MenTeach E-News
July 2015
1) Preparing Black Scholars for Leadership Roles in Education Can Be Key to Closing Academic Achievement Gaps
2) My short career as a first-grade teacher
3) A Young Teacher Prepares to Go Back to Class
4) Male Teacher in India Makes a Difference to Young Children
5) First jobs hard to find for primary teachers in New Zealand
6) Dispositions of Teacher Educators: The Effects on Male Students
7) Complete a survey about male teachers
8) Men in Childcare in the United Kingdom
9) Males in childcare in Australia
10) Teacher banned for letting pupils hug him
ABOUT MenTeach
JOIN or DONATE to MenTeach
VOLUNTEER for MenTeach
Forward Our Message
To be Removed From the List
—————
1) Preparing Black Scholars for Leadership Roles in Education Can Be Key to Closing Academic Achievement Gaps
epresenting about 2 percent of students awarded a Ph.D. in the U.S. in recent years, Black men have been missing in action as scholars and thought leaders in decision-making positions of many professions. As communities work to solve problems of systematic inequality, their perspectives are sorely needed in scholarship that aims to advance conversations on improving education policy and the academic experience in America.
That’s why the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education this summer is inviting to its campus upper-level high school students who express interest in becoming educators and going the distance in their academic careers with the pursuit of doctoral studies toward becoming research professionals in the field. Read the article: /node/2657
—————
2) My short career as a first-grade teacher
Having retired after three sparkling decades as a public high school teacher in Washington state, I decided to apply for a license as a substitute teacher during a two-month visit to Lakeside. On Nov. 9, 1981, feeling a little shaky and insecure, I reported to the principal of Lakeside Elementary for my first assignment.
Soon I found myself facing a class of first graders. I felt considerable trepidation because grade school is, of course, quite different from high school, both in of the age and maturation of the students and because the teacher is expected to reach quite different learning objectives.
By the end of the first day, I was much reassured. I was substituting for a male teacher named “Mr. Hahn,” whose well-organized classes made it fairly easy to fill in for him. I confided to my students that I was a 58-year-old former teacher who lacked the training and skills to teach first-graders and that I needed all the help they could give me. They rallied around me. Read his story: /node/2658
—————
3) A Young Teacher Prepares to Go Back to Class
The halls at P.S. 124 in Manhattan’s Chinatown were quiet and smelled like orange air freshener. Summer school was over and Alice Hom, the principal, was showing Juhyung Harold Lee the classroom he will be using this fall.
“This is a little bigger,” he said, walking into the room.
“They’re bigger kids,” Ms. Hom said.
Mr. Lee taught third grade last year but he will now be teaching fifth graders. Early this summer, he did not think he would be coming back at all.
P.S. 124 Yung Wing School was scheduled to lose three teachers this year, if cuts threatened by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went through. An agreement was brokered between the administration and the union, and there will be no teacher layoffs this year, though 2,186 teachers were “excessed,” meaning there is no position for them — yet — in a city school. (Almost 780 other school employees have lost their jobs in budget cuts this year.)
—————
4) Male Teacher in India Makes a Difference to Young Children
Sabu Thomas has a way with the tiny ones, they take to him like flies to a sugar pie. It has been so for the past 15 years, ever since he chose to tread a path that few men opt for. Sabu is one of the two male pre-primary teachers in the state and the only one in the city. At the Govt Model HS, LPS & Nursery School at Thycaud, the teacher has a loyal gang of tiny tots who simply adore him. He deals them with an ease which is to be marvelled at. With songs, rhymes and activities, he would break any misconceptions about a male pre-primary teacher. A pre-primary teacher has to explore the nuances of language to make it kids-friendly. Though it sounds simple, it is difficult with four and five year olds, he says. Read the article: /node/2661
—————
5) First jobs hard to find for primary teachers in New Zealand
New Waikato primary teaching graduates are struggling to find work, with some schools seeing 100 applicants applying for the one job.
While Waikato high schools have the opposite problem – with trouble filling certain positions.
Teachers are being told they may need to be more flexible in where they live to secure a job, and many are having to start off in a fixed-term job to get to permanent one.
This is despite a decrease nationally in the number of graduate teachers.
Nationally, about 2200 primary and secondary teachers graduated in 2014 – a decrease of 10.9 per cent on the year before, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s 2015 Occupation Outlook.
At the University of Waikato, a large teacher education provider, about 350 new teachers graduated in April. Read the article: /node/2664
—————
6) Dispositions of Teacher Educators: The Effects on Male Students
One perk to my job as Early Childhood Program Director is the opportunity to meet with incoming freshmen that are interested in becoming a teacher of young children. During our time together I share the high points of being an early childhood teacher and the benefits of working at a job you love.
During these meetings I am quite aware of my dispositions knowing too well the impact of first impressions. Dispositions can be defined as a person’s temperament, character, or nature. It has become somewhat of a challenge to meet new education students in the face of the continuous attacks on teacher education and remain optimistic. However, because teaching is my passion and an integral part of my character, it is easy to be positive and honest about choosing teaching as a profession. From past experience, I have found that when a person speaks from their heart about a topic they know so much about, I am left with hope and eagerness. That is the message I strive to send to these new teacher education students. Read the editorial: /node/2645
—————
7) Complete a survey about male teachers
Now I closing to the end of collecting data for my final research.
I made a survey for early childhood education program providers to fill out, but I don’t have enough response yet.
I am wondering if you know some of the resources to help me fill out this form. Complete the survey: /node/2666
—————
8) Men in Childcare in the United Kingdom
The Childcare Strategy team are hosting the next Men in Childcare course at North Inch Community Campus, Perth on Monday 24 August 2015 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm
Perth & Kinross Council would like to encourage more men to work in childcare so the Childcare Strategy Team is offering a number of standalone units that make up the National Progression Award in Playwork which is accredited by SQA.
This course is open to any males aged 16 years and over who are interested in working with children in a professional capacity.
Following a very successful course run during 2014/15, another course started in April 2015 and will run to the end of April 2016. Read the meeting notice: /node/2668
—————
9) Males in childcare in Australia
My names Jeremy and I’m a 25 year old male working in a long day care centre. I have been doing so for about 6 years and have 2 modules left in my diploma and I’m smashing through it. I have had it for about 3 months and I’m nearly done. I’m just wondering if there are any other males on this website or males who work in your centers. I’m not looking for specific information I’m just curious as to how many males there are in every centre? Read the many replies: /node/2670
—————
10) Teacher banned for letting pupils hug him
Mark Pullinger, 41, was also accused of playing with a pupil by swinging her around by her arms.
Following complaints from colleagues, he was told that he had “failed to maintain physical boundaries with female pupils”.
Although there was no suggestion of any sexual motive, he was dismissed from the school where he had worked for eight years.
Parents campaigned to overturn the decision, saying he was an excellent teacher who had been unfairly treated because he is a man.
Yet his appeal against dismissal was rejected by a panel of governors at Oliver’s Battery school in Winchester, Hampshire, and now the General Teaching Council (GTC) has banned him from classrooms indefinitely – even though it acknowledged that there was “no single serious episode” and that “no child has been seriously harmed”. Read the story: /node/2672
—————
ABOUT MenTEACH: This email Newsletter has been distributed by MenTeach – a clearinghouse with a mission to increase the percentage of men teaching.
Forward Our Message – be sure to forward this message to anyone you think might be interested in teaching children.
JOIN or DONATE to MenTeach today – support our mission to increase the number of men teachers. https://www.menteach.org/join_or_donate
VOLUNTEER for MenTeach – help make a difference by volunteering with MenTeach. We could use help moderating forums, posting articles that you find, updating the bibliography, hosting a group in your region, do some research about the percentages in your state, get involved and make some new friends. Drop us a line to let us know what you’d like to do.
E-LETTER POLICY FOR INCLUSION: MenTeach’s monthly e-letter includes news/resources/events that are relevant to those interested and supporting the education, support and care of children and families and who want qualified men teaching children.
To be Removed From the List
Go to this link and manage your account: