Alternative certification demands minimum standards

The Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) is committed to excellence in teacher education. To respond to the very diverse practices existing in the states that allow alternative teacher certification (АТС) programs ATE recommends these guidelines:

1) Each graduate in аАТСprogram should have completed college courses which lead to a command of major concepts in written and oral communication, math, social science, physical science, humanities (including the arts and literature) and non-western contemporary culture.

2) State exams in basic skills required of students in regular teacher education programs should be required of АТСcandidates.

3) АТСcandidates should pass personal interviews assessing orientation to the nature of teaching, the nature of students and goals of school.

4) Candidate selection must include analysis of career and work histories, type and natureof previous careers, performance in former jobs, periods of employment (and unemployment), hospitalization, etc.

5) Selection should follow direct experiences with children and youth. This requirement can be met with a summer of paid work before employment. This enables some candidates to opt out or be selected out.

6) When possible, prior, direct experiences with children and youth should be in the same school building where candidates will begin as intern teachers.

7) АТСcandidates should be paid for the direct, supervised experiences with state or district funds provided for them to be paid the same as beginningАТСteachers. A paid experience will be a recruiting mechanism.

8) Experienced teachers should serve as mentors, support teachers and coaches of АТСcandidates throughout the first year at a ratio of 2 candidates to 1 teacher. In the years 2 and 3 the ratio might become 8 to 1. At least 20% of the experienced teachers' assigned load should be allocated to the mentor role. Mentors should be paid extra, based on a number of candidates supervised. A minimum of 500 dollars is recommended for each first yearАТСcandidate with whom a mentor works.

9) Mentors should receive special training in coaching and advising АТСcandidates. Training might be offered by university personnel, consultants, highly-qualified classroom teachers, etc.

10) АТСcandidates should not be required to take more than one three-credit course or more than 45 hours of instruction per semester – from any source – during their first year of teaching.

11) In the first semester of their first year, АТСcandidates should be assigned less than a full teaching load. .

12) States should issue a temporary alternative certificate to individuals participating in these programs. There need to be official recognition of the status of АТСcandidates.

Before achieving regular certification, АТСteachers should have to pass all state-mandated tests related to professional content and pedagogy required of individuals completing teacher education programs in universities.

АТСprograms as represented here are more costly than regular programs. They should be offered to recruit new, talented personnel into teaching, not to save money.

Assignment:

Read the text and render it in Russian.

36. TEACHERS: A DYING BREED AS SCHOOL YEAR STARTS

Vera Yudina is one of an endangered species in Moscow – a school teacher. "Only those who cannot live without school stay on in spite of the difficulties," said Yudina, citing low salaries as the main incentive to leave. The average salary at school No 1259 – where Yudina has been teaching for the past 10 years – is just over 350 rubles ($80) a month.

With nearly 800 teaching vacancies throughout its 1,366 schools, Moscow's Education Department is struggling with a severe shortage – with teachers of foreign languages, and English in particular, in greatest demand. Some Moscow schools cannot provide instruction in some of the most basic fields, including Russian, English and social sciences.

Russia's teacher deficit is nation-wide, but it is more acute in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where those with a command of a foreign language have more opportunity to trade in their skills for a higher salary with Western firms.

While Education Minister Yevgeny Tkachenko announced that the exodus of teachers from the classroom has levelled off, the staff at school No 1259 do not see an end in sight even though it is a privileged school. And judging by the increasing number of disgruntled teachers who turn to Moscow's employment agencies to find new work, the vacancies are likely to spread.

At firms such as Eurospan and the Russian Connection, they are still redirecting a steady stream of former teachers and recent teaching graduates, finding them better paid work as receptionists, secretaries, or sales personnel.

"In some cases teachers can find work in human resources – like myself," said a representative of The Russian Connection, who gave up his job as a math teacher a few years ago. The teacher deficit has not only affected schools scrambling to fill the gaps, but the quality of education as well. As school administrators find it harder to fill teaching vacancies, they are forced to accept teachers with lower qualifications.

According to Education Ministry statistics, the percentage of teachers with only a secondary education in Russia last year rose to just over 11 per cent. At the same time, the number of pension-teachers rose by 20,000 last year to nearly 9 per cent of Russia's total staff of 1.5 million teachers and administrators.

Assignments:

1. Read the text and say:

a) why many teachers quit their jobs,

b) how teachers' deficit effects the quality of education.

2. Suggest effective measures to improve the situation.

TESTING TIMES

Exam stress doesn't occur most strongly during the actual exams but in the few weeks just before them. The climax is usually the night before, when last minute preparations confirm your worst fears. There are, however, some simple ways of dealing with the problem.

First, the dedicated student can suffer from anxiety, brainblocks and memory "gaps," just as much as the student who has left everything to the last minute. But the remedy is the same in each case. The night before is too late to do anything. Far better to go to dance, for a walk, to the pictures or play a game rather than increase stress by frantic efforts to plug in gaps in your knowledge.

The brain is a complex bioelectrical machine, which, like a computer, can be overloaded. It does not work continuously, but in fits and starts. As you read this, the relevant part of your brain receives the messages from your eyes, processes them, and you comprehend. All this occurs in a series of steps. When you study, your brain reaches its maximum efficiency about five minutes after you start work, stays at a plateau for about ten minutes, and thereafter it is all downhill. Indeed, after thirty minutes your attention wanders, your memory actually shuts off, and boredom sets in.

For this reason, the best way to study is in half-hour sessions, with gaps in between of about the same length. It even helps to change subjects and not keep at the same one, since this reduces the boredom factor.

Two drugs are often used by students – as they are by writers, mathematicians and scientists everywhere. I do not mean pills, which can result in serious fatigue, but coffee and tea. The active ingredient in each is caffeine, a drug which definitely stimulates the brain, making you more alert. Coffee is about five times stronger than tea, and if you drink more than ten cups, it has a depressing effect on memory and alertness. And large doses of caffeine can keep you awake.

During sleep, the message conveyed to your brain – the things you have been trying to learn – are either put into your permanent memory store, in which case you will remember them, or pass into your transient memory store, in which case you will have a vague idea, but no clear recollection.

We put data into permanent store when we think it is important. It will file jokes, soccer results, film stars, names or pop tunes with extreme accuracy, on the other hand, erase things which bore or unsettle us.

The lesson here is clear. To beat exam stress you have to feel that what you are doing is fun, and perhaps the best way to do this is to treat revision as a game. This gives your brain the best chance to excel this. If you tire it with long, boring study sessions, you'll find you can't remember much, but if you stimulate it with short, snappy sessions you'll he surprised how quick and sharp you are.

Assignment:

Translate the text using a dictionary.

38.