by Jeffrey A Fuller

Created on: June 09, 2010

Good teachers are both self-taught and trained. Today’s classrooms and communities are very diverse consisting of children from a wide variety of backgrounds. Districts too vary widely within and across state lines and most teachers’ careers take them around their state, many times around the country, and sometimes around the world. Teacher colleges, while outstanding in the curriculums they provide, can only do so much to cover every aspect of such a diverse profession. The real purpose of the college is to provide a very strong foundation for teachers to build their careers upon as they take advantage of the many growth and learning opportunities available through districts, regions, nationwide organizations, and their own desire to learn.

Many states now require as part of an ongoing teacher certification process that teachers obtain a set number CEUs (Continuing Education Units) over a predetermined period of time. The State of Texas requires 150 CEUs over a five-year period for a teacher to retain citification and it is in districts’ best interest to locate and even provide development opportunities for their teachers. Ultimately however, it is the teacher’s primary responsibility to seek out opportunities and continue their development so as to meet the ever-changing needs of diverse populations and needs of diverse communities.

Teachers’ efforts toward certification retention and professional growth are kept in a PDAS (Professional Development Appraisal System) file and is used to periodically rate teachers’ performance over time. In this case it is in teachers’ best interest to pursue learning opportunities obtained through district approved professional development, post bachelor’s study, self-study, and graduate study opportunities in order to earn a positive rating.

With certification requirements, district and teacher interest, availability of learning opportunities and ultimately teachers’ responsibility in mind, one can only assume that teachers receive more than adequate training, having throughout their career pursued additional learning opportunities totaling more class hours than spent in college, and with actual experience to compliment. But we also must look at all of the above in a more intuitive light and consider the nature of teachers themselves.

Teachers know that their success hinges on their ability to teach and inspire our nations youth. Like stated previously, our school districts and communities consist of very diverse populations, which cannot be addressed through generalization of learning opportunities. It is more often than not that he educator himself study teaching methods that are independently chosen to address what he has experienced regarding his students’ needs. Couple this with another well noted and heavily supported theory that teachers generally love to learn and that they typically filter knowledge gained from all development opportunities, including those self initiated, for knowledge they can use in their own classrooms.

Teachers are a unique breed of intellectuals who receive the highest quality of training for their job through sponsored and individual pursuits. There are many parties at work with equal interests in mind and the idea that teachers are so well trained and motivated to pursue their own development, assures America that we have the highest degree of effort behind the scenes of our children’s education.

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