Slight new purpose... until June atleast

I haven't updated this in a long time. Mainly because I am now a teacher, have been since September, with no time for myself. But in that time I've come to realize, I need an outlet for the things and aggrivations that I come across in the school year so until I start my master's degree this fall at Syracuse, my blog will be devoted to all I see from a non educators view of educating.

COLLEGE PROFESSORS HAVE TAs. SO TOO SHOULD HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS
The kids have a test tomorrow on chemical formulas and reactions. It's a simple concept to me since I've been doing these types of problems for 6 years and it was what first turned me on to chemistry, but many of the kids are lost. Lucky for them, extra help is everyday afterschool, except yesterday.

Since it is in the child's mind to wait until the last minute to do any work for any subject in high school, there were approximately 20-25 kids at extra help today. There isn't enough board space to send every kid to the board so the kids naturally broke themselves into groups of their own that had the same questions as I went around to help each group as best I can given that there were 25 people to help, all yelling "Mr. Allen" to get my attention.

However, two students showed up to extra help who didn't really need help, Zeina and Kevin. Zeina is my student, small feisty and very smart. Kevin is in the honors class, which I don't teach, but since his teacher is rarely available for extra help Kevin sees me. Both of them, being friends with most if not all the students present, started to help the others understand certain concepts while I helped others with more dire needs. Though Zenia began to lose her cool (understanding where I come from when I become aggrivated during class), their help allowed me to help the most needy students.

The idea struck. College professors teach approx 1-2 classes. Some of these classes are small, some are big. But on average a college professor may have one big class of 100, maybe 150, maybe 200. A high school teacher has approx 25 students per class. At a required 5 classes a day, that's 125 students. College professors will see their class every other day. A high school teacher will see their class every day. College professors will give approx 2-3 tests per semester (Sept - Dec/Jan-May). A high school teacher will give atleast 2-3 tests per term (Sept-Oct/Nov-Jan/Jan-Mar/April-June). So in the time that a college professor gives 2-3 tests a high school teacher has given about 4-6 tests. Introduce the science professor/teacher, and you add the same thing with labs. However, these match up more consistantly.

Now how many of these labs and tests is the high school teacher grading. 125. He or she grades each lab or test or paper themselves. How many labs/tests/papers is the college professor grading. In many cases it's 0. The college professor has teaching assistants that grade labs, run tests through a scantron, read through papers. Teaching assistants run recitations and review sessions. I have never had my actual professor run a review session, its always the TA. The college professor is getting paid more than the high school teacher for doing a lot less.

So high school teachers should have teaching assistants to help with all their grading and review sessions. They do more, they have more to grade and have longer days. My students ask for the labs or tests back the next day if not that afternoon. Between preparing lessons and grading 125 copies of each assesment and running review sessions, I cannot grade all these thigns in a day, especially with the unseen naps that occur if I lay down for 5 minutes. Though I guess that having a student teacher with you is like having a TA, but most high school teachers don't get those.