What is a good preschool teacher forum?

What is the best way to improve teacher training?

• I am a semi- retired UN Advisor in Education. My task is to improve teacher and education administrator practices around the world. I have attended and participated in numerous conferences, forum and seminars encapsulating the problems and pitfalls of educational improvement. I have been to various countries and schools from elementary to post graduate. I have suggested ways that have been tested and tried with some success. What I'd like to know is ' What ideas or proposals do you feel that might have better success rates? '.

• Answer:

  I taught overseas for many years and had the privilege of working in American, Chinese, Japanese, British, Greek, French, and Israeli schools. I was able to visit several others. One thing the global community needs to realize is that every country has good ideas that work, even in areas where there is little money for technology. Countries need to work together on this issue. The countries with the most money often have the most lackadaisical teachers, because they have become very dependent on machines and fancy curriculae that an ape could teach because everything is provided. The main problem I see is that ther buck doesn't stop anywhere. Teacher training colleges need to FAIL prospective teachers who obviously have no aptitude for the profession. Teachers and schools need to FAIL students who do not reach the required standard and make them repeat until they are capable of understanding the material. Look at the homework questions on Yahoo. Dozens of kids every day write to total strangers asking them to DO (not help) their homework. People who think they are good parents because they defend lazy kids and sue the schools need to be re-educated. Education is a mess right now and as a retired teacher/lecturer I think the only way to improve is to find rock-bottom and start from there.