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Original poster

Teacher doing online shopping during lessons

65 replies

Dancergirl · 23/04/2015 21:30

Dd1 is in Year 9 at a girls' indie. We have been generally very pleased with the school so far and dd is happy and doing well.

There have been a few odd teachers who aren't as good as others but you get that in most schools I imagine. But dd has been complaining recently about the Geography teacher. Apparently he doesn't spend much of the lesson teaching, or sometimes none at all, but gives them worksheets to do and tells them to research the answers on the school's moodle.

Now dd tells me he is looking at clothing websites, M&S etc, during lessons. Of course this is completely unacceptable but I hate complaining! Would you complain and to who? Dd's not doing Geography GCSE so it hardly seems worth it.

OP posts:
SilverBirch2015 · 23/04/2015 23:56

*properly

SilverBirch2015 · 23/04/2015 23:55

Seriously though, you do need to find out why not having proper structured lessons.

The online browsing is not so much the issue here, can you talk to a head of dept to find out more about the context of these frankly lazy teaching methods? Is he a qualified teacher?

Although I am not a fan of private education, this is certainly not what you pay fees for.

coolaschmoola · 23/04/2015 23:55

Depends what you think teaching a lesson actually means. If you think it is standing at the front delivering education to learners that approach is not great. Lessons should be a mix of delivery, group and individual tasks, including worksheets where they have a benefit to the lesson objectives.

If you want to complain do, but you may end up with egg on your face.

I can think of reasons why a Geography teacher might be looking at socks - country of manufacture, carbon footprint of a sock would be good....

noblegiraffe · 23/04/2015 23:53

You're paying for a teacher to teach your DD so if you think he is not doing that then you are perfectly within your rights to query that.

They'll be able to check if he's shopping in lessons because the Internet will be monitored.

Original poster
Dancergirl · 23/04/2015 23:45

I thought I would be getting some proper advice rather than sneery comments but thank you petts

Look, I'm not the sort of parent to wade in with minor issues but in the case of the teacher, it's not a one off scenario. How can looking at socks on M&S' website be related to the lesson? Dd says her friends have noticed too. But more importantly, it seems they are spending large amounts of time getting on with independent work with the teacher basically babysitting. Is it too much to expect a teacher to teach a lesson?

OP posts:
SilverBirch2015 · 23/04/2015 23:45

I did wonder whether this "indie" with some teachers not "as good as others" was maybe using non-qualifieds to help cram through the worksheets.

You don't really hear of worksheet only lessons in state secondary's anymore.

pieceofpurplesky · 23/04/2015 23:28

Probably not silver in an "indie" (I really hate that term).

I have been accused if reading a trashy book about witches by a pupil during a test and 'playing games' on the internet whilst pupils did a test. Twas the crucible and the games were a new spelling package for SEND kids to use!

SilverBirch2015 · 23/04/2015 23:18

Are they actually a qualified teacher?

PettsWoodParadise · 23/04/2015 23:14

So Elizabeth are you proposing to create identikit kids who never question a thing and as I see from other threads parents who have no right to question their DC's concerns? It sounds a bit bitter to me. I appreciate your stance and get the impression you are passionate about your profession, however there are always two sides to every story and quite rightly the original poster is asking for some advice. If we all sat back and ignored things then the world would be a very nasty place indeed as we'd only ever care about ourselves and not the impact on others of ignoring a situation or injustice, on the other side of the coin if we worried about every little detail no one would ever get anything done!

ElizabethHoover · 23/04/2015 21:55

tell DD to stop nosing at the teachers laptop and get on with some work

LynetteScavo · 23/04/2015 21:52

I think the question is if your DD is making good progress in geography, whether or not she's taking it as a gcse. I would me more worried about the amount of worksheets than an M&s website. (One primary teacher of DS used to play computer games when the class were doing a test, but the DC made fab progress.)

ElizabethHoover · 23/04/2015 21:52

i flick through the news sometimes when kids working

guilianna · 23/04/2015 21:51

Trying, that sounds like a great lesson!

JeanSeberg · 23/04/2015 21:48

What do you hope to achieve by complaining? Genuine question

Tryingtokeepalidonit · 23/04/2015 21:45

I don't know the circumstances but a pupil once told their parents I was on Right Move during a lesson not teaching them. Well they were doing a task and I was preparing a lesson on writing to describe- pupils had to match estate agent descriptions to images. When the HT told me about the complaint I was able to show the IWB lesson plan. The parents were very embarrassed Since it is Geography this could be lesson planning.