In the October 7, 2014 issue of Education Week Teacher, Larry Ferlazzo has a series of articles entitled: Letting Student Teachers ‘Sink or Swim’ Is ‘Not Permissible’
Unfortunately the same can be said for first year teachers.
The teaching profession has long used a sink or swim philosophy and will continue to do so because of the very nature of education courses. Teachers of classroom management (more accurately referred to as “discipline”) at colleges and universities are between a rock and a hard spot.
One purpose of education is to expose prospective practioners to different philosophies and approaches of working with behavior concerns (discipline problems), so future teachers are exposed to various approaches.
But if you ask new teachers, “Do you feel confident of having an approach to handle disruptive behavior and simultaneously keeping good relations with students?” the answer will universally be “No.”
The result is that teaching is the only profession that does not teach its practitioners how to enter the profession with confidence.
It is still a sink or swim profession.
Amen to that. But thanks to your guidance, many of us master teachers are showing our student teachers the right way to manage student behavior.