How do you train for that?

www.warriordash.com

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at the Professional Educators of North Carolina (PENC) annual conference.  I was sitting at a table with some pretty amazing folks.   Just before lunch we were talking about some of our hobbies (like we have many outside of education) and I shared about the Warrior Dash that is just around the corner.  "What's that?" I was asked.  I am so excited about this that I gladly share any and everything I know about this mud run and obstacle course.  I could feel the "Is she crazy?" stares as I talked.

 "I just have one question." said the lady sitting across the table.  "How do you train for that?"  


"Ya know, " I replied.  "I am not sure.  I just hope that I have been doing something that will work!"

Fast forward a few days and I found myself sitting in a meeting about our teacher preparation programs in North Carolina.  According to data presented at this meeting, the mode for the number of years experience for  teachers around twenty years ago was 15.  Now, the mode for the number of years experience in North Carolina is 1.  Wow!  That is powerful information to me.  Why?  Why are people choosing to leave the profession so quickly?

 I thought back to the question I was asked a few Saturdays ago.  Teaching is sometimes like an obstacle course through mud.  And I began to wonder:  How do you train for that?  Many teacher preparation programs are excellent.  But do we give our future teachers the kind of preparation and training program to make it through the course?

I was fortunate enough to attend an amazing teacher preparation program at Meredith College.  Yes, their training plan worked because I am still in education as are many of my fellow Meredith graduates. But the thing that makes Meredith's training program work is that the Department of Education is constantly evaluating, reflecting and changing to ensure a quality preparation program for its graduates.

But as I have spent the last few years working with student teachers and mentoring new teachers, I have done a great amount of reflecting on teacher education programs.  Do we give our future teachers enough time to embrace the profession in student teaching?  Is our "training program" covering all of our muscle groups and lengthy enough to help our new teachers feel strong enough to stay the course?

Teaching is a tough job.  It is demanding intellectually, physically and emotionally.  Teaching is not the kind of job where you leave your work on a desk when you leave for the day.  Teaching the whole child takes the whole teacher.  That, my friends, is an obstacle course like no other.

Sure, I can study and research all kinds of information about the Warrior Dash.  However, I will really not know how to tackle this race until I get there and start racing.   Teaching is the same.  We can provide training programs but no one really knows what it is like to run the race of a teacher until you actually do it.  Maybe you can't train for teaching specifically, but for those of us who love to run this race every year, maybe we need to put our training tips together and create a better training program for our new teachers.  We have classrooms full of bright, passionate, energetic, and creative future teachers.  How well are you helping them train for this race?