My Hat is off to ALL teachers

[nvalleyvee]

I subbed for the very WORST classes - YES.......CLASSES today. I was treated with such disrespect and disruptive behaviour. It was HS and the kids told me that they were allowed that behaivour and they didn't have to do the assignment because they were going to get an"A" anyway. I lay this bad conduct on their teacher - DIRECTLY - I wrote him a note that said what I'm saying here. I also went to admin and said I WOULD NEVER SUB his classes again. Geez - I really like this part-time job............but this teacher's classes - NEVER AGAIN.

[SOJOURNER]

I would hope this teacher will have some explaining to do when he gets back. :rolleyes:

[nvalleyvee]

SOJOURNER wrote: I would hope this teacher will have some explaining to do when he gets back. :rolleyes:


Thank you - that is what I thought.............

[nvalleyvee]

moverguy wrote: Should have smacke the excrement out of them if you ask me


We don't get to say or do that........................BUT YES

[chonsigirl]

Oh boy, and I had to have a sub this afternoon........................

[Jcas]

I would never make it as a teacher, i would not have the patience, and would probably end up in prison for assault ...lol

I think the teaching profession deserve double the wages they earn....:-6 :-6

[chonsigirl]

mrsK wrote: I was told by a student today if I touched his cap one more time his parents would sue me & the school .

This delightfull child is 11yrs old.

I told him to bring it on as that would make me very happy when he & I had to go to court & explain why we were there:sneaky:
Don't you just love them, Mrsk? The ones who get me riled are the ones who threaten to sue the school, or have their parents come up and beat me up. No wonder our students are a mess with these examples. We have had to ban several parents from school this year.

Worst parent this year-the one who was yelling at me on the cell phone, while he was using the restorrom at the same time-my pricipal had a cow when I told him. He was banned from every calling me or coming onto campus unescorted.

[Teach4life]

That is why I teach adults. No behavior problems...at least most days

[Accountable]

I delivered a speech a few years back, recommending we pay teachers royalties from what their students earn. Doesn't need to be much, considering the hundreds they come in contact with.

[susie]

moverguy wrote: Should have smacke the excrement out of them if you ask me


Yes I have to agree with your comments

Bring back the slipper!

[Ge0rge]

Having at least two online friends who have taught in American schools and haven spoken to others I wonder if it is the teacher at fault here, though probably is.

The reason I say this is I'm horrified at the number of stories where teachers have graded students according to the criteria applicable only to be called later to the office to be told to change the grades as parents have complained.

One of my friends finaly gave up on the profession because of this and being threatened with his job if he did not.

So from where I sit it is quite possible this was once a caring teacher who has not had the backing of parents or school and finaly decided for their own health sake to go through the motions as no one else seems to care how the kids do?

Either way they need to seriously consider a change in career.

[Ge0rge]

mrsK wrote: Well what a day I have had today.

I have been kicked,scratched,bitten,had pencils thrown in my face ,chairs thrown around the room,told I am a feral b tch

But apart from that not much else happened.

Back at it again tomorrow & then we have mid term break,which means no school Friday or Monday so that is something to look fforward to,might get a chance to shake this flu.


Sounds like my life in the classroom Accept for different insults. The joys of working with autistic or children with emotional and behavioural problems. At least my tetnus jabs are up to date.

Then again I love it :-2

[minks]

Teachers are amazing. The abuse they put up with is insane. Tis a pity some parents have raised children to disprespect their elders. I think every parent should be made to sit in a class with their kid for 1 week just to see what a teacher goes through. Maybe the parent could sit behind a hidden window, or better yet lets set up cameras in classes then bring in the parent to watch the behavior and interaction, HELLO parents you all did not raise perfect model children.

[Dizz]

Yup! I do that. It's amazing how kids behave. I work with MR kids and they are much better behaved than regular ed kids. That is mostly because they know that if we give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

[Ge0rge]

hmmmm, I hadn't thought about the Hep C injection. Might talk to my doctor about that one next time I'm there.

[mountainwind]

Teaching ought to be the best job going but I baled out after 15 years of utter ***** from managers, gobshite from kids and arseshite from their parents and I have to say it is a mugs game. Good luck to all you mugs! :-5

[woppy71]

Gotta say that I think teachers definately have a hard time of it today, bloody kids these days behave disgracefully.

I had a great bunch of teachers at school, did their best for me. Must be hard for teachers to put the effort in for the kids when all the kids do is back chat, assault and swear at them.

Perhaps the parents should be involved more in the schooling of their children, but then again, perhaps it's the lessons that these kids receive outside school which are the one's that they tend to remember the most. An issue which, in my opinion, the parents of these disruptive children, need to take a long hard look at:-5:-5

[Jives]

nvalleyvee wrote: I subbed for the very WORST classes - YES.......CLASSES today. I was treated with such disrespect and disruptive behaviour. It was HS and the kids told me that they were allowed that behaivour and they didn't have to do the assignment because they were going to get an"A" anyway. I lay this bad conduct on their teacher - DIRECTLY - I wrote him a note that said what I'm saying here. I also went to admin and said I WOULD NEVER SUB his classes again. Geez - I really like this part-time job............but this teacher's classes - NEVER AGAIN.


By now you've subbed for enough teachers to know the good from the bad, NVall.

A good teacher preps his classes for subs from the very first day of the year. I tell mine that they will be on their best behavior and that if they disrespect the sub, I will deal with them personally.

As for misunderstandings and hurt feelings, I tell them to just do their best and if they don't quite get the lesson, not to worry, I'll teach it again the next day. (Not all subs are Algebra-proficient.)

The key is good planning. A good teacher will leave almost nothing to chance. Even the unexpected should be prepared for. Bathroom breaks, food and drink policies, hand-in and hand-out procdures and classroom rules should be completely lined out for the sub.

Aboe all, everything should be shared with the class so that both the sub and they know what is expected of them.

A good example is the words "shut up." I constantly teach my kids that this is rude, so you can imagine the reaction a sub will get if they use these words.

Here is my latest example of a sub letter:

Dear Substitute:

Thank you very much for substituting for me today!

If any of the kids are uneasy, please tell them that I will be back tomorrow. All of my classes are well-behaved, but the afternoon classes will need more of your attention.

The bell schedule is on the board and your class schedule is as follows:

1st - Reading

2nd - Math

3rd - Math

5th - Reading

6th - Math

7th - Math

They are under strict orders not to get out of their seats for any reason unless you ask them to. They may go the bathroom and get drinks of water if they wish (It’s right here in the room), but please allow only one student out of the room at a time, they must also take the blue pass with them.

Your job will be as simple as I can make it:

1. Take attendance on the Roll Sheets . I will input it into the computer tomorrow.

2. Teach these lessons:

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Reading:

The students will begin reading the story “All The Years of her Life” Pg. 57 aloud from the Green Literature books on the tables. Randomly select people to read, but only make them read about a paragraph or so before changing readers.



After they have finished, (and they may not) have them do the following questions on their own paper:

Your Response - Question 1

Recalling - Question 2, 3, and 4

Interpreting - Questions 5, 6, and 7

Have the students hand in any work they finish to the hand-in folders. (The folders are color-coded and numbered on the front wall of the room.)



Math

Teach the lesson for Section 8-2, Pairs of Angles. (Worksheet is on the desk) Do all the problems on the worksheets. But do them as a class, and take your time. If they do not finish, that’s OK. We will finish it tomorrow. I will also be teaching this lesson again. Calculators should not be allowed on this lesson.

If they do finish, the students know which color-coded folder to put their work into. I should caution you to not expect too much independent practice. Without guidance and continuous engagement, you may find behavior problems arising.

At the end of each hour (the schedule is posted on the board) please have the students push in their chairs, and pick up any trash on the floor. The students are well-taught to do these procedures, but will only do them if you ask.



You must check the calculator rack after each period, to insure against loss. All calculators must be accounted for.



If any student gives you trouble, please write down the student’s name and the team will deal with them the next day.

Do not say “Shut Up” to them. You will probably get a negative reaction, since I have been training them to not to use this phrase.



In case of extreme emergency, the next portable over contains XXXXXX who can contact the front office and send for help. Also, Lori McGaha, our very talented GEAR-UP liaison will be around to help you all she can.

Again,



Thank you very much for substituting for me. It’s a hard job and you deserve high praise for doing it.

Sincerely,

Jonathan St. Ives

Lead Teacher

Transition Academy

[chonsigirl]

I leave detailed sub plans, and talk to the sub prior to their endurance test in my classroom. I did that today, for the afternoon I had to take off. But I had the tried and true sub, whose son I taught a few years ago. Since we know each other well, she is perfect to keep the darlings in line. I always plan too much work for them, so there is no down time for mischief.

[Teach4life]

woppy71 wrote: Gotta say that I think teachers definately have a hard time of it today, bloody kids these days behave disgracefully.

I had a great bunch of teachers at school, did their best for me. Must be hard for teachers to put the effort in for the kids when all the kids do is back chat, assault and swear at them.

Perhaps the parents should be involved more in the schooling of their children, but then again, perhaps it's the lessons that these kids receive outside school which are the one's that they tend to remember the most. An issue which, in my opinion, the parents of these disruptive children, need to take a long hard look at:-5:-5


I have to agree with you. I am a teacher, but I deal with adults. I have the perspective of seeing the parents side of things. As a parent myself, I have skills on how to teach and direct my kids;however, many parents lack these skills. I work with them as best as I can, but truely, they are affraid of being strong parents. They seem to be more of the mind set that they should be a friend first. This is dangerous territory in my opinion. Julie

[Jives]

Teach4life wrote: As a parent myself, I have skills on how to teach and direct my kids;however, many parents lack these skills. I work with them as best as I can, but truely, they are affraid of being strong parents. They seem to be more of the mind set that they should be a friend first. This is dangerous territory in my opinion. Julie


No kidding. I had a mom call me this morning. She is upset that her child is being OFFERED the chance to go to Summer School instead of being retained in the 8th grade. it seems that she had plans to go on vacation for the Summer.

I told her, "Your vacation or a year of your child's life. The choice is completely up to you."

She chose the vacation.

[chonsigirl]

Oh, how selfish!:(

[Felinessa]

I've been wondering if the root of the problem lies with the School Boards-Social Services-Parents Axis of Evil. :-5 It sounds to me that social services pressures parents into not exercising any kind of discipline and allowing children to "freely develop" (so as to avoid having their kids placed into foster care if they, God forbid, smack their bums) and that parents, in turn, are putting pressure on the schools to lower requirements and limit teachers' actions. Otherwise, I can't explain the kind of ridiculous behaviour I've been hearing about, along with the fact that simple notions (which in other countries are taught in grade 5) need to wait until university in North America.

Granted, I don't have much experience teaching children or teenagers. I'm a part-time university prof, which means that I get to teach mostly 1st and 2nd year courses (the best part is that when I finish my PhD, I'll probably get to teach 3rd/4th years and grad students, so the worst will be mostly over). I haven't had many problems teaching so far (aside from whining about marks or the occasional race card), although I have to say my students were more respectful than when I was a TA. However, the biggest problem that 1st year profs and TAs face is the "baggage" students inherit from highschool. Let me count the ways:

1. Mark shock - in my department, A+ (90 and up) is a VERY rare occurrence. We do give A-s and As, and we consider that the B-B+ range is onorable. Experience shows that a good 50-60% of the class will fall into that range, which is quite expectable and desirable. I'd be worried if my students got all Ds (a good indication that the prof does not teach well) or all As (another good indication that something is off and that the class is too easy). I fully agree that only the top students, who are doing a very good job, should be rewarded with 80% and more. However, especially in the fall semester, we get kids crying their eyes out over a B+ and screeching that they never got a B in highschool. How is this possible? How could a perfectly average student go through highschool and be misled into thinking that s/he is creme de la creme? My suspicion is that both parents and the school boards are pressuring teachers into giving high marks - parents because they think the little darling is a genius and school boards because they want to artificially raise passing quotas and avoid further questioning from higher up. But I think this is almost criminal, since it prevents students from knowing their true ability and it sets them up for bitter disappointment once they enter university. Okay, and it makes our lives hell too

2. Utter ignorance of very simple things. I don't know how bad this is in other departments, but I teach Essay Writing and the occasional 2nd year literature course. In the past, I've also TA-ed courses like Business Writing and Technical Writing, which also have a strong grammar component. Something I learned the hard way (and which I will be training new TAs about) is that students barely know what a noun is, that they don't make the distinction between a verb and a predicate, and that things like conjunctions, prepositions, sentence structure leave them zombie-eyed :-5 Okay, now I don't expect them to be parsing very complex sentences and be proficient in advanced syntax, but come on, people, shouldn't they teach basics like these in high-school? The only ones who seemed to have taken English grammar were the Catholic-school kids and the ESL ones.

On top of that, their knowledge of academic writing is limited to the 5-paragraph essay and to expository writing. They don't know what a thesis is, what an argument is, what a rhetorical strategy is. They have trouble applying cause-and-effect. Research I'm not even getting into, because they have no notion of plagiarism or proper documentation (MLA and APA are just as known to them as Summerian is to me). And I can't fully blame them because these are not drop-outs: these are some of the better kids who got accepted into university!

After tutoring a high-school kid (enrolled in the best program in town), I figured out why: his high school teacher taught them to write expository commentaries, spent no time on argumentation, and forced them to use a documentation system invented by the school (totally useless because in university and on the job, you have to use the official ones - MLA, APA, BCE, IEEE, Chicago, etc). A research paper he wrote under my direct supervision, which had a strong thesis, solid argumentation, good research (which he did with me in the university library), and flawless documentation was rewarded with a 75. Upon reading the "model" papers, which were rewarded with a 90+ and photocopied by the teacher, I wanted to pull my hair out: mostly expository, rambling, and using sources like Wikipedia. You could say I am biased, but I did NOT write the kid's paper: I just led him through about 5-6 drafts, taught him to use the university library, evaluate sources, taught him MLA, and pestered him endlessly about editing and correcting his own mistakes. I have been marking hundreds of papers over the past 3 years, and I looked at both his paper and the "model" ones as I look at my students' papers. I would have by no means allowed him to turn in a paper which I thought deserved only a 75 (he's a smart kid and can do very well with a bit of pushing). So what happened? I'm not sure if at fault was the teacher or the curriculum which forces teachers to teach things which are not accurate or productive.

Another one of my qualms is with the B.Ed. program. I think it focuses far too much on education courses and too little on major courses. This is okay for grades 1-8, but high school teachers should have a MA/MS in their area as well. I know that many people do, and I know that others continue to learn on their own. But I think there is little substitute for an intensive graduate program, which not only exposes you to more knowledge, but also to serious methodology and current scholarship. Sooooo ... I know that when I have children, my partner (who is a Math PhD) and I will be sticking our noses in their lessons and homework and making sure that they are fully prepared for university.

I don't mean any disrespect to teachers, who are doing a job I know I couldn't handle, but I think that idiotic curricula and poorly-conceived programs are making students less prepared for university than they should be. And on top of that, Ontario dropped grade 13, which means that our students are even more clueless ...

[/rant]

[LilacDragon]

I could never teach. Just the thought of being locked in a room with a bunch of children makes me break out in hives!

I must say that I do think that part of the problem these days are parents.

I used to run a gas station next to a high school in an affluent community. I had the number for the schools police liason on my speed dial! When a 17 year old boy drives in and puts gas in his brand new mustang and pays for $10 worth of gas (this was a couple of years ago) with a $100 bill - I can promise you that Mommy and Daddy are handing out cash instead of time.

There was the 17 year old boy I wouldn't sell cigarettes to. He tried to run over one of my employees!!

Or, my personal favorite - the young girl I caught rolling a joint in my parking lot! When I called the liason, he knew exactly who I was talking about - seems she was a problem child. Her parents were so upset about the joint that they didn't allow her to go to the Bahama's for spring break!!

[RedGlitter]

mrsK wrote: Well what a day I have had today.

I have been kicked,scratched,bitten,had pencils thrown in my face ,chairs thrown around the room,told I am a feral b tch:-3 :-2

But apart from that not much else happened.:-6




Mrs K are you being serious? Did someone actually bite or scratch you?? Someone kicked you?? I cannot believe that! Please say you were just being exaggerative...? :-2

[Felinessa]

RedGlitter, if I'm not mistaken, I think she works with special-ed kids. My cousin teaches art therapy to severely autistic children and others with serious congenital problems, and the same thing happens to her. But it's hard to get upset, I think, because it's not their fault. If it happened with "normal" children (sorry if it's judgemental, but I can't think of a better word), I think both they and their parents should be sent to obedience training.