergarten special ed (multiple handicaps) and ended up in the preschools as a developmental specialist doing the screenings of children at risk.    I love teaching!  Now I am homeschooling my son.  I really think he has learning disbilities and we have been really struggling.    I don't think he can handle the extra pressures of public school yet. 

I know schooling is a sometimes controversial subject.  I am just so thankful we live in a country that gives us so many options.  That allows us to chose for our children and to change that decision as needed.  So many countries don't give citizens the same choices.

And, there are poor teachers in schools, parents homeschooling that are doing a bad job, and others in both places that are fantastic.  I know it seems we are quick to criticize one another, but we need to remember that every career has good and bad examples (doctor, police, sales, farmer, etc) and we all make mistakes. 

Very well said, Laura!

howdy all!  I just found this thread forum :)

I taught MS social studies (world history/cultures) for 4 years, and now own a bookstore. I'm alsways happy to share my experiences and ideas.  Somedays I miss teaching, but we moved to open the store, and to get certified in PA I have to jump through tons of hoops (even just to subsititue).

Parents are the most important teachers a child will ever have.  EVER!!!  So, as a teacher, it makes me sad to see parents that don't care about or are abusive to their children.  In short, thank you to all the parents out there who really do care.  And especially those who are able to take the time to homeschool.  My mother did this for me in middle school, and it was the best thing that could have happened to me at that age.  For those who worry about going back to high school, I found from a personal experience that it was fine.  High school is not the awkward age that middle school is, and most high schools are still "tracked" enough by honors classes that the students who do care often end up together. 

I teach 3, 4, and 5th grade processwriting in a program with two other teachers.  We keep the same kids for three years, just moving to a different homeroom.  The 3rd grade homeroom teacher teaches reading and social studies, the fifth grade homeroom teacher teaches math and science, and I, the fourth grade homeroom teacher, teach writing and the other language arts, in addition to computer lab.  I love working with the other two teachers and we get to know the kids and parents really well.  In addition, we have time to specialize and become expert teachers in our subject area.

I also teach graduate level education classes for adults who already have their college degrees, but want to become certified to teach. It is an intense program, but I am proud to say that 95% of our graduates have passed all of the state tests and become hired in public and private schools.  I only started this 3 years ago, and by doing this, have become a much better teacher myself...who says you can't teach an old dog (33 years teaching experience) a few new tricks?  LOL

Hi, everyone. I teach in a Special Education classroom for Emotionally Disturbed K-5 students. (My mom says I fit right in!) It's very challenging but rewarding. Funny thing is I never taught elementary kids until I moved back to Cali. I started teaching high school English (and gripped about the middle school teachers, lol), then moved to middle school where I taught electives (and gripped about elementary teachers!) and now I teach elementary (and grip about the parents). The upcoming school year will be my 11th year. 11 years, 12 grades and 4 states. I sure get around! LOL Glad to find this site.

Lorene

I'm a kindergarten teacher in Wisconsin.  I love my school, job and co-workers. 

Tracey,  I'm changing a lot for this coming school year.  I'm moving away from using the textbook for the most part.  I'm spending my time this summer looking for books that pertain to weekly topics and finding ideas and projects to go with the books.  If you any good resource ideas or books to use, I'd love to hear!  I get The Mailbox and they have some great ideas, but typically it's for one picture book per issue. 

I just found this forum too!  I love it! 

I'm a First Grade teacher in a private Catholic school in Florida.  This will be my second year teaching First.  Before that, I taught Second Grade for 10 years at a public school.