MenTeach E-News
December 2015
1) Scottish Men urged to take up childcare career
2) Wanted in New York City: A thousand black, Latino and Asian male teachers
3) Training More Black Men to Become Teachers
4) Study: Of the Israeli men teachers satisfied with their career (88%) would recommend the field of education over women (69%)
5) How to encourage more men to take up teaching as a career
6) Free or reduced Tuition programs for men to teach
7) Program aims to draw young males to leadership
8) 2015 NAEYC Conference – An Opportunity of a Lifetime
9) Reflective Piece: First time at the NAEYC Conference
10) Why lack of male teachers could be the reason boys fail in the classroom
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1) Scottish Men urged to take up childcare career
More Scots men will be encouraged to take up a career as nursery teachers and childminders as part of a Scottish Government drive announced today.
Ministers today set out their vision for an overhaul of the country’s early years workforce which will also look at ensuring that the profession is better paid for those involved.
Just 4% of nursery teachers in Scotland are currently male and 0% of childminders. Ministers now want to shift this balance and believe it would have wider benefits for society.
The Scottish Government published its response to an Independent Review of the Early Learning and Childcare and Out of School Care Workforce carried out by Professor Iram Siraj’s earlier this year.
Education Secretary Angela Constance said: “I am committed to doing more to promote early learning and out of school care as a fantastic career for young people, considering, in particular, what more we could do to attract more males into the sector. Read the article: /node/2771
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2) Wanted in New York City: A thousand black, Latino and Asian male teachers
New York City, which has the nation’s largest public school system, wants to hire 1,000 black, Latino and Asian male teachers by 2017 to create a teaching corps that more closely matches the student body.
The program, called NYC Men Teach, is part of the Young Men’s Initiative, a city program that focuses public and private funding on ways to reduce disparities between young black and Latino men and their peers when it comes to education, health, employment and the criminal justice system.
While approximately 43 percent of New York City Public Schools male students are black, Latino or Asian, about 8 percent of male teachers belong to those groups. Of the city’s 76,000 teachers, just 6,600 are men of color, city officials said. Nationally, black men make up just two percent of the nation’s teaching workforce. Read the article: /node/2773
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3) Training More Black Men to Become Teachers
During his high-school days, no football game could start without Louis Blackmon III: the team’s center. Each play began with his snap.
Though Blackmon was renowned for his hustle on the field, he didn’t put the same effort into the classroom. “In school, I was just an average guy,” Blackmon said. Typically, he pulled Cs, with a few Ds, at McDonogh 35 High School in New Orleans.
That led to heartbreak his senior year, when his ACT scores came back a few points below college-entrance standards. Almost overnight, he lost the attention of college scouts, who had told him he was a prime candidate for an athletic scholarship.
Yet today, Blackmon, now 21, is a standout student at Southern University at New Orleans, in the Honoré Center for Undergraduate Achievement, an intensive new program that gives full scholarships to young African American men who show promise despite unremarkable transcripts.
All of the program’s participants, known as “Honoré Men,” study to become teachers—because the program’s founders believe that promising young men who grew up in tough circumstances are uniquely equipped to connect in classrooms with youth facing similar challenges. Read the article: /node/2775
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4) Study: Of the Israeli men teachers satisfied with their career (88%) would recommend the field of education over women (69%)
Israel’s teacher burnout problem may not be as severe as previously thought, a study released Sunday suggests.
65% of teachers are satisfied with their career choice, the TACK poll for Herzog Academic College revealed, compared to 23% who are ‘satisfied enough’ but not planning to continue the career path permanently and just 11% who are ‘dissatisfied.’
The survey shows that 55% of teachers chose the profession out of love for children and the desire to impact childrens’ lives; 35%, out of a desire to impart values to the next generation; 5% due to family pressure; 3% due to the many days off and other benefits; and 3% due to the job security teachers’ unions provide in contradistinction to other fields.
72% of teachers would recommend teaching as a profession to their own students, compared to 28% who would not. Of those, more male teachers (88%) would recommend the field of education over women (69%).
Despite this, 82% of respondents said that teachers’ low salaries are the prime factor driving young Israelis away from the profession, with just 18% saying the pay has “little or no” impact on that choice. Read the article: /node/2776
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5) How to encourage more men to take up teaching as a career
“It is challenging to be a minority group and it would be great to see more men in a primary setting,” says Broome Primary School’s Simon Zuvich who teaches physical education and literacy.
Figures from the WA Education Department show that 17.2 per cent of teachers in state primary schools are men, down from 19.9 per cent in 2013.
“It was one of the things I noticed, when I first started training to be a teacher, was the disparity between the amount of men in the room and the amount of women. But that’s also been the driving force for me,” says science and health teacher Jim Broughton from Broome Primary School.
“I’ve always firmly believed you need a better balance of men and women in education and it’s not because men do it any better as educators; we’re equally the same. But boys growing up in school can relate a bit better to men,” says Mr Broughton.
“And it’s good for girls to see men as educators.” Read the story: /node/2778
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6) Free or reduced tuition programs for men to teach
There are more and more programs for men to become teachers. Some are free tuition, others are reduced tuition. There have been other programs that have been created that don’t always last but it’s exciting to know that they were created. If you know of other programs that we don’t have listed – please send us an e-mail so we can add them to the list. See the current list: /node/2780
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7) Program aims to draw young males to leadership
After being involved with the Young Male Leadership Academy since the eighth grade, Adrien Pocasongra describes it as one of the best things he’s ever done.
“It gives me a sense of belonging,” said Pocasongra, now a junior at Warren Central High School.
Michael Coleman, a minority teacher recruiter at Warren County Public Schools, has been involved with the program for 10 years.
“The Young Male Leadership Academy prepares high school males to become college and career ready, builds leadership skills and encourages male students to consider teaching as a career,” he said, adding that 16 young men are participating.
Established in 2007, the program was made possible by a grant from the Kentucky Department of Education. Coleman said the program targets young men, especially young men of color.
Denise Hardesty, coordinator of Western Kentucky University’s Minority Teacher Recruitment Center, added that young men need role models.
“Studies have shown that males can increase performance when they have role models who look like them as teachers,” she said. Read the article: /node/2781
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8) 2015 NAEYC Conference – An Opportunity of a Lifetime
In November 2015 I had the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to attend the National NAEYC conference. I was selected along with a fellow classmate Joe Raygor, to co-present with Dr. Jill Klefstad and Lindsay Barnhart. Our presentation was on the topic of High Impact Practices used in the classroom to retain future teachers. It was a great opportunity to share my ideas and experiences and also hear many other presentations. This helped me grow as a student and future teacher. It was truly an honor to be a part of such a large event and surrounded by people with the same career path as me. Find out how he ended up in a video: /node/2784
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9) Reflective Piece: First time at the NAEYC Conference
My college experience has been an interesting journey. Transferring colleges and switching majors set myself back in my progress towards a degree. I describe some of my college experiences as a time of turmoil where I didn’t have any direction. Once I reached the University of Wisconsin-Stout I soon found that direction I was looking for. The Early Childhood program has made me fall in love with learning all over again. From this experience, I was fortunate to be chosen to attend the NAEYC National Conference to represent my school and help with a presentation regarding High Impact Practices with my program director, Jill Klefstad and her colleague, Lindsay Barnhart.
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10) Why lack of male teachers could be the reason boys fail in the classroom
[MenTeach: Please note that this is an article from 2012 but still holds relevant research]
Schools need more male teachers because boys make less effort in women’s classes, a new study claimed today.
The shortage of men in school staffrooms could be one reason for the under-achievement of boys, researchers found.
Female teachers tend to give boys lower marks than they deserve – and boys are less likely to work hard in their classes.
Men appear to be better at motivating boys but are vastly outnumbered in the nation’s schools, taking just a quarter of teaching jobs, and 15 per cent in primaries.
‘Boys often disengage in the educational process, and this is likely to be due in part to their perceptions of their teachers,’ said the study’s authors.
‘There is an under-representation of male teachers in both primary and secondary education in England.’ Read the article: /node/2789
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