You can enhance the following activities from the Instructor's Resource Manual by incorporating the resources available on the World Wide Web.

Motives for Teaching

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
In small groups, have students generate a list of their own motives for considering teaching as a career. After listing various reasons from the groups, compare them to those given by teachers as reported in this chapter of your textbook.

In addition, you may want to ask students to search the Internet for information about teachers' motives. Some places to start their search are listed in the links section of this site:

All About Teaching
This page from the Recruiting Teachers organization is designed for those who are considering teaching as a career. It includes teachers' personal responses to the question "Why I Teach," as well as a good overview of job conditions for teachers.

Tips on Becoming a Teacher
This article on the ADPRIMA web site discusses several things to consider, and several other sites to visit, as you decide whether teaching is the career for you.

Phi Delta Kappa
The web site for this professional organization includes a section called the New Teacher Connection and First Year Teacher, a section of journal entries from new teachers.

Teacher Salary Schedules

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Divide the class into an appropriate number of groups and require each group to obtain a salary schedule from a school system in the area (each group would be assigned a different school system). Each group will prepare a summary sheet that lists their district's salaries in terms of beginning and maximum levels, the number of increments before reaching the maximum, and the amount of increment for each year of teaching experience and for educational preparation. After each group presents information about their respective salary schedule, students will write a reaction paper comparing their district's salary schedule to that of other districts in the area. Students should also reflect on the question of whether salary alone is enough to attract teachers to take positions in a given school district.

You may also wish to suggest that students may be able to get salary information on the Web. Some places to start include:

American Federation of Teachers Research Department
Here you'll find the AFT's annual survey of trends in teacher salaries, as well as state-by-state information on salaries, and more.

CPRE Teacher Compensation Project
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education has undertaken as massive research project to learn more about teacher compensation. You can find out about the ongoing project and some of its results, including reports on specific states and districts, at this site.

National Center for Education Statistics
This branch of the Department of Education offers statistical research, including the very helpful annual Digest of Educational Statistics, as well as other services, including the "School District Locator," to help you learn more about districts in which you may be interested.

Certification of Teachers

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests two activities:

• After providing students with state requirements for certification, have them generate a list of questions on the topic that address their concerns about certification issues. Invite a local school district personnel officer or state department certification specialist to answer their questions
• With support from the current literature or interviews with current teachers and administrators, have students write a position paper either endorsing or challenging the practice of allowing provisionally certified or non-certified teachers to assume full-time classroom duties.

You or your students may want to obtain certification requirements, or to review arguments on alternative certification, on the Web. Some sites to visit include:

50 States' Certification Requirements
This site from the University of Kentucky is intended to help teachers move from state to state more easily by making the requirements for certification in every state readily available.

Teach for America
Learn more about this alternative certification organization, which places students from nearly every college major into their first teaching positions.

Triage for the Teacher Shortage
This is a short list of alternative certification organizations, published by Education News.

Who Should Teach?
A special report from Education Week on what states are doing to attract, screen and retain competent teachers.

Educational Reform

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Assign equal numbers of students to research one of the following reform reports: A Nation at Risk, A Nation Prepared, or Tomorrow's Teachers (Materials may be placed on the Faculty reserve reading list.) During class discussion, have students compare the status of public education, the teaching profession, and teacher preparation in the early 2000s to the reforms recommended in the 1980s.

You may also wish to point out that A Nation At Risk is available on the Web, or to suggest that students compare them with the 2001 educational reforms described in President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind. Relevant web sites are:

A Nation At Risk
You can read A Nation At Risk at the U.S. Department of Education's web site.

No Child Left Behind
Read President Bush's plan for education, available at the U.S. Department of Education's web site.

Diversity of the Teaching Force

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Provide students with demographic data on undergraduates enrolled in teacher education programs, provided in the AACTE Teacher Education Pipeline II. Have them suggest why fewer minorities are enrolling in teacher education programs, what can be done to attract more minorities to teaching as a career, and why it is important to increase the presence of people of color in education.

You may wish to provide students with the AACTE web address to help with this assignment. Another source of information on the diversity of the teaching force is the National Center for Education Statistics.

American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education
The motto of this organization for teacher-preparation programs is "ensuring competent and caring educators for all children and youth."

National Center for Education Statistics
This branch of the Department of Education offers statistical research, including the very helpful annual Digest of Educational Statistics, as well as other services, including the "School District Locator," to help you learn more about districts in which you may be interested.

Educational Technology

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Have students conduct an Internet scavenger hunt, using several popular search engines, to find information on some of the following topics: teacher salaries across the nation, certification requirements in various states, lesson plans from a variety of teaching fields, or information on famous educators.

You may wish to provide the addresses of some search engines, as well as searching tips. Popular search engines include:

Yahoo

Google

Look Smart

Lycos

Ask Jeeves