1) Male teacher numbers decline in parts of Australia
2) ‘The Pied Piper’ of kindergarten
3) New report looks at male teachers in primary-junior grades
4) Teacher Martin Martinez ‘humbled’ by $25,000 Milken Educator Award
5) Mentoring jobs in New York City, Boston, Baltimore, & Charlotte
6) Schools need best, diverse teachers
7) Barring Male Educators: Safety Concern, Fear-Mongering, Or Discrimination?
8) Free Tuition and Board for Trainee Male Kindergarten Teachers in China
9) Adam Buckingham, of New Zealand, receives grant to recruit male teachers
10) Male teachers ‘boost self esteem’
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1) Male teacher numbers decline in parts of Australia
Canberra, Australia has the smallest proportion of male teachers in the country and their numbers are in decline, with less than a quarter of educators in government schools now men. Parents’ groups say the disparity is worrying because children may be missing out on the benefits of having male role models in the classroom and losing out on the teaching styles men bring to the profession. Australian Bureau of Statistics data, requested by the Sunday Canberra Times, shows the proportion of male teachers in ACT independent and government schools has fallen from a combined 30.63 percent in 1993 to 25.71 percent in 2009. Read the article: /node/1514
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2) ‘The Pied Piper’ of kindergarten
Eric Ord stands out at his workplace. For one thing, he wears red tennis shoes and a matching red tie. And he towers over everyone else in the room. Of course, everyone else is 5 years old. For the past 17 years, Ord has taught kindergarten at Whited Elementary School in Santa Rosa, where colleagues call him “The Pied Piper.” One recent afternoon on the Whited playground, children called out “Mr. Ord” roughly twice a minute, while Ord patiently addressed complaints such as “She’s kicking me,” and “He took the hula hoops.”
A quiet man with short gray hair and a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard, Ord herded his 20 lively students inside and began coaching a few on reading and writing, one at a time, while other children worked at tables, assembling puzzles or drawing pictures. Read the article: /node/1516
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3) New report looks at male teachers in primary-junior grades
Nipissing University Schulich School of Education professors Dr. Douglas Gosse and Dr. Mike Parr have released a new report that discusses the importance of, and the barriers faced by, male teachers in the primary/junior classrooms in Ontario.
According to a 2008 Statistics Canada report, teachers are predominantly female in Ontario and Canada, with males accounting for only about 28 per cent of all teachers. The shortage of male teachers in education in Ontario is particularly marked at the primary-junior levels where females account for 90 per cent of all teachers. Similar trends exist in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain.
The study, titled The Professional Journey of Male Primary-Junior Teachers in Ontario, touches on a number of key issues that male teachers face in their professional role, including being role models, as well as teacher expectations regarding boys, and effective approaches and strategies for teaching boys. The study involved three years of research, a survey of 223 teachers, and multiple interviews. Read the press release and request the study: /node/1517
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4) Teacher Martin Martinez ‘humbled’ by $25,000 Milken Educator Award
Martin Martinez woke up Wednesday morning and went to his job as a third-grade teacher at Gresham’s Hogan Cedars Elementary School as usual. He knew an assembly would be held at 9 a.m. but knew little beyond that. He especially had no idea he was about to get a $25,000 award for his dedication and innovations in teaching. Read the entire article: /node/1519
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5) Parttime jobs in New York City, Boston, Baltimore, & Charlotte
We are currently hiring male mentors/tutors for our afterschool programs to work with children in the New York City area. Please be so kind to print and post this job description in a visible place so that your friends, relatives and associates may apply and provide our scholars with an amazing afterschool experience. I can also provide you with a flyer. For more information log on to www.bellnational.org and call 718-741-1564. We appreciate your support! Read the job posting: /node/1483
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6) Schools need best, diverse teachers
After changing careers in 2003 to become a teacher, I believed what a lot of people said about finding a job as a teacher in grades K-5. People said that there was a teacher’s shortage and with a teaching staff at any elementary school averaging more than 92 percent female, a man with a teaching certificate, a Master’s degree in education and a diverse background would have no problem getting interviews. Read the rest of his letter to the editor and the comments: /node/1420
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7) Barring Male Educators: Safety Concern, Fear-Mongering, Or Discrimination?
Washington Post “On Parenting” contributor Brian Reid let loose a little parenting secret: He would never hire a male tutor for his elementary-aged daughter. In “Little Girls, College Guys–and Nervous Parents,” Reid writes:
We had a rough set of criteria: the tutor had to be an exceptional speaker, had to be good with kids and had to have the kind of schedule where a year-long commitment wasn’t going to end the moment the schoolwork picked up.
It turns out there was also another — unspoken — requirement: the tutor ought to be a woman. This was something my wife and I both felt in our gut, even though I knew it made me a huge hypocrite. Read the editorial & the comments: /node/1422
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8) Free Tuition and Board for Trainee Male Kindergarten Teachers in China
Jiangsu Province is offering free courses at pre-school primary education normal schools for male students in efforts to even out the preponderance of women in kindergarten teaching posts. It is hoped that in three-to-five years’ time there will be at least one male teacher in each of the province’s kindergartens: /node/1401
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9) Adam Buckingham, of New Zealand, receives grant to recruit male teachers
A Kindergarten teacher is using a scholarship to encourage other men into the profession. Adam Buckingham received one of two $5000 scholarships awarded by NZEI Early Childhood this year. The Totaravale resident says he will use it to fund a project aimed at encouraging more men into early childhood teaching. Government statistics show there were 285 males compared with 18,112 female early childhood educators in licensed premises last July. Read the article: /node/1521
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10) Male teachers ‘boost self esteem’
Pupils make more effort in the classroom if they have a male teacher, research suggests. Male teachers are more likely to boost self esteem and are seen as fair, while at the same time are no more lenient on students, according to a study published by the Department for Education (DoE). Researchers at the London School of Economics and Westminster University conducted an experiment in which 1,200 pupils in 29 schools were each given 2 pounds. Read the articles: /node/1522
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