I have been in the classroom for nearly 30 years. It's not because I am stupid and it took me that long to get out of the 12th grade, it's because that is how long I have been a teacher. If you count my student days....well, ever since I was five years old...I have been on one side or other of a student's desk.
Yet, when it came time for me to teach at a fopro - I was asked to jump through dozens of hoops that took about 5 months. After a rigorous screening of my records, (abt a month or so) I was finally given permission to go through their online training.
The time was set and we began a very intense 2 weeks of pretending we were a student, interacting with problem students, answering questions - in short practicing any possible scenario that might come up in an online class.
That completed, I was assigned to two 9 week real courses with an experienced facilitator looking over/watching/reading my every exchange with the students. At about 5 weeks into that, I was left to my own devices...but had an email and phone number if I needed help.
When that 9 week internship period was over - I was finally accepted into the ranks.
Nobody EVER did that for me in the real classroom. I see teachers come in with nothing but a degree who have no clue how to handle a classroom.
The fopros recognize that many of their faculty are professionals who are teaching and my experience is they go to great lengths to help them with the transition.
The non-profits are filled with "if you can't do it...teach" types. The fopros are filled with those who have done or are doing and now want to teach.
What do you think?
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