Taiwanese public school teachers--are they required to be certified teachers?

I’ve just registered for the course I need through the U of Phoenix and I hope I’m not making a $645 USD, 3 week mistake. When I googled the course textbook, I couldn’t find any. What I did find was Consumer Reports’ bushels full of complaints about the the school. But my only other option is a 4 month course offered by a no-name college in the SE USA. I just want to get this requirement finished and put to bed!

P.S. If anyone wants to take great ED courses to refresh your expertise or just to feel challenged in the field of Education again, I heartily recommend any ED course offered by PBS. I completed one of these PBS ED 6 week courses and must say that it stretched my mind into areas and directions I never knew existed. The last ED course I took was in 1992, so there were a lot of bright lights and new developments in the field that I hadn’t imagined. Their courses are very stimulating and right on target. They’re great!

Just one caveat, PBS courses don’t keep a running average grade. That’s the system I’m used to. For instance on parent visitation day, I would open my grade book and tell the parent that their child has a B average across the board, or an A in Math and a B in English. PBS uses an additive system that I once used while teaching in a Mexican high school for the rich and richer. Your grade starts at 0% and works its way up to whatever-- to 90 or to 78. So the first time I happened upon my grade for the PBS ED course, I saw that my average was 55% and I naturally went through the roof. Forewarned = forearmed.

That wasn’t your average though. Your average would have been, for instance, 92% (if it had been 55/60 up to that point). To calculate an average there needs to be a division in there somewhere, not just an addition.

The high school for the rich and richer I taught ESL at in Mexico used this system:

Before the course began, all work was assigned a value depending upon each assignment’s length and level of difficulty. So you might have 300 tasks to complete during the semester. As you completed each task the teacher graded your work and gave it a value. So for instance in a 4 month semester, if you have a perfect score at the end of the first month, you would have a total grade of about 25%, depending upon the value of the mid-term and final test/exam.

I just finished a PBS course called teaching phonemic awareness and phonics and I’d like to quote a statement from a fellow learner:

In our reading, What We Know About How to Teach Phonics, it is stated, “Children Need Cognitive Clarity About What They Are Learning.
Cognitive clarity is knowing what you are trying to do and understanding where you are trying to go and why you are going there. When you have cognitive clarity about a task, you are more likely to persist in your efforts because you anticipate the goals you will eventually reach. You selfmonitor your actions by thinking about whether they will get you where you want to go. You are able to cooperate with the instruction you receive because you know what your teacher is trying to help you learn.”

Allowing the students to see and to know the value of each assignment at the beginning of the course might be considered to be a low-level form of Cognitive Clarity.

I’m not disagreeing with you on that at all, merely your usage of the term “average”.

Question: I"m confused in regards to American Teacher certification, do you need to complete so many courses each few years to remain certified?

Answer: As was mentioned in a previous post, in the USA all 50 states set their own requirements for renewal of teaching certificates. In the late 70s and early 80s, all LIFETIME certificates were annulled. I was such a moron for throwing mine out!!! TW really would have accepted it. I can’t believe it!

Reason for constant renewal: it produces more teacher responsibility and introduces the concept of teacher as a constant learner. I don’t have my old certificate within reach but it must have been valid for 10 years.

Now to renew my HS certificate I would need just 6 credits–2 courses–in anything relevant to the major/s listed on the certificate. But Elementary Education requirement were upped to include 1 course in Early Childhood–Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics. I can’t praise the PBS course enough for 1 nutcracking, mind-stretching course. Not only was the content heavy duty and right on target, but the other half of the course’s value is learning how to navigate from one strand/thread to another contributing to a discussion here, absorbing other learners’ contributions there. Anyway, I can go on and on and on. The course was tough, but worthwhile, even though I’ve never taught pre k, k, 1st or 2nd grades. Nor do I plan to teach those ages. So 6 credits will renew all the majors listed on the certificate. American teachers of my age have a joke regarding which courses would be pertinent for renewal. I’ll just say any course but basket weaving.

The other course involves diagnosis of the struggling reader which is a course in how to assess the child’s reading abilities and to map out an elaborate plan showing how the child’s reading abilities will be strengthened. It seems to be great and I start it tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s only a 3 week course. So, if my math is right, with a 6 week course, I put in at least 10 to 12 hours a week. So with a 3 week course, I’m planning on doubling the hours.

Anyway, once I finish this certificate renewal, I won’t have to do it again because of my age and retirement date. That might have to be elongated another 10 years because of all the shite happening in Washington and Wall Street.