<p>@Emaheevul07
Ugh. I went to her blog. I shouldn’t have. She’s reveling in her “icon” status and quoting web approval ratings. If any of those people read the actual blog, that wouldn’t be happening. She seems to think that she’s going to educate the world on the “state of education” when she is part of the problem. Teachers in her school already had her pegged and they must be freaking out about the attention she’s getting when they know who she really is. She is demeaning every hard working high school teacher in this district and it’s terribly unfair to them.</p>
<p>(BTW, hope you have a speedy recovery from the flu!)</p>
<p>I just made a neti pot out of a styrofoam cup, saran wrap, duct tape, and a straw. This flu doesn’t stand a chance. :P</p>
<p>I just can’t get over how long some of her entries are. That last one was /four/ pages long. It really does remind me of my sister’s manic phase entries. And that Andrew Shirvell blog, if anybody outside of Ann Arbor still remembers that. It’s no wonder she has done so many interviews, she sure has a lot to say! ;)</p>
<p>My daughter goes to a very highly ranked public school, and it seems that to get away from the rude, disrespectful, disruptive students one needs to take all AP and GT classes. In her Honors English class recently, three students were sitting in the back audibly referring to the teacher as a “b-word a-word c-word” (of course they were saying the actual profane words). My high schoolers come home with these stories on a regular basis. I don’t know what happened to the idea of disciplining students.</p>
<p>* My high schoolers come home with these stories on a regular basis. I don’t know what happened to the idea of disciplining students.*</p>
<p>When I was in high school. disruptive students were sent to the vice principals office.
Nowadays, the vice principal is either at district admin @ a meeting, or at the opposite coast touring charter schools.</p>
<p>In our state we passed I-728 to more money to lower class sizes. However the schools found a loophole to use the money for supplemental teacher pay for " training" that will help teachers run the large classes - just like a smaller one.
Right.
:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Smaller classes can result in fewer disruptive students because there would be less likelihood of students being placed into a class that was not appropriate for them.</p>
<p>This teacher seems to have had much more free time, than other teachers I have known.
Perhaps more work should have gone into lesson prep?</p>
<p>I said 99.9% of the people saying this T should be fired have PROBABLY never taught a class in their lives. You are the .01% who said that and are still in a big rush to get the T fired for having a personal blog that some people find offensive. </p>
<p>Well, it is her personal opinions and my assumption above is right on the mark. </p>
<p>I am not making excuses for the T either. She should be disciplined but I stop short of saying she should be fired and I don’t think she should be removed from the classroom if she is willing to correct a few things and accept responsibilty for her actions. For one thing, it is not acceptable to personal insult students on a personal blog or anywhere else. </p>
<p>I joke around with students in my classes from time to time. I am sure someone could misconstrue things I have said and turn them into insults when that isn’t what they were. In my now 18 year teaching career (I had to count in my head for a minute) I have never had a single grade dispute or student conflict issue go past a single discussion with an administrator. I was flat out clearly wrong once and after the student talked to the dean and the dean talked to me I admitted I was wrong and apologized. I didn’t get in trouble but I would have accepted whatever penalty I coudl have gotten if it fit the crime. </p>
<p>The student who was upset dropped the class and I never saw her again and ever now I then I still think of that student. I messed up on that one but I think twice before I throw any classroom teacher under the bus. I have colleagues who have told me they strongly prefer online classes so that they don’t even have to deal with students unless it is by email. Lovely. </p>
<p>And my teaching environment is no where near as challenging as K-12. K-12 is the trenches a true war zone. Yes, I know there are SOME motivated and honest and hard working students but it is still a challenging environment. I think this T should be disciplined but not fired. </p>
<p>You are entitled to believe what you want. You as a former T should know better than anyone that the students have a responsibilty to follow the school districts code of conduct just as the T’s have ethical duties as well. Both sides need to follow the rules. </p>
<p>I, for one, appreciate the comments on this thread from parents and students and teachers who see the kinds of things students do to get out of work and disrupt the environment and are really kind of sick of it. It is unacceptable not that anyone really cares. Like I said before, don’t force them to stay. Let them go work the field or the coal mines or in retail or in fast food or join the military and see how they like it. Leave school to the ones who want to be there.</p>
<p>Don’t let the door hit you on the back side on the way out either.</p>
<p>I have one in high school and one in middle school and my kids both shock me with the stuff that goes on and is over looked by everyone. Texting in the middle of class, again not that anyone cares, is just oen example. </p>
<p>And we wonder why our standardized test scores are below the rest of the industrialized world. What a mystery. What a shock. It’s puzzling. </p>
<p>I’m glad someone else brought up the fear of lawsuits. My God. It is pathetic. You can literally watch a school admin go into the fetal position just by bringing up the word lawsuit.</p>
<p>I doubt this lady was a gem of a teacher, but the fact that she isn’t well-liked among her peers means absolutely nothing at all. State workers or union workers who work “too hard” aren’t well-liked either. One of S’s high school teachers was pressured into no longer agreeing to help kids after school because the other teachers looked bad if they didn’t want to do the same thing. God forbid the teachers should work a minute past 2:30 PM; the union would be horrified too!</p>
<p>When S was in middle school, one week he actually had 2 of the same arts and craftsy assignments his little sister got in nursery school, so he complained about the really infantile projects to the teachers in question. They wanted to write him up for being disrepectful. An old- school teacher defended him, said he was aboslutely right, and such was the persecution she eventually had to leave that school. One of our high school science teachers was notorious for his incredibly high standards for his classes. They may have been too high at times, I admit, but the good kids loved him and rose to the challenge. Also, these were AP classes, not required courses, so no one’s arm was twisted to take them. He was demoted as dept. chair for being too elitist. Apparently, some parents complained that their darlings had to work too hard and couldn’t get A’s. Ugh.</p>
<p>@TheGFG I doubt this lady was not liked because she worked too hard. I think it is an over generalization and insulting to say State or Union workers do not like people who work too hard. I am not a teacher but I know that their work does not stop and start the same a school hours. I also know many teachers who are willing to help students on their own time if they are asked. I am sorry your S did not have that experience and his teacher blamed the fact that he could not help any longer because he did not want to make the other teachers look bad.</p>
<p>There are good and bad workers everywhere, but a system under which it’s almost impossible to fire someone does not promote excellence. I stand by that. Even my girlfriend who took up a part-time school cafeteria job, was told she was doing too much and was ordered to slow down or she’d make the other lunch ladies look bad. I am definitely jaded, but then again we’ve had some real doozies. My favorite is our high school union rep (an AP teacher too) who tells his classes that he took that job so he could do whatever he wanted all day and not get fired.</p>
<p>Haven’t read the whole thread nor seen the teacher’s blog. The idea of talking badly about the students seems a little off to me–as a teacher I know we all have a bad day every now and then, but generally like our students. I’m not sure why this teacher felt the need to be so public about her frustrations. </p>
<p>As for:
</p>
<p>I think this generalization is unfair. I am generally not a big union fan but I do understand the situation mentioned above. Most teachers I know are glad to help out students at lunch and before and after school. The problem comes when this is expected. I don’t like to see teachers taken advantage of when there is money available to pay those teachers an “hourly rate” to provide after hours tutoring. The hourly rate paid by the district if often half of what a private tutor would charge.</p>
<p>The other problem I have with teachers being expected to give “extra time” is that they often get burned out. I have seen so many really great, motivated teachers, burn out and quit because of this very thing. After they volunteer to work for free after school, then they are asked to be “class advisor” (again no extra pay), and then to be a club advisor. </p>
<p>Before I get flamed for being undedicated to students, please consider what these teachers have left to give in the classroom. The majority of the students are actually shortchanged because their teacher has too much on their plate. I have actually witnessed these really “dedicated” teachers be unconcerned that their students are not understanding the daily class instruction. They just say that the student can come in for extra help after school. What? What a great way to shift the burden from the teacher to the student. IMO the teacher’s job is to make sure the students are understanding the lesson during class time (we actually call it “checking for understanding”). Students should also be given time during class to ask questions and have difficult concepts reexplained. </p>
<p>If parents want teachers to work after school, why aren’t they at school board meetings asking for a change to the contract? Some schools have an hour a day built into the contract and the teachers are fairly compensated.</p>
<p>@TheGFG -I am jaded also. I agree with your statement that there are good and bad workers everywhere. </p>
<p>I am just suspect of people who complain that they are the only ones who work, or everyone they work with is wrong and they are the only one who does things right. </p>
<p>I think paid administrative leave that gives someone the ability to travel and go on talk shows is not a very harsh punishment. </p>
<p>I do not think this teacher should be fired, I just would not want someone with her attitude teaching my daughter. </p>
<p>Since it is nearly impossible to fire teachers, I doubt that she will get fired.</p>
<p>When each of my kids moved from private schools to a public high school, the first thing each commented on was their shock at how the students disrespectfully talked back and out of turn to the teachers, and the teachers did nothing to stop it.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to the school that this teacher blogged about,and the kids have been complaining about her for a while before this startedHe reputation is that she is a nasty person and not a good teacher, who vindictive too. She doesn’t!t seem to like teaching or kids. This s particular school
has always been a super positive place where kids are encouraged to take chances in a safe environment and work hard. The principal is fabulous and knows how to give the kids the respect that helps them live up to his standard. This poor excuse for a teacher should be fired because she sets a horrible example. she has shown poor judgement in putting her nasty comments on line and does not deserve a teaching spot in one of the best schools in PA.</p>
<p>^ Judging by your blatant disregard for the rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar, you aren’t suited to judge this teacher’s ability to teach.</p>
<p>Terpmom so if the students complain she must be a bad teacher and therefore should be fired? </p>
<p>Wow. </p>
<p>You are missing the point. The point is that there are two sides to every story and that teacher’s must follow codes of conduct and standards but so should the students. Neither you nor I know what is true or not that this teacher wrote so neither one of us knows whether she should be fired or not but if all they have is students complaining, without any of other sort of teacher misconduct, and complaining in a personal blog is not misconduct unless it extends to how she acted in the classroom, she should not be fired. </p>
<p>Students, parents, taxpayers and teachers all have a role in this thing. If the principal in this PA school is so good I am sue he/she knows that. If the school is so good was this T just making all this stuff up?</p>
<p>The reason I think she needs to be removed from the position, rather than giving her the opportunity to take responsibility and correct her mistakes, is because as a student I don’t know how I could ever go back to this woman’s class again having read that blog. It would be extremely uncomfortable. She has dissolved any sense of trust the students could have, and any time it occurred to me to raise my hand to ask a question I would wonder if she was going to think I was some kind of moron like she wrote in the blog. There is no way I could WORK with that woman anymore, as a student. I know all teachers think a lot of the things that she said but this is why you don’t say it where the students can find out about it, how are they supposed to return to her class now and trust that it is a safe environment for them to make mistakes and learn? That is the issue that I have. I think it’s unfair to expect students to let themselves be vulnerable to this woman again so that they can learn when she has flagrantly abused that trust and bashed her students where they and anyone else could see it. When you are a student in a classroom you have to be able to trust that you can make mistakes in front of the instructor and have it all be okay. When teachers say, “there are no such things as stupid questions,” that may not be true but they say it because if a student doesn’t know the answer, as silly as it may be that they don’t know, they have to feel comfortable asking for help. How can any student feel comfortable with this teacher now? </p>
<p>That, and the fact that she isn’t sincerely taking an iota of responsibility for it, so I don’t believe she COULD go back to work with any semblance of the humility that is called for. She’ll say “okay so maybe my joke was inappropriate…” and then launch into an eight page monologue about how she’s right and how it’s all the parents fault for not raising their kids better. How can you expect her to go back to work and take responsibility for her actions if she is going all over the media saying it’s all the lame duck parents fault? She is acting as though this sparking a debate about the state of education had nothing to do with her and like she’s just a girl with a blog, but if you read the blog or any of her interviews that is a pile of crap! She just posted a four page commentary on just that, which is “to be continued.” I really think she is encouraging that discussion to take the heat off her so she doesn’t HAVE to take as much responsibility as she should. One look at her blog tells you that.</p>