1) The End of the Male Teacher: Seniority Rules
2) Gaming to re-engage boys in learning
3) Male Teachers Get Top Marks: Children have a better perception of male teachers
4) Teacher list discriminates against men in Greece
5) Spike Lee: Black Male Teachers Needed to Teach
6) Maryland Looks To Recruit More Black Men As Teachers
7) New calls to end discrimination against male childcarers
8) American Federation of Teacher Early Educator
9) Scottish project recruits young men to work in childcare
10) 5th Annual Summit of EC-MENZ in New Zealand still on after Earthquake!
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1) The End of the Male Teacher: Seniority Rules
More lucrative occupations, cutbacks in salaries, fear of harassment charges, and possible parent bias against them are driving men from the K-12 teaching field. But the unseen culprit in this demise could be seniority.
As men retire or leave the profession their replacements may well be female elementary school teachers who have maintained their high school certification, or seeing the hand writing on the wall, upgraded their qualifications to teach at the high school level. In most cases this can be done with college methodology classes and completing courses for a major in an academic area if they do not already have one.
In the primary and elementary levels there has always been a shortage of male educators, In Illinois, fewer than 1 in 4 teachers between kindergarten and high school are men and this is declining, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
An NEA report indicates that there are 785,151 male teachers in public elementary and secondary schools across the nation, compared to 2.4 million women. Most states report well under 30 percent of all teachers are male and most are around 25 percent. The report revealed that Arkansas had only 17 percent of male teachers while Kansas, at over 30 percent, had the most male teachers. Read the full editorial: /node/1603
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2) Gaming to re-engage boys in learning
There’s a site that shows interesting talks called TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. Here’s a link to a talk about boys. We include it on MenTeach.org because the lecturer mentions the need for more male teachers. Thanks to MenTeach member Kitt Cox for sending the link! Enjoy! /node/1605
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3) Male Teachers Get Top Marks: Children have a better perception of male teachers
In today’s world, as taxpayers everywhere are concerned over paying for schools, it comes as a shock to see that, according to new findings by Amine Ouazad, an Assistant Professor of Economics and Political Science at INSEAD, one of the most effective ways to get students to listen and work hard is to put a male teacher at the front of the classroom. Ouazad, in collaboration with the University of Westminister, originally sought to understand whether pupils’ perceptions can explain differences in effort, motivation and educational achievement. What they found was that children have a better perception of male teachers; they try harder and think that male teachers will grade them more fairly. Read about the entire study: /node/1607
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4) Teacher list discriminates against men
The Supreme Court has ruled that the procedure of appointing state teachers is unconstitutional as male candidates are treated unfairly. The decision came after an appeal by a physical education teacher who claimed male candidates were at a disadvantage under the current first-come first-served system since they had to do two years of army service. This gives women, who do not have to do the army, a two-year head start, the teacher said. Read the article: /node/1613
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5) Spike Lee: Black Male Teachers Needed to Teach
More black men need to teach — that from filmmaker Spike Lee during a speech with Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Morehouse College in Atlanta this week. “We have more young black people in prison than enrolled in colleges and universities. That’s a frightening number,” Lee said. The U.S. Department of Education reports less than 2% of teachers are black men. “Great teachers spawn great teachers,” Lee said. “If you’re a bad teacher, you’re not going to put anything out there that is going to inspire anyone to teach.” The lack of black male teachers is causing concern and creating action to reverse that trend in several states. Read the story: /node/1615
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6) Maryland Looks To Recruit More Black Men As Teachers
Maryland said it’s working to recruit more black men to work as educators in the state. The nation’s education secretary renewed his call this week for more black men to become teachers. They currently make up only 2 percent of educators nationwide. For the most part, Maryland is in same boat, but there are some exceptions. There are currently a few more than 2,300 black men working as educators in the state, which is down from five years ago when the number was almost 2,800. Howard County may be an exception. It’s only one of a handful of state school systems where the numbers are on the rise. The county has 87 black men educating this year, which is up from 73 in 2005. Go to website to watch video: /node/1616
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7) New calls to end discrimination against male childcarers
Andy Morris, chief executive at Asquith Nurseries, is urging a comprehensive change in nursery recruitment policies. Currently, only two per cent of the early years workforce is male. The trend carries on into primary school, with no male teacher at nearly a third of primary schools in the UK, according to recent figures from the General Teaching Council (News, 8 September 2010). Mr. Morris described the figures as troubling and said, ‘I am afraid this is a subject that gets swept under the carpet but this is real discrimination against males – and the nursery industry is getting away with it.’ He added ‘There is a cruel perception out there that if you are a male and want to work with children there must be something wrong with you. In turn, this widespread view means many men just don’t bother to apply – and this is fundamentally wrong.’ Go to website: /node/1618
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8) American Federation of Teacher Early Educator
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) early childhood educator, Robert Leonard Johnson, developed an amazing desire and interest in teaching and helping others to obtain their goals at a young age. For a neighbor with special needs, Robert served as a tutor. He spent much of his recreational time away from friends and taught his neighbor the letters of the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors. He knew even at a young age just how important the early years are in a child’s education. Read the entire story: /node/1621
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9) Scottish project recruits young men to work in childcare
A project in Scotland, aimed at recruiting young and unemployed men into the childcare sector, has received #50,000 of funding to increase training opportunities. The Coalfield Trust awarded the money to the Men into Childcare project, which aims to help young and unemployed men in former mining areas in East Ayrshire. The Trust was originally formed in 1999 to help mining communities recover from the impact of pit closures. The project will involve 10 men aged between 16 and 25, and will run for a year. Organisers hope that at the end participants will seek a career in childcare, teaching, social work or nursing. Read the article: /node/1622
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10) 5th Annual Summit of EC-MENZ in New Zealand still on after Earthquake!
We send our thoughts and sympathy to the New Zealand men and women for their loses. We admire how they are still going to hold their annual conference on the South Island where, in Christchurch, there was destruction and loss. There have been four Summits in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland. This year we are going to be slightly different and have it at Peel Forest in South Canterbury. To give some idea of the programm, much of the Saturday will be devoted to practical outdoor activities for boys and girls in ECE centres, including: 101 ways with ropes; Water rockets “How to share your recycling with your neighbours”; Using real tools: “The only way to learn to hammer a nail is to hit your thumb a few times” Torches, Using fire Volcanoes, cooking, melted crayon pictures; Theory and practical aspects; Equipment needed and where to find it; Links to Te Whariki; Safety; Relevant EC regulations. Go to the conference information: /node/1596
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