As a result there are many opportunities I passed up just simple because I thought they wanted a full statement. Already working full time at that point, I just didn’t have time to write one five paragraph essay for each of three questions. And districts seem to be adding more all the time making the whole process seem far more daunting then it real is.

They don’t even tell you it is short answer. Therefore, I thank you for clarifying what they have not. It has just taken a huge weight off my shoulders.

thanks ?? i guess

The problem as I see it is that none of that matters. After talking to several school administrators privately, it seems to me that they are looking not so much for “good teachers” as they are for individuals who have certain psychological profiles.

Socrates, Jesus, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and all the great teachers of the past would not fit the current paradigm demanded of teachers today; in fact, they would be specifically screened out. The only proper teacher would be the likes of John Dewy, Sigmund Freud, and Vegotsky.

In otherwords — non-constructivists need not apply.

If you look closer at the kinds of questions that are being asked on these applications, you may begin to notice that they have less to do with pedagogy and more to do with the applicants psychological make-up.

The reality is that these questions are constructed to favor the kind of psychopaths — I mean that in a specific clinical sense — who “manage” their students in specific kinds of ways rather than “educate” them.

I believe that most applicants look for answers to these questions after encountering web-based applications in attempting to “fool the program” and hopefully “sell themselves” once they get a face-to-face interview.

Unfortuantely, computer programs and assessment tools are like a psychopath bereft of feeling or emotion that stand as gatekeepers.

The reason for the search of these questions is the suspicion that no matter how honest, correct, “good,” and realistic a human might answer a question — the psychopathic computerized gatekeeper will screen them out if the “correct” psychological profile is not detected.

My two-cents.

here are three posts that I have been saving in my bloglines account intending to comment on or write about here, however I find that I don't have the time and instead am just going to share. Go read them.

Web 2.0 in 64 seconds

Is reading to st…

Cathy Nelson’s most recent blog post.. Being Smart – 21st Century Style