A teacher needs to teach outside of the subject material

Long complicated story short I was reading a math textbook the other day. For those curious, Robert Blitzer's Introductory to College Algebra (3rd edition) is a standard math textbook, written in the 1990's. Anyways as I was reading he had a little section on why we care about where two intersecting points on a graph is- supply and demand. He then goes on a little paragraph to explain how we can adjust supply and demand if we change the points around. From there I decided to play around with why some prices rise and fall on their own. This lead me to have some fun with math, as I tried to figure out graphically why bubbles happen.

Would you say from that story Dr.Blitzer was successful in teaching the material? I mean, did he make me interested in understanding the material more and applying it on my own? Even though the material was just on its own, how to find two intersecting points on a graph, I would say he's successful. And the reason why is because he related it to me and my interests. He does that throughout the textbook for all sorts of different fields. But the subject is not economics. The subject is algebra. So if he's "teaching something outside his subject", then guess what? He's subject to the same crowd pilfering Florida's schools. I think he even has some stuff on race in there (but don't quote me on it).

This leads me to my main point. What do people mean when they say "teachers should only teach their subject". Do they honestly mean English teachers can only teach English? Spanish only Spanish? Math only Math? That just seems...kinda dumb. We need to intersect subject materials to help hook kids into the material if nothing else. But more importantly I want to know how I can use algebra and all sorts of other math to further my understanding of politics. Isn't that a hallmark of good teaching? Taking the subject material out of context and applying it to the real world, or your own interests?

Yet, I don't think the crowd getting rid of math textbooks because "they talk about race" really understand the basics of how to teach to kids. Kids want to know more about the world around them, and there's not enough time in the school day to teach them everything. So teachers have to be economical with their time. Can't teach them enough social studies in a hour? Incorporate elements of social studies into a science or math class. Heck, that's what my Spanish teacher did. We talked about what was happening in Venezuela because my school didn't bother teaching us anything about South America. Was she wrong for that? I don't think so, and that lesson (completely in Spanish FYI) was one of the few I remember from high school.

In short, before anyone opens their mouth about what should be taught in a classroom, remember this. Teaching is a profession and if you don't even know what a lesson plan is, don't comment on what should be taught. Ask a teacher first what they think.

 

Well I have yet to meet a teacher who was ever thrilled about having to do lesson plans. The only joy the ones I know find in them is finishing the things.

That said, your educational background was very different than mine apparently. Science teachers inevitably had to teach math in QPS, chemistry, and physics in high school because not everyone was on the same math level and math was critical to those subjects. A good chunk of my third and fourth year French classes were focused on literature, french history and culture. The PE teachers had to do math and bookkeeping crash courses as they also taught the health classes where family planning landed so people had to learn to do household budgets and the basics of money management in health class. The math teachers taught math and the history/government teachers taught history/government, but every other class had varying degrees of free-range instruction in them.

 

I had a good school, and I knew enough math for my subjects. My teachers focused on teaching for the test more. Physics and chemistry had math in them but only specifically for their subjects. Like we didn’t talk about where the math came from. But by my senior year I had all sorts of different classes doing more fun stuff. Like literature in Spanish. But other than that? Not much more to it than that.

 

My moment I knew I lost control of what I was learning was in my senior math class, I think it was like pre-calc. I just one day got really angry and wanted to slam my hands down on my desk screaming out "why are we learning this math!?!?" All because I felt like I lost control of why I was even in that class.

 

I was sent to instructor school in the Navy. I taught a class in the Navy Reserves to recruits about the Navy. I had lesson plans and the tests for the subjects. I taught by the lesson plans but made sure I covered all the test questions. I never saw a reason to teach anything about gender preference or idenity or Debby has two mommies. Schools are run over with perverts and woke morons who are pushing their social agenda of normalizing the queer lifestyle. Thank God for the Florida legislature and Gov DeSantis for standing up to the _________. You fill in the blank.

 

So you just read the material without trying to explain anything in any way that might relate to the sailors or hook them in? Look say what you want about debby having two moms, but uhh what makes you think you did a good job?

 

Same! I never understood why we were doing the things we were doing, or how the math related to something real and tangible. The only thing I think I ever used from math was if/then statements from geometry. It can be taught so much better.

 

I don't think he realizes that the teaching strategy was not necessarily the most effective one.

 

I didn't know anything about my teacher, their families or how they enjoyed sex. It is possible to keep your private life private AND teach kids math.

Sorry.

 

Same. I feel bad for the kids these days because they're not really encouraged to think about why they're learning what they're learning. When I was teaching on the college level, it helped that the kids were more or less capable of using critical thinking. But now that I'm a sub for k-12 it's so different. I can't count on that and having to readjust my entire teaching style is a nightmare. Plus the tablets are not helping. I don't know who's bright idea it was give a bunch of kids computers but they need to have their life reassessed. It's making classroom discipline so much harder when kids now have an excuse to be on their phone and not listening to instruction.

 

hahahahahahahahahahaha, I honestly refuse to believe you never saw a teacher's photo of their family in school. I'll give you a hint. Every kid photo is talking about their teacher, their family and most likely if they enjoyed the sex.

 

Maybe, still not a good one though. Should let the sailors fail until they get it right. Could be more interesting that way.

 

LOL. The father of a friend of mine went to Princeton on an academic scholarship and majored in math. He then decided to get his Masters in it and enrolled at Berkeley or Stanford (I forget which). After three weeks of not knowing what the hell they were even talking about, he decided screw it and went to law school instead.

Anyway, in an ideal world, I think maths and sciences should be paired to avoid your moment of surrender. I was in the most advanced program our school system had at the time. I once enrolled in a science class (QPS) ahead of my math abilities. I still got A's but it took a LOT of extra struggling to do so. For instance, if you had to take physics and calculus at the same time and they were integrated, calculus would make a hell of a lot more sense and the physics would be a lot easier to grind through. By integrated I simply mean that they are paced so the math has or is teaching the skills you need for the science at the same time or ahead of you needing to be able to do the math for the science. Probably half my classroom time in chemistry was the teacher having to teach basic algebra because they let people into chemistry who didn't have the math skills. Chemistry was the next science class after biology so as long as you had biology, it didn't matter if you couldn't count to ten on your fingers.

 

The more I exchange emails and read postings on social media or the PF I can see a need to teach kids how to communicate. It would help if schools taught verbal communication skills and writing skills. Then teach them how to spell and proofread -- LOL

 

I feel like even that is too limited. Not just science but social studies too. I think all fields really need to be integrated together. I mean, why can't we teach how the Pyramids used math, and why the pharaohs decided on pyramids to display their glory for example? I bet finding out why together would be really interesting.

 

Nope. Never. And do you know why? Because teachers valued their privacy for their family from their students. Students are not their peers.

Sometimes you had a bad relationship with students through failing them or punishing their unruly behaviour with detention s and the like.

Nobody needs to know about your private life.

 

Sounds awful!

 

That's a 'you' problem, not a school problem.