Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

<p>Ah! Emeraldkity4! (Post #112) I am glad you agree. No one else seems to be saying this. You know we are simply giving her the weird attention that she craves.</p>

<p>She changed the url of her blog to her first and last name.com, which doesn’t exactly scream, “I don’t want attention!” to me. Now people who support her because they don’t realize that she went a LOT farther than commenting on the lack of motivation in today’s youth (since they didn’t see the blog entry)actual , will easily be able to find her blog and her most recent sermons (but, of course, not the original posts) and have their biases about the situation confirmed. Convenient, that. Woman sure does now how to put a spin on things.</p>

<p>Oh, my. She really did that? Changed her url? Wow. Well, she may have to work a little harder to keep her name in the media. Today’s local paper had nothing about her except one comment in a vent section in the editorial section where one reader said very briefly something to the effect of “enough already.”</p>

<p>Huh… I spent several minutes trying to figure out the least convoluted way to say what I was thinking, and I ended up screwing it up anyway. I meant…</p>

<p><a href=“since%20they%20didn’t%20see%20the%20actual%20blog%20entry”>quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Just in case that bit of gibberish was confusing! </p>

<p>I suppose it might make it easier to conceal the deleted blogs. I was only able to get the cached images on google to come up by googling the url of the original blog.</p>

<p>Thanks, penname. That perspective was much needed. I wondered.</p>

<p>I know a lot of frustrated teachers but most of them, actually all of them, say that the good kids make up for it all.</p>

<p>That said, I am a real beachy whale when pregnant so I think her friends should have stepped in and pointed out that pregnant was probably not the time to be blogging about this. I feel for her. HORMONES!</p>

<p>I honestly would like to know more about the teacher before making a judgement. </p>

<p>I remember in 8’th grade I had an awful teacher whose pessimism would just spread. I can clearly remember her mocking that “there were a reason why subs were subs” and just being overall vindictive. She would give detentions to the sweet boy who would lend out red pens on correction days to people who forgot theirs, and she would gladly sabotage acceptances to summer programs/private schools (It took me 2 years to figure out why I didnt get into a private school even with a 99% on the acceptance test; another family friend decided not to send in their letter for a summer program and opened it instead). Just the meanest teacher – no, person – who I have ever met in my entire life. She was bent on making others miserable, and ended up getting pneumonia, then cancer a little while after. I can remember the kids around me cheering when she got pneumonia, an awful thing to do, but even though I lacked heart to cheer alongside them I see why (and these werent even mean kids, the woman just enjoyed making others miserable). Karma I guess?</p>

<p>Assuming this is what the teacher is like (a narrow minded assumption, but what i’m judging from comments in the article), she should have been dealt with a long time ago. Crappy school district management and tenure needs to go; they need to learn to get rid of teachers who are doing a terrible job. Truth be told, there aren’t very many of these (seriously, how many people teach because its an easy job? why WOULD you teach if you didn’t love it?), but the ones that exist tend to live a full teaching career. Considering the number of amazing teachers getting laid off every year, i think we need to go for quality, not quantity of years.</p>

<p>That being said, firing her for the comments on her blog definitely is completely wrong. Its sickening to see how awful teachers are looked at and treated these days, and they need to be respected and looked upon as hero’s, not the bottommost of our society. Hopefully this will bring some change.</p>

<p>I still really don’t know how a student could be expected to feel like her classroom is a safe learning environment after she lambasted them, and their intellectual capability, in public. It’s not like she just said she didn’t like the students. Like I said in my earlier post, I would never feel comfortable raising my hand in her class again.</p>

<p>I don’t think the T should be fired but she is on very thin ice. What the T should have done if she didn’t like the S’s behavior is report it to the admin as student code of conduct issues. If the T doesn’t accept late work and it is stated in her syllabus then she should stick to her guns. If the admin doesn’t support her that is their problem not hers. If the S’s complain that is on them not her. </p>

<p>So her behavior is not justified even though the blog is/was personal. You can never insult the S’s personally and get away with it. You can critisize their behavior but not them personally. Two different things. </p>

<p>On the other hand, what she blogged about is probably true, to some extent, and she is being truthful enough to bring it in the open since many in the educ system just turn a blind eye. I think, as I’ve said, if she takes respon for her actions she can save her career but if not she is toast.</p>

<p>Oh, the educational level - or lack thereof - in primary and secondary public education is a sad sight in our country!</p>

<p>the kids fight back - rally today to show that they do not deserve the epithets. </p>

<p>[CB</a> East Students to Rally Today - Doylestown-Buckingham-New Britain, PA Patch](<a href=“http://doylestown.patch.com/articles/cb-east-students-to-rally-today]CB”>CB East Students to Rally Today | Doylestown, PA Patch)</p>

<p>This woman should be fired. Se should not be around kids unless they are her own - whom I am sure will be perfect little angels.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Haha. Most must be coming from Madison, WI. MSNBC must have placed free internet stands next to the distribution points for the cherished fake doctor notes.</p>

<p>The school board met last night and finally spoke to this issue. There is a video link within the article that is from the actual meeting. I see several of the heavy duty, hard working AP teachers from my son’s school (one of the other two schools in the district, not the one where this teacher taught) among the teachers in attendance. In fact, I see other familiar faces from my son’s years in the district. Judging by the standing ovation given by the teachers, it would seem they do not support or agree with their colleague.</p>

<p>VIDEO:
[PhillyBurbs.com:</a> Video: Central Bucks officials comment on blogging teacher](<a href=“http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times/courier_times_news_details/article/2463/2011/february/22/video-central-bucks-officials-comment-on-blogging-teacher.html]PhillyBurbs.com:”>http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times/courier_times_news_details/article/2463/2011/february/22/video-central-bucks-officials-comment-on-blogging-teacher.html)</p>

<p>ARTICLE:
[PhillyBurbs.com:</a> School board blasts media](<a href=“http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/25/2011/february/23/school-board-blasts-media-1.html]PhillyBurbs.com:”>http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/25/2011/february/23/school-board-blasts-media-1.html)</p>

<p>If you read the comments that follow the article, there is one in particular that disturbed me. When people post anonymously, they can claim anything. “WHCJ” posted the he or she was a colleague and supported her. However, the first clue that this person isn’t associated with this district was that he/she addressed the superintendent as “Mr. Laws” apparently not knowing that it is “Dr. Laws.” The grammar, spelling and syntax were appalling and, if it does happen to be a teacher who wrote as “WHCJ,” I’m glad they aren’t in this district.</p>

<p>As an East student–the one who organized and led the rally “1012mom” mentioned, in fact–I can say that we need to forget about Natalie Munroe. She had her fifteen minutes, now forget about her. </p>

<p>We only care about two things here at East:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>That she not return. Insulting students (whether specific or generalized, not one student, teacher, or administrator tolerates it) is absolutely unacceptable (not to mention her use of school computers on school time or her mockery of special needs students). Whether she broke the law is another question, and I don’t care if she continues to teacher elsewhere, but she is no longer welcome at this school. Of that I can assure you, and there’s no longer a question about whether she will return. The legal ramifications of the decision are not something I am qualified to discuss, obviously.</p></li>
<li><p>Right now, we only care about our school’s image. The rally was not about her. It was about the media’s negative portrayal of our school and our student body. We have a bad image now (because of her and her need for attention) and we only care about fixing it. A fellow student of mine uploaded a video of the rally (titled “Rally 2, PRO EAST” if you’re interested) to Youtube which makes it pretty clear that it’s our own reputation we’re worried about, not hers.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I hope everyone can appreciate the view of someone who actually knows whats going on. And I apologize if that sounds pretentious or condescending, but all of us East students are sick of people who, as I said at the rally “have never even been here. Don’t know what we’re capable of,” telling us what should happen at OUR school.</p>

<p>With so many folks having been fired or gotten into trouble for posting on the internet, this teacher had to be a bit dim not to know that she was taking this risk.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting, tedr93. It’s good to hear from you!</p>

<p>News polls seldom give appropriate choices which allow people to encapsulate what they think and feel. Chances are most people actually do think the teacher was out of line, but given only the two choices, decided to vote in her favor because they wanted to show that they sympathize in general with the plight of teachers in today’s school environment and that they agree with the fact that student behavior is truly appalling and out of control in many high schools.</p>

<p>Reviving this to suggest CC’ers read a column by Chris Lehman, a principal from Philadelphia on this topic. Can’t link to the blog, but if you google “An open letter to natalie Monroe” it should come up. The blog is named Practical theory.</p>

<p>I think he gets at the heart of why this troubles me, from the point of view of an educator, and anyone who cares about teaching and young people.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>There’s a lot more, and it ends with:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>My husband, a teacher and acquaintance of Mr. Lehman’s, pointed this out to me as the sanest thing he’s read on this topic. I highly recommend it.</p>

<p>@garland Thank you so much for posting this.</p>