Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, May 8, 2000
Front Page News • Sports Arts • Opinion • Extra
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Jamie Najim, a fifth-grade teacher in Kansas City, Kan., helps one of her students with an assignment. Najim, who graduated from the University of Kansas last May, has had to rely more on other teachers' suggestions rather than her University education to survive as a first-year teacher. Photo by Selena Jabara/ KANSAN
Education school rethinking its curriculum
Continued from page 1A
Stephanie Klosterhoff, 1997 graduate and first-grade teacher in Lawrence, added that the education classes she's taking toward her master's degree in education seemed more applicable in her classroom than her undergraduate classes.
"Maybe it's because I have a context to use them in now," she said. "I didn't know what to expect as an undergraduate."
Klosterhoff said that she thought some of her education classes were more busywork than useful teaching tools.
Guy Janousek, a student teacher in Lawrence, even said he never learned how to write a lesson plan. "It was mentioned, but no one ever asked me how to do it." he said.
Arthur Sloan, a teacher at Lawrence High School, often works with KU student teachers. He said that they usually knew how to write lesson plans but that they lacked the skills and methods to turn them into effective lessons.
He said classroom teachers gave student teachers a support system while they learned how to convert lesson plans into actual teaching.
Remembering all of the teaching tips and strategies from teaching courses is another problem for teachers. Janousek said that he had taken the methods courses and knew what he was supposed to teach but that he couldn't remember any of the tools he had been taught only a few semesters ago.
"The problem is remembering them," Janousek said. "I don't remember them or think about them until after. There's no question that I have a wealth of knowledge, but my lack of experience makes it difficult to disseminate what I use and when I use it."
Najim also said that student teaching was different from teaching in her own classroom.
"Student teachers use things they learned in school; first-year teachers use things they learned in their internship or from other teachers," she said.
Klosterhoff said that her student teaching year would have been improved if she didn't have to go back to class for 10 weeks in the middle of the first semester. She said she missed parent-teacher conferences, and as a result, didn't know what to expect from parents during her first year.
Possible solutions
Najim's boyfriend, Regan Koch, is in the middle of KU's experimental fifth-year program. He immediately went from teaching at a middle school to teaching at a high school instead of taking the 10-week break. Now he attends classes two days a week at the University and teaches for three.
Najim didn't have that option. "He has loved the entire experience," she said. "I am sure the program is extremely valuable and is probably more relevant to actual teaching and learning than was my experience."
Najim didn't have that option.
"Student-teachers use things they learned in school; first-year teachers use things they learned in their internship or from other teachers."
Jamie Najim
Fifth-grade teacher and KU graduate
Earle Knowlton, associate dean for teacher education and undergraduate studies, said the school had formed two committees to rework the fifth year, the year that includes all student teaching. He said that the School of Education was trying to make a good program the best it could be.
"We realize it's a tall order to produce hit-the-ground-running licensed teachers," Knowlton said. "We could continue what we are doing and all right, but why not make it better?"
Knowlton said the idea behind keeping student teachers in the real-world classroom the entire fifth year was to give them a background for what they were learning in education classes.
"You have to have a context," he said. "You can't sit in a college classroom after teaching in a classroom. It needs to be tied to the experience and the issues."
Mary Lynn Hamilton, director of program coordination in education administration, said the school was working on a new curriculum framework. Once the faculty approves it, it will form sub-committees to work on other changes. Education professors, public school teachers and students will be included in the committees, she said.
She said the school was making changes as a reaction to feedback from students, faculty and the University. Changes won't be made to the curriculum until the fall or spring 2001, she said.
But changes can't come too soon for many teachers.
Her idealism had worn thin by April.
When Najim started teaching in August, she thought she could earn the First-Year Teacher Award.
"I have questioned whether this is something I'm supposed to be doing" she said. "Then there are the days I think that I was meant to do this. It's still a roller coaster for me. I don't blame anyone. It's not me, not the district, not the kids and it's not KU. I don't think 10 years of education could have helped me."
Edited by Emily Forsyth and Karen Lucas
—Edited by Emily Forsyth and Karen Lucas
—Designed by Chris Fickett
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