Articles for Teachers
The current options when it comes to training for teachers bear little resemblance to the situation a few years ago. Back then, if someone inquired about what teacher training entailed, they were likely to be told that it would be necessary to apply to a traditional university, get accepted, and then spend the next four years of their life obtaining the credentials to be able to pursue their chosen career. Should they decide to advance their education, say by pursuing a masters or doctorate degree, or getting some specialized training in one particular area of teaching, it was more of the same, or try and fit it in at night and on the weekends while holding down a full time job.
Nowadays, however, there are many options to the traditional scenario if you want to take some teacher training courses. We've listed a few of the more interesting innovations below. With the pace of change in this information age, there will probably be new choices in the near future that haven't even been thought of today.
It wouldn't be surprising if soon one was able to get a Bachelors or even a Masters degree without ever venturing onto the grounds of a traditional university. A number of well established accredited schools are now offering a large variety of online courses. The great thing about these courses is that they allow one to learn when it fits their schedule, not the college's. These courses can range from a degree program, as mentioned above, to a short refresher that takes only a weekend. It is true at this point that many of these courses will require an occasional class meeting, but these are usually scheduled for school vacations, holidays, or weekends, and as such are obviously much easier to fit into a busy life than traditional college degree programs.
After some research by the Department of Education indicated that 4 out of 5 teachers said they did not feel qualified to utilize much of today's technology to enhance their teaching, Intel and Microsoft launched a program called 'Teach to the Future", aimed to educate teachers on the most efficient ways to incorporate current technological tools into their daily lesson plans. The program provides software resources such as Office Professional and MS Encarta at no cost, and also includes training in the areas of student projects, the Internet, and web design. It's trained more than one and a half million teachers in over thirty countries.
Also, music teachers can find a wide variety of materials online. There are now Websites that are dedicated to different musical subjects and that will provide prearranged musical scores that are ready to be used for teaching. Additionally, and probably most importantly, some of these sites provide access to forums where music teachers can interact with each other and discuss teaching techniques or problems. They can also go to sites such as metmagazine.com or apple.com and download ready to use lesson plans.
So there you have just a few of the modern options for teacher training. Those are certainly not all that's available, and if none of those appeals to you, a little research will surely turn up something that's perfect for your goals and your lifestyle.