MenTeach E-News
March 2016
1) China’s New Five-Year Plan: Be a Man
2) In Praise of the Dude Teaching at My Son’s Preschool
3) Black male educators holding next forum
4) Early childhood education needs more male teachers in New Zealand
5) Awards given at MenTeach – New England @ MassAEYC conference
6) Male student-teachers in elementary education
7) America needs more black and Hispanic male teachers
8) More men are training to be primary school teachers in UK, research shows
9) My Favorite Teacher – Mr. T.
10) Efforts to recruit more diverse teachers paying off for city schools
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1) China’s New Five-Year Plan: Be a Man
Two days before the temperature in my town dropped to -9°F, my dad asked me, as he tends to do at the coldest point in the winter, to join him on a backcountry ski trip to Mount Moosilauke. Moosilauke is in Benton, New Hampshire. It may not be hyperborean by the standards of Alert, Nunavut, but for context it is nearly an hour north of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. At this time of year it’s the kind of frigid that makes you feel like your nostrils are full of Gorilla Glue. This kind of cold is, for some reason, my dad’s idea of fun.
And I enjoy it, too, up to a point. I was raised to enjoy it. Still, on the manliness spectrum from whining milquetoast to The Revenant’s Hugh Glass, I’m the lesser man than my old man. It isn’t just the winter sports, either. He’s been an Eagle Scout, a big wall climber, an auto mechanic, a businessman, a stepfather, a father. Presumably he had a thing or two to prove: His own father was a company commander in the Battle of the Bulge and a liberator of KZ Buchenwald. Read the editorial: /node/2835
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2) In Praise of the Dude Teaching at My Son’s Preschool
I turned to close the preschool gate the other day and looked back to see what my three-year-old son was up to.
And this is what I saw: His teacher in a laughing jog, leading a pack of toddlers in a full sprint. A few weeks ago I saw this teacher sliding on the ice (safely) with the kids. And somewhere in there, I came to pick up my son to find the same teacher lost in a mountain of pillows, laughing kids all around piling on.
Good teacher, huh? Oh, yeah, one other thing. The teacher’s name is Sven (not really, but he is a guy). Read the article: /node/2836
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3) Black male educators holding next forum
lack Male Educators Convening has scheduled another event this weekend to bring together teachers, policymakers and others to have effective discusses about changes in the urban and school landscapes.
BMEC III: The Pipeline, Politics and Mindsets of Black Male Educators will be held at Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School at 5501 Cedar Ave. The program will tackle the responsibilities of Black men as advocates for improving the education system, among other topics.
Civil rights activist and scholar Howard Fuller will be the keynote speaker Saturday.
“As a transplant to the Philadelphia area, I am excited about the work taking place through the fellowship and the Black Male Educator Convenings,” said William Hayes, a fellow with the America Achieves Fellowship for Teachers and Principals.
Hayes has supported shared goals through his work with the Impact Project, the Black Male Educator Alliance. Read the article:
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4) Early childhood education needs more male teachers in New Zealand
Dean Hodge comes to work with a smile on his face, every day.
The Ascot Park resident has been a teacher at Adventure Kindergarten in Whitby for more than two years and has just finished his diploma in teaching with Te Rito Maioha/Early Childhood New Zealand.
It is a relief to put the study behind him, but Hodge said the learning will never stop. He’s grateful for the support he had received since he came to Adventure, and at Ascot Park Kindergarten before that.
“It’s been three years [in early childhood training and teaching] now and I still love it,” he said. “The opportunities are limitless for me and seeing the kids every day makes me smile. They’re eager to learn and I’m eager to teach and you really feel like you’ve accomplished something at the end of each day. There’s a responsibility, because you have to be a role model for children who may not have father figures in their lives, but I love the challenge.” Read the article: /node/2841
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5) Awards given at MenTeach – New England @ MassAEYC conference
On March 4 at the MassAEYC conference- MenTeach-New England and MassAEYC held our annual reception and award evening. Men Teach gave out two awards:
1) The Steve Shuman Award in Support of Men in Early Education and Care – this award was given to Stuart Cleinman now retired- longtime teacher, administrator, Director, Head Start evaluator, on the board of BAEYC Directors Conference and major advocate for men in early education. He has been a strong supporter of MenTeach – New England. Read the article and see the photos: /node/2845
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6) Male student-teachers in elementary education
Over the past 20 years, the number of male teachers in both elementary and middle school grades have plateaued at around 16 percent, a number that remains true at La Crescent Elementary School.
The school has five male teachers on staff and only one male student-teacher this year.
Garrett Soper is that student-teacher and he says the need for male role models in the classroom is growing.
“These kids are just hilarious,” he said. “I feel like most of these kids want to be here everyday, they’re really enthusiastic and they try hard and they want to be at school so it’s fun to be around that energy,” he said.
Last summer Soper decided to change his career path after being a news photographer at News 19. He enrolled at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in the summer of 2015 and began taking classes and working in the field to obtain his masters degree as well as his teaching license. He’ll officially graduate later this year. Read the article: /node/2846
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7) America needs more black and Hispanic male teachers
The statistics have almost become cliché: Black elementary and high school students score lower on standardized tests, on average, than their white or Asian counterparts. For years, educators have searched for solutions. For Kwame Griffith, a senior vice president at Teach For America, the way to help narrow this achievement gap is by recruiting more black and Hispanic male teachers.
Griffith, 32, said that seeing more black male teachers can inspire students in and outside the classroom.
“We need to set up our kids, our families, our communities — the most disaffected — and have them play a real role, as people of color, that they accept and embrace,” he said. Read the article: /node/2847
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8) More men are training to be primary school teachers in UK, research shows
More men are training to be primary school teachers but fewer are entering secondary schools, new analysis reveals.
The Good Teacher Training Guide 2015 also found the top three training providers were school-based. The guide was produced by Alan Smithers and Mandy-Diana Coughlan from the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER),
The proportion of men in postgraduate routes for primary teaching has increased since 1998 (see table above) from 14 to 17 per cent. In contrast, the proportion of men training to be secondary teachers has dropped by eight percentage points.
The proportion of trainees from ethnic minorities has increased substantially over the same period, in both primary and secondary routes. Read the article & see the data: /node/2850
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9) My Favorite Teacher – Mr. T.
From my first year as a student in school to now, as an adult educator, I find myself referring to some teachers as “my favorites”. Currently with my work involving pre-service students and cooperating teachers in the field, there are those teachers who I favor. Certainly we have all had at least one favorite teacher in our years of being in school but what exactly makes any teacher ‘a favorite’? Specifically, what dispositions and characteristics do some teachers posses that make them ‘one’s favorite’?
Overall, a favorite teacher can be described as a teacher who is successful and effective in the classroom. The literature also agrees that an effective teacher can be recognized on two levels: for the professional skills they possess (subject matter knowledge, teaching styles and multiple approaches to teaching) and for their personal teacher skills (enthusiastic, humorous, friendly). Is it feasible then to say that at the heart of an effective teacher are the qualities of their mind and character? Read the editorial: /node/2853
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10) Efforts to recruit more diverse teachers paying off for city schools
A room full of 12 and 13-year-olds in a seventh grade Pre-AP science class cut open raw chicken wings to identify the muscles, bones and ligaments.
“What connects the muscle to the bone?” asks teacher Christopher Mosley at Hudson K-8 School.
“The tendon!” Ricardo Chandler, 13, said proudly.
Mosley then asks a table of students another question as he shows them the veins: “Can you imagine blood flowing through something that thin?”
Mosley, 24, is part of Teach For America’s efforts to recruit more diverse teachers to local classrooms.
Nationally, only 7 percent of teachers are black and just 2 percent are black males. Read the article: /node/2861
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