Subject Knowledge vs. Professional Knowledge

In class we had a debate on which is more important for a teacher to have subject knowledge or professional knowledge.  I feel that professional knowledge is the most importat.  Although I do feel that subject knowledge is still importat.  I think that everyone would agree with me that if we could have chosen two of the sides we would have.  I think that it is easier for someone to learn new material on a suject then to learn how to teach.  I think that teaching is something that can't really be taught it is something that comes naturally in a person's personality. 

We have all had that university professer who is super knowledgable on a subject but can't get to information across to the students.  Just because someone knows a lot about a subject doesn't mean that they can get that information across for someone else to understand.  I don't think that just because someone got all A's in school that this makes them a bettet teacher.  It is great though to have both!

FISH!!!!!!!

We learnt about the FISH philosophy in class.  When Jackie first told us that we would be learning about FISH I have no idea what to expect.  I loved this philosophy instantly it was such a great idea.  It was such simple ideas and when put all together it works fantastic!  The four simlple steps are:

• Be there
• Play
• Make their day
• Choose your attitude

The video that we watched was entertaining and funny.  While watching the video it makes you want to go and get a job with them.  They just have so much fun at their job.  I think that you should be having fun and enjoying your job because you job takes up a lot of your life so you should really enjoy what you are doing.  If you enjoy what you are doing it will show to the kids in your class.  I think that this video should be presented to lots of different work places.  It could work for pretty much anywhere.  I  even noticed that after we watched the video our class even had a better atmosphere. 

Sergiovanni's Professional Blog

So Jackie asked us to write down what we thought the defination to professionalism was.  The only two words I wrote down was act appropriately.  Which is very true this is what you need to do.  But it is so much more than that.  Some things that come to mind are responsiblity, level of excellence, taking pride in what you do, good role models, etc.  According to Sergiovanni he has four commitments to follow:

1.  Commitment to caring
2.  Commitment to practice and exemplary ways
3.  Commitment to one's own practice, but also to the practice itself
4.  Commitment to valued social ends

What I like most about Sergiovanni is how he uses the word commitment because I think that by entering this profession you are making a huge commitment.  So I liked how he used it.  I really liked the first point, commitment to caring.  When you really care for something I think that you are likely to try your very best. 

For a teacher at 3:30 when the bell rings being a professional doesn't stop here.  They need to still be seen as a professional around the community, especially if it was a small town. 

I think as the class continues and when we start working as a teacher we will learn even more on what it means to be a professional.

MTS Code of Conuct

MTS (which stands for Manitoba Teaching Society) Code of Conduct is what we looked at in class last week.  We looked through this code of conduct which is a list of thirteen different codes.  I think that most of the points made sense.  A couple of them I did circle but Jackie cleared those right up for us in a lot more clearer explanations. 

Number 7 was a point that we discussed in class. This was if you have a problem with a colleague you are to talk to that colleague or MTS and you are not allowed to talk to anyone else about this problem.   I feel that this rule is a pretty good rule.  Where I work if someone has done something wrong instead of  talking about it they tend to like to discuss it with everyone at work.  This making it a lot bigger deal about it when you would have liked it better if you had just been appoached about this situation.  But I think that this rule is not followed well at all.  Of couse you would talk to your friend/colleague if you had a situation with another colleague.  What I think is you should try talking to someone else about it that doesn't work within the school that way you can get some advice but not get more people involved within the shool.  I just think if this rule was followed a little better there would be less drama.

By looking through the Code of Conduct it gets a little more real and exciting that soon we will be real teachers.