Traditionally union organizers have used songs to encourage coworkers to join their ranks.
Woody Guthrie, perhaps America’s best known labor minstrel, rewrote a religious hymn, “Je-
sus Walked This Lonesome Valley” as “You Gotta Go Down and Join the Union.” The point of
Guthrie’s song is that no one can make the decision to join a union for you. You have to
make that decision for yourself. That advise holds true for teaching as well. Other people’s
ideas and experiences will only take you so far. You need to practice teaching, think about
teaching, and talk about teaching for yourself. The idea that teachers have to continually
evaluate what they are doing in their classrooms is called reflective practice. To help you de-
velop the habit of reflective practice, sections in this book generally end with an activity that
invites you to JOIN THE CONVERSATION and present your own ideas. Share your ideas with
classmates in education classes and with other teachers. You will discover that you have
much to offer your colleagues and it will make the process of becoming a teacher much
more exciting.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Budget cuts. Strikes. Public debates. Curriculum revisions. “Five and a homeroom.” High-

minded theories and the daily grind. Working with TEENAGERS.

Why do you want to be a secondary school teacher?

Why would anybody want to be a secondary school teacher?

How do secondary schools work? Do they work? Can they work?

What did you like and dislike about your own school experiences?

Thirty years until retirement: Do I want to get involved in this? If I decide to give it a shot,

what do I have to do to survive? To be good at it? To make a difference?

Question to Consider:

Why do I want to be a teacher?

CHAPTER

1

GOALS:WHY DO YOU WANT

TO BEATEACHER?

5