Thoughts On Teaching

You won’t get rid of bad teachers until performance reviews are tied to the renewal of the teacher’s contract, but that won’t happen until the ability to dismiss teachers based solely on performance reviews over a given period of time is written into contract negotiations. The process of removing a bad teacher would be incredibly easier in that an initial complaint by a student or parent would automatically trigger a review of the teacher’s most recent performance evaluations (details don’t have to be shared, just the overall level of competency as observed by the administrator).

If it’s found to be exemplary then perhaps a conference with all parties might be in order to determine the problem, but if the review sheds some doubts as to the effectiveness of the teacher, a series of perhaps 3 or 4 reviews over the course of a few months would be warranted. At the end of that time if the teacher hasn’t shown significant improvement or genuine efforts to improve, the renewal of the teacher’s contract could then be determined solely by the administrator. Of course, this could lead to teachers being dismissed that are having “difficult” years (we all have them), or a series of unfortunate reviews among several weeks of solid teaching. To prevent this an administrator might be given the opportunity to provide manditory focused professional development for that teacher over the summer and/or coming school year. If no noticeable improvement is documented during monthly or weekly reviews then the teacher would automatically have his or her contract terminated at the end of the following year.

I know that seems like quite a lengthy process, but I think one would be needed in order to meet any demands by union officials as well as give the teacher in question enough time and opportunity to make genuine changes in his or her teaching.

Here’s how you deal with bad teachers: First you let the students know where to form the gauntlet. Then the largest male in the school grabs the bad teacher by the collar and drags his/her sorry butt through the gauntlet of jeering students and tosses them outside of the school. Because this person is a “bad” teacher they will probably be too stupid to find a lawyer much less follow up with a successful lawsuit. Problem solved.

To lessen the number of bad teachers there sholud be training courses for them and they ahve to present lesson nad get into classrooms during that training period. If the teacher proves he is fit for the job he can be recruited for a probatioary period. during bthat period h recives directions from supervisors and pays visits to more experienced teachers.there must be at least four reviews and then if he turns out to be a bad taechers the administrator can terminate him

Gaber obviously had a few bad teachers, with no less than NINE typos in one paragraph, not to mention ignorant gender classification, which is just laughable. I’m not the slightest bit PC and don’t mind reading articles referring to football players or coal miners as “he” but for goodness sakes, half the teachers in the damn country are female.

Tenure should be limited to a predetermined length of time. A 3 year or 5 year contract. The administration can choose not to renew based on a review similar to Ben’s suggestions.
Another problem here in CT is the school’s obligation to offer coaching positions to teachers over qualified men and women from outside the union system. What has grown over time at the local high school is an overwhelming mediocrity and incompetance that has resulted in a demoralized, frustrated student-athlete. This isn’t about just winning and losing-it’s about the pursuit of excellence. Something that the bad teacher/coach doesn’t understand-never did, never will.

Doe’s this make a bad teacher?

I’m a 43 year old ex video game designer and programmer. I’ve gone back to school to get back into programming and get the degree that I was to busy to get when I was writing games in the 80’s.

Asked a simple question about Pascal that we were supposed to be studying and she was teaching and was told…“I only remember anything about the last language I learnt.

I have spoken to another student who commented that he felt that she was ‘picking on him’.

To another student who asked if he could have his first term assignments back (during the third term) was told “I don’t have time to mark them”. THis has been said to atleast two students. We need the assignments for another part of our course.

On the first day of term this teacher “Made and example” of me but lambasting me for seven minutes for not apologising to her for being late infront of my fellow students. She then has proceeded to be late for almost every lesson since. the latest excuse was that she was arranging her insurance for her car.

She frequently accuses me of being rude to her when I havn’t even said anything, although her attitude has spiked me recently.

This week she arrived the customary 10 minutes late to class, then spent20 minute showing off photos to the class of her new car. Apparently its one of only 20 in the country and the only one which is cream coloured.

I was shouted at because I used a phone in the classroom. She was going to get some books from the library and I thought she had left the room.So she wasnt actually teaching

I used the phone because my data stick was faulty and the program that I had been working on for that lesson was at home. I needed to contact home to get the program sent to me.

She shouted at me at close range saying “Would you mind complying with the college requirements and not use your phone in class. This was said in such a haughty and raised voice that the whole group was made unequivocally aware of the comment. Also she put emphasis used to make it obviously interpreted to sound demeaning.

The nature and tone of this attack was specifically designed to attract the other students attention to cause maximum embarrassment.

I said under my breath “I don’t believe this (I’m 43 not 12) and she started accusing me of always being rude to her, (she heard me mutter to myself). I was so flabberghasted at the ferocity of the comments that I didnt actually say anything after that. But I took the opportunity to leave the class when she was gone and didnt return.

The other students and tutors are afraid or dont want to to get involved, after all she marks the students papers!
She was heard to say, that I have “got it in for her” in the staffroom. This is a refernce to a questionaire about teacher ability which was given to us. It was sposed to be annonymous. I answered it honestly, but it’s either not annonymous or she has assumed that I marked her down (Actually it wasnt me it was another student). After I left the class other students said that she commented that “She doesnt have a problem with any other students”.

That’s not acurrate since atleast one student has suffered a similar amount of aggrovation and the whole class complains about her lateness lack of marking papers and lack of actual computer knowlege. |Finally to rub salt into the wound she appears to take delight in freqently telling anti-male sexist jokes.

The upshot of all this is that I’m now thinking of ditching this degree course. It will mean the waste of a year of study, but I will have to put up with her for another 2 years. Based on your comments even if I did persue this officially it wouldnt get anywhere.

I dont know who to turn to or what to do and its starting to affect my work for other tutors. Comments?

I think that all bad teachers should be confonted by the administration staff and the students. It is a waste of time and mental energy to sit in a class room and endure the lecture of a bad teacher. I know from experience that bad teachers don’t change until they are confronted. I wrote a letter to the teacher and to the administrator about my experience in a college class. This opened the eyes of the staff and something is being done about it. I think that some teachers are bad because they are either burned out or do not like what they are doing. I believe that in either case, they should take a break from teaching or find another profession. They should not take outtheir frustrations out on the poor students who have to take the class in order to advance in a subject.

Pertaining to bad teachers, there are some teachers on the staff who don’t play kiss up to the administrators and other teachers. These same teachers are the ones who are set up to fail; do receive bad evaluations and are deliberately fired or non-continuation of contract, etc. Becareful, there are small politics played in schools all around the U.S. If one does his job, is perceived as proficient, earns the respect of his/her parents and students, one can still be fired or perceived as a bad teacher. One needs to be in a school to understand this. Sometimes there are schools filled with bad teachers. If a good teacher comes along, he or she is gone within two to three years. I know what I speak because I have been there. Parents please investigate your schools before you send your child to them.

i love teachers!!!!!!!

i have a teacher who suks so much our whole class hates her she is the worst teacher that has ever lived, but we don’t wont to get into trouble when we try to get rid of her. SHE SUKS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH

why do students have no choice other than complain it does nothing i think people who have trouble with teachers as above with rebecca should take matters into their own hands and play pranks on their teachers as they suggested but what are students to do because they will constantly have to worry about getting in trouble. the government does nothing but complain about our teachers but do nothing so as the childrens education gets worse our unemployment problem will get much much worse

I dont belive in bad teachers

i have prolbem with teachers who pray on students by trying to belittle them or may pick thier favrets that can get away with loosing home work or missing school and still pass this calls for a beating i will be glad to do that and
be sure to see him suffer like his prolbem students

yes, it’s difficult enough to learn as a child much less
as a qualified adult. i look younger than i am and am
surprised to realize that other think the same, i don’t go around flaunting my age but i don’t think it is a matter of
importance rather, i am paying for the classes myself and
i feel belittled and demeaned as well when a teacher believes he/she is entitled to talking to me in a “i am a
teacher and your are the student child”. i am even more offended that they themselves believe that they are no longer young students but teachers who are now adults with
jobs called instructors or professors. their head knowledge gets in the way of common courtesy because deep
down they have egos that have never matured and so believe
they are teachers they can accost anyone and however, and you tell me how many students are actually going to say
anything to the teacher before a class full of others and
if the student decides to speak in private which would
give private respect to the teacher if there is a question
or request, there is not witness except he said/she said.
so i guess grievances should be avoided with the actual
teacher unless one can gain with some certainty that words or information were only misunderstood or gauged incorrectly. otherwise the student is up a creek, loses his/her money and/or withdraws or fails the class and
has to start over…

My son is in a private school. He is a freshman and is doing rather well overall. We have one particular new teacher to our school who is out of control. Examples are she is demeaning to her students, rude, rolls her eyes when asked questions, etc. in terms of her physical behavior. Last week, she was so frustrated she yelled and pounded her hand on her desk. This is an all boy school (military academy) and she can’t keep control of the students.

Secondly, she’s not really teaching them. She gives automatic F’s assuming the student does not turn work in when in fact its misplaced in an array of paperwork. She does not discuss the homework just writes it on the board and tells the students its due tomorrow. She literally reads out of the book to the kids. I am paying 10K to homeschool my kid in English? I’m concerned because I can handle helping my son at home = no problem. But it is her negative behavior that starts his day so bad that he is starting to feel the effects emotionally. She must hate her life or hate teaching…

I have communicated with her several times via email and she is even short with me. I am about to approach our headmaster but this situation is with many students = this is a school with only 130 freshman overall. Bottom line, she has had many complaints by others and now I need to share my concerns. My son has not learned anything except how to write out vocabulary words and sentences.

What is the best approach? She is not teacher material. I expect a strict teacher but at least teach with respect. She has no respect for her students and they are loosing out and are not learning. I want her out of her position because she is not either ready or not happy. Can a teacher be fired in the middle of the school year? This is a private sector so I don’t think there is a union involved. How can I go about dealing with this. She’s the only Freshman English teacher so I can’t ask for my son to be moved to another class.

If I keep quiet, I’m concerned that his love of learning will decrease. He basically starts this day of negatively every day by 2nd hour he’s at a level of frustration and not focused. I need some help in dealing with this situation.

Thank you

The prinicpal at my childs middle school is so damn rude, nasty and loud! When you see her the first thing you ask yourself is how and the hell did she get here. We would like to report her and get her straight or have her dismissed she really is that bad! Who do we go to?

There are 638 students and 638 students want her gone as well as the parents!

Todd, Bad teachers and bad administrators are abundant in the county for which I reside. Last quarter, an unfortunate situation occured in a an algebra class where my grand-daughter is a student. All or most of the students received a grade of “c” or “D”. Both students and parents were upset but one parent organized the signing of a petition to get rid of the teacher. (Students had complained and parents were already questioning what was or may not have been going on.)
When the teacher discovered the petition, the principal was called and the students were told to report to the cafeteria. The principal berated the students and claimed that they had placed the school in jepody of being sued by the taecher for slander. The punishment for students was a Saturday class to make up loss time from class.
I decided to pay a visit to the class for at least five times, recently, in order to find out what exactly was going on. To my amazement, I discovered that not only was there little or no teaching/learning but the teacher was rude, disrespectful, annoying, intimidating, threatening, disorganized, nagging, rude, immature, and the instigator of continuous distraction. It is a cover for her lacked of the ability to teach algebra. I made a couple of attempts to speak with the principal but she was always busy and made a definite efford to avoid me when I am in the building. This week, I was informed by another employee that the teacher used a derogatory statement to refer to a females’a hair which resulted in a nose to nose shouting match between the two. The teacher wrote a suspension refferal on the child. I aked my grand-daughter what had gone on in the class and she confirmed the outrageous mishap.
I sent an email to the CEO of our schools and an investigation is in progress. Friday night, I received a call from the principal. It’s unbelievable that the principal has decided to fight to keep the teacher because the children would be without an algebra teacher because there’s a shortage of math and science teachers. She asked me to serve as her mentor. In my opinion, the principal created the distrust and the continueous choas in the class by allowing the teacher to intimidate the students as a result of the first incident.
I could use your input.

I only have one mounth untill i’m out of school but there’s some teachers in meade county high school that have a tendency to be “GREAT” role model, a lot of them smoke drink and party with the students. There teachings are wrong, and people are wondering why alot of this generation doesn’t want there career to follow in teaching. What can i do for the students that have no choice than to just ignore all of it?

I am from a small community. The teachers we have at our school have been here for ages. They even tought my parents. The problem I have is that they wont to stay on the PC and play their games. When I walk up to a desk for help they tell me to take a seat. I ask a fellow class mate a simple question I was lectured for the remainder of the class period. I was once given a lecture by a science teacher, saying that the word “BELLY” was an ugly word.
Here’s the problem with reporting to our administration, their all good friends with the teachers or marring them.What do you do?

I have one big problem my english teachers mean and she kicks kids out of class for no apprent reason.

(1) I do my home work, I do my in class work{Teacher says its not good enoughf}

(2) The teachers mean {dosent say plese and thank you}

(3) is a complet old person whos a good english teacher but shes to strict.

{I would write more but im at school}

Plz Emial me and talk to me on msn. [email address removed]

{Is for both email and msn}

My son is a Freshman and is taking Algebra I. He is a good student who is in pre-college courses and makes A’s and B’s.
He had a 71 on his progress report and went to the counselor asking to be removed from his Algebra class because he was unable to learn from his teacher and she had a uniform answer when asked to explain a problem-”refer to your notes”. Her “notes” consist of one example of each type of problem in the lesson and she goes over it as she writes it onto the board for the students to copy. She doesn’t go through practice problems to see if the students can apply the concept to other problems. The counselor told my son that he was passing, so “hang in there”. “Hanging in there” and continuing to not understand and not receive the help he needed resulted in a 58 on his report card and ineligibility for sports. My first instinct was to be angry over the sports thing, but what she is doing- or not- isn’t teaching. It’s ludricous. I met with the principal, counselor, and the teacher where the teacher stormed out of the meeting and slammed the door. Now I am also concerned over the display of anger. I am trying to go through all the proper channels, but what will it really accomplish?

Theres a teacher at our school and he always gets thigns wrong and we all hate him. He wants us all to be his slaves and makes us do everything exactly right. He writes down everything in his book and is obssessed in proving us wrong. He wont ever listen to us and he never shuts up.
I hate him soo much.

Loads of us want to get him sacked but whenever we tell our tutors bout him they say theyre gonna have a word with him but nothing ever happens he just gets worse.

Helpp
Frazaa

I’m a junior in film school and this semester I am taking my first film production course. I was so excited to start film production as I have only done video work so far. This course is the foundation for all other work I will do not only in college but in my career to come. Needless to say, it’s very important.

I took the only section of the class that was still available when it was my turn to register, and the professor had been called boring but nothing worse. I can deal with a boring teacher, as long as they teach me the required material.

She has turned out to be the worst teacher I’ve ever had. I tried to be understanding at the beginning as her husband seems to be having a great deal of health problems, but this is getting ridiculous! She’s cancelled at least 6 classes, wastes time in class with writing assignments (it’s a production course, we have other REQUIRED classes for writing), drones on in lectures about nothing at all… for instance: When she taught us how to use the editing equipment, she simply named all the parts and showed us how to load our film. I then went to do my editing assignment, and realized I had no idea what I was doing! Many people in the class used the wrong splicers and ended up cutting their film diagonally.

Her syllabus has been changed four times, and in no revision does it explain assignments or prooperly tell us when they’re due. I’ve had to email her incessantly about every assignment so far. The first one, we emailed back and forth at least a dozen times simply so that I could understand the assignment specifics. Then she gave me a C! And the only reason she stated for the grade was that it was not what she wanted from the assignment! I spoke with her about my grade, but she was completely passive aggressive about the whole thing, and then sent me a one sentence email basically stating that she would do nothing!

We had another professor come and substitute for her on one of the days she cancelled, and I learned more from him in that one day than I’ve learned from her all semester!

I’m not the only one in the class frustrated. We all talk every day about how awful she is. But I seem to be the only one who will actually confront her about my frustrations, and from what I’ve discovered from other students, I am the only one who got a C on that assignment. And there were others who didn’t follow her “specifications.”

I’ve scheduled another meeting with her, but I don’t know what good it will do. She’s only part-time faculty and apparently she was banned from teaching one of the upper level film courses.

Hey,
If only teachers could get rid of “bad” students or “bitter” parents. Shall we live in the world of The Giver.

You might ask yourself why does a teacher need to “control” a class? I guess manners are simply a thing of the past.

Put on your big person pants and grow up!

I am very concerned about this topic and feel helpless as a parent. Every year I go to back-to-school night and spot the 1 or 2 crazy teachers I know will make life miserable for the coming year. They cannot maintain a sane demeanor or refrain from outbursts for 20 minutes in front of adults. I shudder to think what children are subjected to when these teachers are in their God-like position in the classroom.

I try to tell my kids that they will have bosses like this or they won’t have this teacher forever or just do the best you can. In the meantime we all feel depressed, frustrated, helpless.

I found it’s dangerous to complain or even query a teacher. Teachers in departments like Language or English talk to each other and your child will be on the next teacher’s hit list.

I have spent my day off work worrying myself into a tither. All year my son who is in grade 6 has been telling me how awful his teacher makes him feel. She yells and centers him and other students out. My son has TS and it is difficult calm him down after a day at school. I have been in contact with both the teacher and principal by phone ( them calling me) and even went in for meetings to try to open up the communication better. I have often told my son to just keep up the good behaviour and that soon school will be out for the summer or that it will soon be the weekend. But, yesterday I went on a school trip with the 2 grade six classes. The teacher seemed to find every opportunity to correct the students in my group, including my son. And a few times myself. It was french trip and I spent most of the time translating to students that only have had 1 and 1/2 years of french. I found them eager to learn and very well behaved. I guess she saw something else. I must have jump out of my skin at least 20 times when ever the teachers felt it nessacary to yell at the students. By the end of the day I was anxious and depressed and a few times felt that I should just say something but I didn’t feel it was apropriate time or place. Or that it would be a good example for the students. If I felt that in one day how do they these students and my son feel every day? My son said it would have been worse if I wasn’t there.I know some of the other parents feel this too. How can I make this easier on my son. Or my two daughters that will one day have these teachers too. I feel helpless.

Hi Elizabeth,

It’s true these teachers go on & on unhindered. They have no interest in their profession or in your kids (except as torture victims). In any other job they would be canned, but not the holier-than-thou protected teaching profession.

Teaching is a power trip. There are no peers in the classroom to tell you you’re wrong or to question your behavior.

My child is in 6th grade too. It’s her last year of innocent childhood before she becomes a cynical 7th-grader.
It’s an important year, she’s changing a lot. What she doesn’t need is a discouraging, belittling teacher to make her hate school and give up on her studies.

Good teachers make such a difference. They’re interested in teaching. The child responds with A+ work! In my experience they’re in the majority, but the horrible other ones never get weeded out.

I called my daughter’s teacher & predictably she didn’t return the call. (She announced to the class that she hates it when whiny parents call and complain that their child is failing.)

I made the next step and talked to the principal. He was supportive. We will have a conference after the break.

Dear troubled Parent,
I hope your conference goes well with the principal. I had a few meetings with the principal as well. I didn’t feel it solved anything. I had the feeling that she is already aware how the teachers are. She asked my son if he has bad days where he feels grouchy or that nothing is going right. She said that teachers have those days too. My answer to that is. Every day? She did seem very supportive of my son though. And said he could talk to her any time. The trouble is she won’t be at this school next year anyway. She is the fourth principal since my son started school in SK. I have a feeling that there isn’t a whole lot we can really do as parents. It is funny though, our kids spend a big part of their lives at school. Most of us wouldn’t just let any adult babysit their kids. You usually screen people. You are paying them so you expect that they will treat your kids good. And I’m am sure, we are always looking for signs and talking to the kids to make sure they are adjusting well. If your babysitter is miss treating your children, do you keep them as a babysitter because a good one is hard to find? Or do you find someone else? You are in control of who is watching your children. Why, as parents do we not have that same right when it comes to teachers. I tell you, if I could, I would home school my children. I respect that it is a very difficult job to be a teacher. At times my own house can become busy just with three children. I could not imagine a class full on a daily basis. But that is why I am a nurse not a teacher. If I treated my patients or their families that way I would loose my job for sure. Even if there is a shortage of nurses. I feel very bad for these children. I was very fortunate to having wonderful teachers all the way through school. I guess times have really changed.

Yellow all,
The way I see it, like any job or line of work you have your good and you have your bad workers. I would say the majority of teachers and administrators are good people just trying to do their job and get by. But make no mistake the bad ones are out there. If you have the audacity to question why some of these “bad” teachers or administrators
did what they did to your child, they immediatly go into the defensive mode and act like you called their mother a dirty name. Administrators tend to give the benefit of the doubt to thier bad teachers and back what they did no matter how unprofessional or outragous to cover up the perception that they are not doing thier job.
Now I’m not talking about the “bad” teachers who have sex with students or get high. I’m talking about the ones who are more subtle in thier acts of control over students.
They make claims against students with no proof. You as a parent deny these claims back with no proof. Itendsup being a tie as far as proof goes, but the school wins all ties.
The teaching profession likes to put out the perception that all teachers are these hard dedicated professionals who love thier work and do for the “kids”.
I disagree. Maybe five percent does. Lets see, they get three months off in the summer. Nights and weekends off, all the holiday’s off. They basically work approx. 180 days
a year. I think most are there to put their time in, do a job and go home like most of us. Don’t try to make them out to be anything different.
However, a teachers incompetance, immaturity,low self-esteem and pettyness can cause a lot of heart ache for a kid. Just my two cents.

Todd,
Being a former teacher you should know how the system works not how its supposed to work. I see the advice you give people on here concerning problems with teachers and your main theme in every instance is go up the chain of command. This might work once in a while but probably is a feeble attempt most of the time. Most of those teachers and administrators are in bed with each other and cover each others back. If you question these people on most anything they get defensive and are theatend by someone exposing them for not doing their jobs. The one thing I will agree with you on is getting other parents involved. If you fight solo they will ignore you. If you do it in a group you’ll get someone’s attention.
As far as your defending the hard work teachers do by saying this “Most teachers go home to grade work or plan for the next unit/lesson,weekends too”, You must live in a dreamworld. Alot of teachers do work during the summer
(almost 3 months off), to make extra money for when they go to florida the following year when thet get two weeks off for spring break. Do you think they are planning lessions then? I’m sure there are teachers out there who spend all these extra hours doing this “work”. Most of these probably
don’t have much of a social life or need all this extra time because they are incompetant. Sorry if I offend you.

Yes I do know some teachers. My friend’s brother teaches jr.
high history. He said he uses the same lesson plan every year. You won’t catch him “planning for the next lesson” at night or on the weekends. He gets his work done at school.
Does this make him a bad teacher? I don’t know. He seems to have a good reputation and gets along with the kids. He does not appear to have any self-esteem issues. If he treats students with respect and they have a good experience from his class plus learn a little history to boot, from that standpoint he probably is a good teacher. I realize you would get away with this more than other subjects. In my opinion, Math is the most important subject as we all use it ever day to some degree. This would be followed by English. Learning how to express you is very important in this world we live in today. After this probably science.
I know a number of teachers. I must say most of the ones I know are “good” teachers. But how do you really judge that? In my school district a teacher with 15 years in can make $40to $50 K a year. That’s with an excellent retirement program. Their pay is spread out to where they get paid every two weeks, year round. Like I said before, nights and weekends off, all holidays and snow days off. If they are working at nights or on the weekend as you claim, its their choice. I don’t consider checking papers while you’re setting on the couch watching Grey’s Anatomy hard work. I guess it comes down to what your definition of hard work is.
We shouldn’t characterize teachers and the teaching profession as something its not.
The powerful teachers union spreads this propaganda. At one time unions were very important to the American worker in this country. Now they spend a lot of their time protecting the bad and incompetent teachers. Someone should make a video, you know like the series “girls gone wild”.
Call it “teachers gone bad”.
The problem with this profession is when a teacher is bad , doesn’t get the study material in a kids head, belittles a kid in front of other kids for immature reasons and worst of all punishes
A kid through out the year for minor infractions, these are the subtle things that chips away at a kids self-esteem and can cause permanent damage.
In retrospect , I really shouldn’t generalize when I talk about bad teachers. Most of the teachers I’ve come across in the last 30 years have been good people. It’s the few bad apples that I direct my distaste. I can tell just by you coming on this board and commenting like you do that you “care” and are one of the good teachers. The Problems with the schools and the world in general nowadays is no one respects other people like they should. Just my 2 cents

Things are getting worse for my son, not better. According to my son the more I intervien on his behalf the worse things get for him. I guess teachers don’t like to be educated on Tourette’s Syndrome. He feels constantly humilliated in front of his peers. Humilliated. I feel this represents a violation of Ethical Standards of Educators. Are there such standards, like in nursing? I feel teachers should respect the inherent dignity and worth of each student. Embarassment and humiliation has no role in a classroom because such behaviour does not support the growth and development of the students. Although my son may not be blamelesss in terms of behaviour, I feel he is emotional damaged by the careless and thoughtless remarks of his teacher. Such ethical violations will never result in improvemed behaviour or an enhanced learning environment. I think I read that some where. I don’t feel there is anything that can be done. My children will be attending a public school next year. Does this mean the teacher won? I still feel most teachers do an exceptional job and put a in lot over time above and beyond their expected duties or what funding allows. But their are always exceptions that even make the good look bad.

Elizabeth,
It takes a special person to deal with a special needs child. The teacher your dealing with might not be a bad teacher or a bad person. He/she just might not have the patience,personality or emotional maturity to handle a child with this problem. People get these teaching degrees and specialize in special education not really knowing what they are getting into. If you don’t realize it by now, you are the only one who has your child’s best interest in mind.
There will be teachers,administrators and a host of other people out there who “feel” for you and want to help, but most will only do or say this if it doesn’t interfere with thier best interest. Don’t waste your time and energy feeling bad about yourself,mad at the teacher, mad at the school or feel inadequate about yourself or taking anything personal. Life has thrown you a curve ball and you got to hit Just my 2 cents.

Todd,
Getting back to you. I am not a teacher. I cannot prove that teachers when they go home at night feel like singing that Donna Summers song “She works hard for the money” The only things I base my views on is from talking to a few teachers and what I have observed over the last twenty years. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this point. You are correct however about getting back onto the topic. You are also correct in saying it seems like I have an axe to grind. I do. My negativity lies against school administrators more than teachers. At least in my case, the pompous and arrorgant attitude of these so called
“educators” that I have had to deal with is truly mind boggling to me. Like with most tax payer funded entities, its hard to fight against or find someone who is accountable for thier actions or the actions of peolple underneath them. I have been reading and “investagating”
alot websites concerning education,student rights and the “cottage” organizations, (NAESP,NASSP,NHS and a few others the last two years. The common theme I found by going to these sites and other forums such as this is that the majority of people who post on these sites such as this(95%), do so cause of problems they had with a school.
Now getting back to your question, which by the way is the smart approach to take concerning this whole mess, is what is to be done about it?
The high school my daughter goes to has close to 2000 students attending. When there is a PTA meeting about 20-30 people show up. When there is a board meeting, same amount.
Apathy abounds. Is it the parents fault? Yes. Is it the systems fault? Yes also. Living in the society we do now a days breeds this disconnection. Most families have both parents working. Most,(note the use of the word most), parents don’t have the time or the energy to get involved.
The Administrators at the schools would like everyone to believe that they would really like all the parents to get involved but they really don’t.That would take away from thier control over what goes on. I will give my suggestion for a fix in my next post. Later Gator:)

Todd,
Good morning, As far as my casual statement above, I was just trying to give this woman a different perspective on her situation. I could of worded it differently but it probably is not appropriate for this board. This woman is apparently in distress about her situation. What “advice” would you give her, “Go up the chain of command”? Yeah that always works.

To answer your question:
1. Fingerprint and do background checks on every teacher.
Put this info in a national data base so every school in this country can access it. This will keep bad teachers from just moving from one school district to another.
2. Increase the probationary period (tenure)for teachers from one two to five years.(like California is trying to pass).
3. Make it easier for school districts to fire teachers once they have tenure.
4. Have the school board establish a committee of three people from the private sector (could be parents)and two people from school system (could be teachers or administrators). This group would act as a arbitrator in dispute between a parent and the school. If a parent cannot resolve an issue by going up the “chain of command” as you put it, they then could submit a ruling by this board. This
board could meet every two weeks.
5. If a teacher or a administrator is “caught” retaliating
against a child for a dispute that the child or the parent
brought forth, they should be suspended without pay for a week. If it happens again they should be fired. No doubt this would be a hard thing to prove, but just knowing it could happen would be an effective deterrant.
6. Find a way (I’m not sure what to base it on), to evaluate the performance of a teacher and how good they are at what they do. Once this criteria is established, Give a bonus to the ones who meet it and take money away from the ones who don’t.
7. Have the school district bring in speakers once a year to talk to the teachers about how important thier jobs are and how to act in a professional and unbiased way towards students. Point out the fact that thier salary comes form the taxpayers. Make attendance to this mandatory.
8. Any teacher or administrator who knowlingly and repeatedly belittles and puts down a child should be put in a locked room and beaten with a baseball bat by a parent and or someone they designate to do it for them. (I volunteer).
Well, what do you stink?

More suggestions:
Make parents more accountable and responsible for their childs education.
Revamp the current school curriculum. Do away with physical ed classes. It’s a waste of time.
Leave it up to the parents to see to it that their kids get exercise after school or on the weekends.
Limit time watching tv or playing video games. Monitor your own kids nutrition. Demand that your child spend a minimum one hour a day studying homework or reading. If a parent does not follow this for whatever reason and their child becomes fat and lazy that’s their problem, not the teachers, administrators or any body else.
Limit the amount of electives that a student must take. Too much time is wasted in school on subjects that are not going to benefit most kids in their life. Art, music and other electives of this type should be available on a limited basis and only available to students who have great grades. The students doing bad in the important subjects should spend more time on the important subjects.
Have students spend two hours a day in math class. This is the most important. English is next.
Throw in science and social studies, somewhere in there. Don’t make language mandatory. If someone wants to learn a language and their grades are real good let them.
In ninth grade make two subjects mandatory. 1) public speaking and 2) personal finance.
Teach kids how to stand up in front of people and learn to speak. This will help their self-esteem
And serve them all their life. Maybe if kids would learn to communicate better, they would get
Along with their teachers better and stop potential problems before parents or administrators
Needed to get involved.
Personal finance. Teach kids the value of money. Show them how to balance a check book. Show them how they are getting screwed paying 21 per cent interest on a credit card. You know, stuff they’ll need and use in real life.
Make any sport or other activity that is exclusive and not available to all students , Pay to Play.
If I think of anymore ideas I will post them. I know how much everyone hear looks forward to my comments. Good day.

One of my kids had an awful teacher. I thought perhaps it was the kid having some attitude problems — but then I tried to meet with the teacher — very difficult to do so — next I heard her say some outrageously unkind things publicly. I about fell out of my chair. I found myself standing up and shouting at her. My kid got moved out of her class the next day. Other parents weren’t so lucky. So, what did I learn? Being a prickly parent (leave off the -ly as needed) got results. No more submissive nice guy for me.

I do try to be compliementary of the many dedicated teachers my kids have had. Those people do NOT get paid enough.

Elizabeth, there are LOTS of ways to learn. A teen who is happier at home can earn a high school diploma on line these days. You can also march into your school and TELL them that you want your son enrolled parttime and you will homeschool the rest.

I wish students everywhere were given a chance to give a consumer review at the end of each semester. It doesn’t have to be a teacher cruxificition. It could simply be “What did you like about this course?” “What could have been done better?”

Lastly, I highly encourage parents everywhere to be part of a school parent organization, however anemic it might be. A lot of times you can find a parent who is sending his/her fourth child through the system and these wily veterans know much that is helpful. Want the Wonderful Ms. W for math instead of the horrid Ms. H? Make sure you help in the school office during May . . . etc.

I have been teaching now for 8 years. I teach music, and feel very lucky to sit at the piano everyday and share with thousands of kids a passion and art form that has been around since the dawn of man. I never really fit in among ‘real’ teachers as they are called, but according to the 5000 kids that have gone throgh my program, I change alot of lives and help people to see the greater good of open communication and the power of learning about the world through suspending beliefs. The courage it takes for a 13 year old boy to stand among 350 of his peers, 1200 people in the audience, and sing from his heart is something that cannot be measured on a test, argued about on a website, or even understood by most people who choose not access their creative and higher self. I wont lie, I am embarrassed often to be with some of these other teachers. The way I look at it is like this: I think a good teacher is someone who can earn a living with their skills even if the schols system did not exist. Meaning, we should attract the people who are editing books, inventing, studying science, building skyscrpapers, etc. although this might seem far fetched, sometimes I realized that my abilities are not being compensated for compared to the rest of the country. The harder I work, the more difficult things become. Im fun, happy,positive, caring, talented, eager, motivated, and because of that, my chorus has grown from 60 to 350 in 5 years. Sounds cool except I get no help and have had health problems that everyone ignores since no one seems credible to handle success in the schools. So this sumer I will be opening a private school and a with parents backing my financially, I have the potential of earning 200k while still having my summers off. The teachers in my school hate me. Dont believe me? The following are statements said to me by administration and fellow teachers. Im not crazy, but something isnt right-

Greg, teachers have complained to me that your too happy

Greg, the more you do, the more everyone will expect from all the other teachers

(when asked to lie to the 425 kids and their parents) Its not lying, its called being political.

Greg, the music your singing is too……..um…too…um …………….BLACK !

Well, if I dont let alot of this go and just feel sorry for people who feel so stuck that their unhappiness bleeds out to everyone, including the poor kids, Ill go nuts. Its easy to point fingers, but our teachers, our politicians, our cops, our society, is just a reflection of itself. America is a lazy place, with narcissitic relationships in which its everyman for himself. Kids arent dumb. They see that as well. what we need more than anything, is to come together over issues like children, so that there well being can be nurtured, not protected from liability in the court of law.

THE SYSTEM NEEDS HELP FIRST-I always asked myself why is it that I need to have a masters degree to teach singing, when a cop doesnt have to go to college and he has the right to end a human life.

Mosy of us argue so aggressivly but some havent dug into the past. We let a bunch of irrogant and pushy settlers create our schools, who by the way, owned, beat, and raped human beings. Our forefather should be respected, but Im sure they had no idea what the growth would be in this country and what need there would be for increased intellectual understanding. Lets face it, school is aloy of wasted time. The knowledge we learn half the time is only good fro being a teacher and reteaching it. Aside from good reading and writing skils, basic math, and socialising, everything else should be learned in the upper years as the student sstrengths could be identified and he could be pushed in tht direction.

I cant see my keyboard and im so so tired I must go. I know this is choppy and scattered, but it felt good. i have a feeling there might some backlash coming to me.

I say love the kids, and they will believe they can do anything. it works for me over and over every year.

Greg, excellant post. You sound special :)

Thank you Blaine. I have a huge smile on my face. I cant believe all the typo’s. I was beat when I wrote it.

Blaine, I think everyone has a little ’special’ in them. I learned that there’s a way to get thousands of young people to see it in them as well. When i read the argument between you and todd, I noticed that actually both sides are very accurate ( I mean the facts, not any attacks on character) But, what are we to do? The one thing that destroys our atmosphere at school are any adults who’s image of there own abilities is to low. This is very common as they have fallen into the trap of feeling unimportant, under paid, under valued, and other self defeating mind sets. Although this can happen in any profession, teachers like this can ‘poison’ a class, or even worse, 35 consecutive years of classes. The young grow to be active members of our society with the memories of a leader (the teacher) being ‘weak’ or unable to portray an image( and live it as well), of a proud, caring, hard working contibutor to the minds and hearts of the world. But, I must say, the system doesnt allow for common sense, proper spending of tax mney to help kids learn and grow, nor any other sensible action on behalf of these young people. It sucks. Schools think that music is so unimportant to a childs development, it doesnt need to be funded. And we all know that this happens in alot of towns across the world. WHAT i find odd is that if there is no support, no money, poor accomidations, broken instrumnets, and so on, WHY hasnt that time been replaced with a new idea to enhance kids learning? If it cant be agreed on, why let what exists implode from the inside out? Becuase, tis is where everything you talked about Blaine comes in. The unions, the bitterness, the largely female collective ego, which is often very melancholly as opposed to the male which may be a bit agressive, and you have a self destructive, self efeating cycle that no one dear talk about. What makes me the most unhappy is this: Evrytime I have approached a teacher and asked why they stay in this job, they ALL mention how much time they dont have to be at work. Getting out at 2:35, summers off. Thats what they have told themselves repeatedly in their minds is the reason they go to be with kids everyday. They dream of not being there. I hate that.
I knew as young boy that all i wanted most out of my life, was to be remebered. I remeber openingbooks and reading in class about such important men like Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Einstein. I can recall wondering why the world lifted these men to such heights as if they were not equal. I knew then that I would live my life trying to change the things I dont like, helping people in need, and rather selfishly, creating wealth for myself in the meantime. Of course, now I understand I left out great health.

Good teachers are in there, but when your good, you get nothing except a raised level of expectations to be measured by throughout yor career and no financial, or any other kind of benefits. I was once told this line-

Well Greg, your a victim of your own success…….only in schools would being sucessful and being victimised be related. Teachers are often quite versed in the info, but the transfer to student is a tiring and emotional one, so its in that area I feel that most training should center.

I have reminded teachers that without emotion, students learnig is all short term or reguritated test answers. If you create a passionate approach, the kids cant help but be enthralled at whatever is happening in that room. Think about it..ever major fact you learned was in alignment with an emotion For example:

The holocaust- the horrible mental images this creates make most people EMPATHISE with the victims and therfore a passionate re-telling can happen by most everyone in the world

The alphabet- Everyone learns these 26 hyrogliphic icons in a song form. the rhythm lend itself to the syllables very well, and we all learn 26 rather odd looking and weird sounding figures before we can even go to the potty by ourselves. It was made fun!

etc etc

BLAH BLAH BLAH.. ill shut up now. I think i broke my soap box.

Im going to Marthas Vineyard to write my memoirs and more about schools. Any other teachers out there who feel like I do?

‘NIght greg

Nothing will ever change :(

Ay wonderfull comments thank, here’s the update. My sons teacher basicly told me that my son has mently problems and needs to be on medication. Wow! Every parent wants to here that. My son went back to the Pediatrician, spoke with a Nurse Practicioner and saw a social worker in the last 5 days.He was very brave. And very consistant with his feelings. I heard the same things from all three professionals. Is she a doctor? This is a personalality conflict. I need to educate the teacher and pricipal. Let them know that this is not exceptable behaviour on there part. My son is a straight B+ student and deserves a good education just as much as the next. Summer here we come! Blaine although you have very good sugestions I feel that P E classess are very importannt, as recess is. Most adults can not sit still for hours consecutively with out a break and still concentrait. A variety of learning is very important and sometimes taking it out of the classroom and adding some fun to learning is most effective.

Beth,
Hope things work out for your kid. There is some truth in what you said as far as PE classess go. Maybe more so in grade school than high school, I don’t know. So many kids graduate now and don’t know how to figure out what the final price is on an item that is on sale. I’ve been bird dogging these kind of web sites for over two years now venting my frustrations about my bad experiences with a few teachers and administrators at my kid’s high school. My main ax to grind was the arrogance some of these people had.
I shouldn’t generalize like I do. I have a perception in my head about how things really are but I don’t have any proof or anything. I probably don’t know what I’m talking about.
My kid graduated this year so I will probably give up my quest to badmouth our educatetors. I will move on. To quote a line from JC superstar “Once I was inspired but now I’m
sad and tired”. Good luck and God bless America!

I’m in 8th grade, taking 9th grade math, and I have this really annoying math teacher. It’s not that she’s horrible at techer; she gets us through the assignment and she really is very good at teaching math in comprehensive, understandable manner. It’s mostly the fact that she forces us to repeat the followin words at the beginning of every class: “We LOVE math!” I, for one, hate math. Just because I’m in advanced math doesn’t mean that I like it, and I wish she’d realize this (I’ve just recently found out that her actions are illegal; she’s not allowed to impress her opinion on us). The other annoying, and admitidally, worrying, thing is that, after every New York State test so far this year, she has somehow managed to get the schedule changed so that her advanced math class meets as one. This is a good idea in principle, until you realize that there’s a 10th grade biology class I’m in, and this class doesn’t get to meet. She even did this after the last state test we took (Social Studies), when the Biology Regents (that’s an ENORMOUS test) was less than two weeks away, whereas the Regents in her class isn’t until next January. I’m simply looking for a way to get the courage up to confront about these things, and possibly get them resolved.

Todd,

After each state test, the teacher whose subject the test is in gets the rest of the day off–in theory, to grade the stae tests, but nobody ever finishes in that amount of time. Because each teacher already has a prep period in our school, we simply travel around with the class that we have that period (For example, the 8th grade social studies teahcers have 2nd period off, so we traveled around with our 2nd period class after the stae social studies test). Anyway, my math teacher somehow managed to get the schedule fiddled with so that her advanced math class met after every stae test–even the math one. I’m honestly not sure how she managed to convince the district administrators to do that! I will try your suggestions and get back to you on them, but obviously not until at least Monday. And regarding some of your other comments, I agree with you that she’s got her heart in the right spot, but sometimes I think that she might overlook the value of subjects other than math.

P.S. This goes out to anyone who read my above post: Sorry about the spelling mistakes. It was late, and I was worried about a clarinet audition I had the following day.

A lot of “bad teaching” stems from the fact that teachers are so exhausted all of the time. I spend 30% of my day teaching; 40% of my day grading papers and entering grades into the required electronic database; 10% of my day planning my lessons; 20% of my day printing, photocopying, stapling, hole-punching, putting up excellent student work and filling out forms. Clearly these ratios are off.

There are many days where I’m tempted to just pop in a DVD, or have a study hall, or give some BS worksheet so that I can sit down and do all the other work that I have to do. We’ve all had lessons that require less teacher involvement by neccessity (tests, class presentations). Those days are so luxurious– it’s easy to see how someone with a low work ethic (and who is not bothered by the fact that the children entrusted to their care aren’t getting a good education) could fall into a pattern of doing very little.

It seems like a lot of the work that a teacher does could actually be done by an assistant– someone who doesn’t neccessarily need a high level of training. It also seems like a lot of the exhaustion from teaching is due to worrying about classroom management. An assitant could also help in that arena.

my history teacher is so disorganized. She lost half of our summer assignments, did not give back any tests, and averages our grades wrong. She gave me a 75 instead of a 90 on my report card, which is obviously a mistake. Help!

okay so…my science teacher is absolutely horrible! When I get out of science class every day I think to myself and ask myself what I had learned that day. DO you know what my answer is..? every single day of my life…NOTHING! I do not know one person in my school who likes her! She cannot teach and she even admitted to us one day that she did not know what she was doing. She gets in our faces when we dont do something the way she wants it done. And when you walk in her classroom it smells like a mixture of smoke and dead animals. When she yells she literally gets in YOUR FACE and you can smell the smoke on her breath! I could go on and on about a great teacher EVERYONE LOVESSSSSS HIM! and he went on administrative leave because of this horrendus teacher. SHe she be the one leaving!So now everyone at our school and their parents are protesting because this is really messed up and she should be gone. Not one person in our school likes her…yet she is still hear? I dont know why. We have sent complaints to the principle and the district office about how she curses in class, how she walks around barefoot, how it smells like dead pig in her classroom, and how not one person learns a thing when we leave her classroom! It is aboslulutely disturbing to sit in a class with a teacher like that, trying to learn, and all she is doing is making it worse.

Greg,

How refreshing to see someone that is good all around. YOu know how to listen to the good and how to give good back into the world.
I’m an enthusiastic teacher….and I to have received the looks of disapproval from other teachers because I’m so happy teaching and learning science. I absolutely love it!

Last year an older teacher and the pricipal (best friends..apparently) ganged up against me and tried to discourage me. I got written up for leaving scissors on a table in my LOCKED room. Oh..and for having beakers drying on paper towels two days in a row. The only thing I could think was that these people have no clue that I use beakers during labs and that they have to be cleaned. Anyways…there are many more absurd things that the older teacher had done. The principal has since left…but I still have a sadness in my heart because I see the older teacher everyday.
She told other teachers that I has “punched her in the face”…or “grabbed her by her wrist”. Fortunately, I work where several people know me…. I don’t even let my students step on an ant if it’s in the room….we pick it up and put it outside. I would never in my dreams punch someone in the face. I just feel sorry for her and the people who believe her. Apparently she lost a lot of friend over that comment. Anyways…I was happy (kind of in a weird way) to see that someone else with PASSION and LOVE for this type of career had lived through some bad uncomprehensible stuff and still MARCHES on.
Since my “bad” year…I decided to not give this bad person anymore of my energy. Instead I put a million more amps into my teaching and my students. I have found that she tried to “one up” me…..but what she doesn’t realize is that I love it because it is FINALLY helping our students. I pray for her every night and people like her. IT’s NOT easy being a teacher…IT’s NOT easy always turning the other cheek…(no matter how ludicrous the actions against you) ..It’s NOT EASY! But you know what? The energy you put in…is the energy you get out. If you bust your bum focusing on the postive and doing good…you begin to see just that…and you begin to get just that back. Even the crazy comments made by bad people can then be used to improve yourself….to make changes…to continue learning. Bad exists so that those of us that are good..KNOW without a doubt what good is. Bad is needed…otherwise we’d have no reason to improve ourselves. It took me a lot of thinking and crying and yeesh!…lot’s of time to get to that.
So..anyways…GREG…..I’m so glad to see that YOU are good. You can see the bad…but you didn’t allow yourself to lower your standards to be suckered into it. You held your ground and now you’re probably happier than ever!

:)

KUDOS!

-cc

Bad teachers are like bad doctors and even the good doctors and good teachers will not go after the bad ones. If you go to a doctor and say Dr. so and so cut off my left arm and he was suppose to cut the right one off. The doctor response with something like he was probably doing you a favor as you were probably going to have something go wrong with that other arm anyway. You find the same thing with teachers. If your child has a bad teacher most of the other teachers look the other way and don’t want to admit there is a problem. I have had my children endure some of the worst teachers and after having been a mom for 24 years and four kids in various stages of public school I have seen it all. I just attended a parent teacher conference for my child yesterday. We are currently having her tested for an auditory problem (no hearing in her left ear at all) all three of the team teachers are aware of this and the history of her hearing problems. 1. Still she sits with her bad ear towards the teachers. 2. Two of those teachers took her to task for not knowing what she is suppose to be doing in class, even though they have been repeatedly asked to go to her and ask if she understands or give her written instructions she can refer to. 3. One of them told her if they saw her sitting in her desk waiting for help and not knowing what to do because she could not here the instructions they were going to take away her recess. 4. One of the teachers repeatedly said to her this is what the smart kids in the class do and showed her examples of what other students do always refering to them as the smart kids. Go figure she must be the smart teacher. As they went through her check list of how she felt she was doing in class, if she put a yes I think I am doing well, they scratched out her answers and said no you need to do better. This continued on with one bad comment after another. Until my 9 year old began to sob, got up and put her arms around me and just cried. These teachers were putting down a child who had almost no hearing K, 1st 2nd and grade. She had had teachers who just ignored her problem until she reached 3rd grade where she had a teacher who was both a blessing and a nightmare. She was a blessing in that she was the first teacher to take the ime to help about my daughter and believed that she could learn. When I said she was capable of learning to read and write and do math as she was not taught much in 1st and 2nd except by us at home. She went into 3rd grade reading at a 2nd grade level and left reading at a 4th grade level. But she was a nightmare because with her teaching came the taunting and mean spritedness of making her feel less of a person. If my daughter came home and told me the teacher said or did something unkind the teacher would respond to me that she was lying or in fact making up the incident. This happened several times over small issues and I knew that the teacher was lying but as many of the other students would confirm what my daughter had told us. It finally culminated into a big horrible thing when one day the teacher lost control of herself and picked up my daughters desk and drug it to the middle of the room and dumped out the contents and then made her get her back pack and dump it out as well and told her to get on the floor and find her homework. Home work that my daughter had tried to give her the day before and she refused to take it and then my daughter had put it in the wrong folder and could not immediately find it. The other students in the class said she only gave her about 2 minutes of looking before she dumped out the desk. What a way to show a class of 8 year olds how to behave. She is the worlds best example of an ASS. If her boss had walked into a meeting she was having with her peers and demanded a report or something she had been asking for and that teacher could not immediatley find it. She would have never thought it appropriate had her boss dumped out her desk and briefcase and told her to get on the floor and find the work. And as an adult she would have had the luxury to walk away. My child did not have that luxury as she would have gotten in trouble. This teacher lied to me and the pricipal about the incident but luckily several of the 3rd graders were upset and went to the pricipal to tell her what really happened. This teacher agreed to appologise to my daughter and to a few of the students who had complianed, but she sent me an e-mail saying that although she would say she was sorry she still supported her reasons for doing what she did and did not think her actions were wrong and in the future she would again support doing this to a student. I told her and the pricipal she best not pick one of my kids or there would be some major consequences. I was urged by several people to go to the school board or to the state superintendent, but like most people probably do, I worried this would have a negative impact on my daughter, and other children in the class and possibly even to my other children. I showed that e-mail to my daughter and the other students and parents, just so we all did not misunderstand what the appology was all about, how it looked, not how it was. The pricipal initially stated that she was sure that the teacher had not done anything of the sort and that no teacher on her staff would be excused for such behavior, of course that was when she tought the teacher was not lying. When she found out the teacher was lying she went back on her statement and refused to discuss the matter further. I was acutally told they would not speak to me or other parents about the incident. Teachers abusing thier power is an absolute reason to be fired.

I am a straight A student with very good reccomendations. i have always liked school until my current science teacher came along and ruined it for me. she is constantly yelling at my fellow students and i for no reason. i have A’s in every class except hers, which obviously means there is something seriously wrong. She has embarrassed other students and i countless times. it is getting to be a real hassle. it is only november and four kids have already transferred into her class and are getting farely good grades which just proves my point that something is seriously wrong.

There needs to be an easier way to get rid of teachers who don’t teach, but how do you do that when your principal could care less? What do you do when your school pays more attention to athletics than to academics? What do you do when 5/7 academic teachers are coaches too? How do you get rid of a teacher who sits on their butt all day listening to music while their students have to hand-copy their own work-sheets because the supposed teacher is ’saving trees’?! UGH! Tenure should be done away with too, but the teacher I’m talking about doesn’t even have it yet! How do they expect us to better ourselves with baseball coaches as teachers? Why do some schools focus on sports? How many of those athletic students are really going to go pro? No wonder kids don’t care about learning anymore when the school system practically tells them that as long as they can throw a medicine ball for 2 straight hours they’ll make it in this world. Yeah right…

I have seen more than enough bad teachers in my nearly 20 years as a teacher’s assistant and substitute teacher. I have tried documentation (with the assistance of a wonderful principal) on one, which only resulted in the teacher being transferred to a “friendlier school” and the principal transferred to a “less popular school.” (Some of the teachers and staff ultimately transferred to be with him, including myself, if that tells you anything.) I have battled them as a parent which only labeled me as a “bad parent” and my children as “problem students.” I am now substituting in a rural high school as one of the resource teachers’ assistant. I am so frustrated at how very little the teacher does, unless it is to degrade the students. After only two days in the class, the students were coming to me for EVERYTHING, which is exactly what the teacher seems to want. The teacher has spent more time “surfing the net,” talking on the phone and complaining about the students to other teachers than she has even acknowledging the students in the classroom. The students don’t care that the teacher is so poor; it only means less work and more goof-off time. Other teachers either can’t or won’t do anything, and goodness knows the prinicpal and superintenant have no backbone to do a thing. How this woman ever got a teaching position is beyond me. President Bush and his “No Child Left Behind” plan have only seemed to add to the mess. Can’t ANYONE help fix the education system of this country? It’s happening everywhere with poor, substandard and uncaring teachers. I know it will take more than one person to make a difference, but apparently it is going to have to take more than a dozen, hundred or even a thousand. Actually, after all the fighting I’ve done and seen while dealing with the problem, I think fixing the system that keeps so many bad teachers in the profession will take nothing short of a major miracle.

I’m a ninth-grade student, following the International Bachelorette diploma courses. I’ve had… the greatest science teacher last semester, in Honors Bio. He never had us use the books in class, only for homework; he’d done lectures on the material; and, looking back, even labs he’d done, had been executed perfectly.

I say this, because I wish to mention the science teacher I have this semester. She’s been teaching… oh, what is it, 14-16 years, probably..? She’s really active in the community, she’s earned awards and recognitions, and “supposedly” students in the pat loved her… or so she says.

I think she genuinely enjoys teaching. But that’s the problem: she likes it, but she’s horrible at it!

She does not raise her voice, or pick at people, like many of you mentioned. Instead she wastes time with idle chatter and wastes more time as she attempts to “connect it with science.”

For instance, she, imo, wasted 10-20 minu