children's audio books?

I’m curious how future teachers might feel about audio books for children’s literature.  I understand that audio books are super convenient for the teacher to listen to them when discovering new books for the classroom. However, I feel like for children they are an easy way out.

I remember when I was in 3^rd or 4^th grade we were assigned to read phantom tollbooth, which was the longest book I’d ever even considered reading.  I was a wild child who did do much reading, and pretty much would have rather done anything besides read that particular book.  The good news for me was that my mother was a teacher, so she happened to have phantom tollbooth on a homemade audio tape.  I sneakily took the tape and listened to my mom read me the story of phantom tollbooth.  My teacher was very impressed with how quickly I had finished it and no one ever found out.

To this day I’ve never read it, and I don’t definitely don’t remember the plot.  It might be irrelevant with book summaries and reviews all over the internet, but at least students have to read in order to get the abridged version of the book.  Especially books assigned in schools, any book can be purchased or rented as an audio book.  This means that potentially children would never actually have to read anything.  Not even to mention Youtube readings and movies that convince children they know the book.  I’m curious how difficult it actually is, or if there is just a few kids like me who looked for the fast and easy way out of assigned reading.

Te348 conclusions - from an advertising major

Te348 was the only class that fit my lit requirement to graduate.  I walked in May and needed to take a couple classes this summer to finish up.  I was very apprehensive about taking this class because I knew it would nothing like I’d ever done before.  I felt somewhat confident since it’s called “children’s literature”, how hard could it be?  The first couple books were picture books this was going to be a breeze. 

However now as the session comes to an end I’ve discovered just how wrong I was.  I definitely fell behind at times and had a few inconvenient personal issues come up, but I feel good about my experience.  I really liked some of the books we read, and I heard about a few I might be interested in.  it has been interesting being on the other side of the desk, so to speak, because while I have interacted with teachers my entire life I never really knew what their training was like.  Before this class I imagined teaching degrees as fairly simple and easy to acquire.  After all teachers got in to college and will take classes to prepare them for teaching grade school?  It made no sense to me that it could be difficult.

Listening to my classmates discuss problems that could arise based on the skin color of the girl in a book or what the character’s family life is like never really crossed my mind.  I suppose a lot of what I have to go off of in this class is my personal experience with teachers, and I feel like that is a lot of what college is preparing teacher for.  Sharing these experiences and learning from them so they can be prepared when they finally do get a classroom of their own.

Being the daughter of a teacher

My mother has been a teacher for 29 years.  She is a special education teacher, and has her master’s degree.  My mother has taken a 14 year-old boy with a 2^nd grade reading level, and by the end of high school he graduated reading at his appropriate age level.  She can do fantastic things as a teacher for her students.  Teaching is definitely her passion.

However…

I am the daughter of that fantastic wonderful teacher that has helped so many students over the years, who had the luxury of being an unpaid teacher’s assistant.  I can honestly say other than actually standing in front of one of her classes and lecturing I have done it all. 

I was a smart kid, so quickly I went from stapling papers, hole punching, and cutting laminating to grading papers, programming and printing interim reports, and baking treats for the class.  I thought couldn’t understand why anyone on the planet would go through that much work or effort to be a teacher.

I quickly determined a young age that teaching was not for me.  I do not possess the patience to handle children, the determination to help them succeed, or the stomach to deal with parents.  I am not a teacher major, but this class has taught me a lot about the actual process to get there.

I know my mother loves her job, and she would tell you it’s worth it.  And you do get summers off!

P.S. if you have children don’t make them sit through meetings or grade papers or staple 100 uncorrelated 5 page packets.

School required reading

Yesterday when I went to Meijer with my family for grocery shopping, this just came to my mind all of the sudden when passing by the book section.

There were sections for magazine, coloring books, novels, etc., and there was this bookshelf sitting on the group alone. My brother proudly point out about five of the books on that shelf which he has read. And my reaction was that yes, I've either seen them floating around in the high school hall way or I have read them myself, too. The interpretation was that, just like our discussion at the very beginning of the class, the required reading for middle school and high schools probably have not been change for the past couple decades. Are these book really that great that even when the area changed, the book are still the best to be chosen as required reading for American students? Or is it really because that the government has no budget for new and more appropriate books? Or is it simply because the board of Education simply is not willing to put in the time to discover the possibility of better books?

Personally, I think that Education is the most important thing to worry about in life of today's world. Almost every individual has a opportunity to learn and grow, either in a school setting or just a crowd to get together and learn. No matter in what forms of learning; it is the one thing that anybody should never quit or be excused from doing. Without basic education, people who are controlling and living at the top of the world won't have today's success. However, why are we still sacrasificing education budget as one of first target for budget cut? Why are teachers not being rewarded for educating and training all the possible future hero and monopolies?

Before deciding to become an Elementary Education major, I have never thought of any of these things before. The first impression about being a teacher to almost anyone is having to deal with kids, but really, are teachers' job just to deal with kids? Why do teachers get the minimum pay for having to deal with multiple types of pressure and responsiblities while those scientists may only care about making more money or make themselves and their boss look smarter? True, that might have been an unfair stereotypes, but really, can we try to slow the world down so that those with poverty can have a chance to catch up with the world and maybe be given as equal as possible of chance to fight for their life? I do not want to give a very firm opinion right on this page, but I really want to say that teachers can be a very holistic job mentally.