What to do about sarcastic teacher

I can see this from both sides. It is very difficult to hear half the story and not be in the classroom seeing exactly what happens. My daughter has a good moan about school/ teachers some days and my standard line is "you will not like everyone you meet, I don't like everyone I work with." Sometimes she ends up liking the same teacher within weeks!
On the other hand she did once have a maths teacher and she was completely worked up over those lessons. I tried the "you won't get on with everyone." In the end I asked for examples of what the teacher said. One example was her struggling to comprehend a piece of work and being asked why she was such an attention seeker. I could see her work was falling behind and when I received her school report this was the only teacher that had not one good word about her.
This is the one and only time l have got involved by phoning the school. My daughter now has a different maths teacher and is getting on fine.
You know your child best and the example you give, although doesn't sound that bad to me, I appreciate there may be more to it.
Whatever you do, don't go in like a bull in a China shop and usually the school will happily discuss any concerns.

Can you give some examples of the sarcasm and hateful behaviour? "Saying "Weren't you listening?" is not sarcastic. Perhaps the question had already been covered and your dd wasn't listening.

Last year DS had an ICT teacher who clearly knew the subject inside out and was happy to explain concepts at great length and with infinite patience. Unfortunately while he was doing this, the class was running riot so they ended up not covering anywhere near all the syllabus so the DC that were interested in learning ended up doing so at after school sessions (organised by said teacher).

DD has the same teacher this year. She reports that he is very strict and takes no nonsense (actually wondering if OP's DD has same teacher!). I can totally understand why he is now behaving like this.

tax
I would tend to accept what a parent says unless i know for a fact that it's utter nonsense. I wouldn't take that as others have complained. More doing his job and listening to your concerns.

Reason I get so funny about how complaints are handled is because not doing things properly causes so many issues. (E.g. we had a complaint about a teacher that was totally ridiculous. But it got out from kids and parents that one had complained and suddenly we were getting loads (all factually untrue and all from a set group of kids/parents). It was so nasty.)

It's why when handling a complaint in school it's important to listen to the parent and what they have to say, deal with it appropriately and not divulge additional info. I also shut down any 'and I was talking to Simon's mum and she said thay her daughter is in another class...'

What are we doing to our children? This need to rush in every time life isn't quite perfect or someone says something less than fluffy is destroying resilience and definitely not teaching children the realities of life and how to deal with them.

Everyone has a teacher that's not always bending down beside them with head on one side to analyse the child's very word and action. We are pathologising childhood rather than helping children learn that the world doesn't revolve around them and their willingness to tow the line.
Who'd be a teacher when parents rush to the defence of a child that hasn't actually suffered any harm? We are actively encouraging children to think there is a serious situation and they can't cope.

Yes Maisy I was surprised he told me that, he didn't tell me he had complaints from others but he seemed to accept what I said with little questioning.

Then he was still wrong to do that.

I made it clear that I was not going to let the matter drop and my next point of call was a formal complaint to the Governors
That's fine. I zero issue with that.
It clearly needed dealing with. It was right it was dealt with.

He was unprofessional to divulge the information that he did.

I've had complaints about staff (some justifyable, others total bollocks). Where justifyable I have worked with staff to address it and things were put in place. It would be wrong of me to tell the parent 'don't worry mrs blogs. I've spoken to Mrs Smith and we will be resolving this through behaviour management training, work scrutiny and additional coaching'.

Maisypops - he VOLUNTEERED the information. I did not care how he resolved it, just that he did and I most certainly was not interested in exactly what measures were in place.

I made it clear that I was not going to let the matter drop and my next point of call was a formal complaint to the Governors.

You can be glad he did all you like Taxminion. It was hugely unprofessional.
because I made it clear I wasn't going to let it continue
He told you because you made it clear?! Sounds to me like he is a spineless individual who bends the second someone kicks off so he can have an easy life.

It is possible to confirm to someone that a complaint had been dealt with without divulging personal information. It's equally unprofessional for him to be alluding to other complaints.

I repeat. People have the right to make complaints. They do not have the right to employee information. The fact you feel entitled to it says a lot.

A colleague of mine had his arm broken by a student. Parents have no idea what teachers have to deal with.

OR you could just explain to her that she's not going to like everyone she ever meets, and that applies to some teachers as well. Maybe the woman is an unfit teacher, maybe she is just someone your daughter doesn't get. I'm sorry but what are you hoping to get out of this, they won't be able to do anything and your child will now also be feared or disliked by the unpleasant teacher.

This - unless your DD does spectacularly badly in this subject compared to others. She's going to have colleagues she doesn't like in the future.

I don't think sarcasm is an admirable trait in a teacher but they are on the receiving end of sarcasm and verbal abuse from pupils and SLT on a daily basis so I'm not surprised if some resort to a bit of sarcasm.

This is why teachers leave the profession.
Over involved parents who are on the phone at every opportunity and can't possibly know what actually goes on in the classroom.
Maybe your child doesn't listen. It's infuriating explaining things ten times as a couple of students don't listen whilst everyone else wants to get on.

Well tough, Maisypops, he decided to share that info with me and I am glad he did, because I made it clear I wasn't going to let it continue. I also got the strong impression that mine was not the only complaint.

SNOT

Self
Neighbour
Other
Teacher.

Because sometimes you just can't say "it is on the fucking board"

After investigating he rang to tell me that the teacher was receiving additional training and was being mentored by a colleague.
And if I was that employee I would be on the phone to my union. How dare a head divulge personal information to someone outside. It's none of your business the details of what happens.

This is what pisses me off on threads when people want to know 'what happened' after they have raised a complaint. I'm shocked so many people feel entitled to updates on everything.

I complained about a situation and got a reply back saying 'we've spoken to bill and looked into records. We have investigated your complaint and will be looking into training and development options with bill. As you'll understand our employee records are confidential and we cannot divulge personal records. Sorry for your poor experience'

THAT is a professional response.

I had a similar experience when DD1 was in year 12 and suffered bullying from her form teacher in the form of nasty comments and sneering about DD's chosen Uni course. I met with the head of year and insisted he do something. After investigating he rang to tell me that the teacher was receiving additional training and was being mentored by a colleague. DD1 reported that the teacher started picking on another girl instead.

cheshire
Oh yes! People complain about all sorts. I had a parent call up to complain about a teacher because they'd 'bullied her son'. Apparently the teacher had changed the seating plan and the son 'was confused' so sat in a different seat.

Spoke to teacher and what happened was: new seating plan, son decided to sit with his friends and argued back so the teacher spoke to him outside

It will come as no surprise that this child is regularly 'confused' by basic instructions and quite a lot of staff are horrific individuals.

Do you maybe have a better example of the sarcasm? Because clearly " weren't you listening " isn't an example of it. If the teacher had nit explained no one would know, and if she had explained your daughter should have been listening, the class doesn't need to get held up so she can hear it twice.

So I think to be able to answer you need to give an actual example of what you're talking about. Right now it looks like your daughter is the issue and she's blaming the teacher and you're supporting her. Why do people think the teacher is "hateful" can you give examples of that too?

I'd be asking the teacher if your daughter is paying attention in class or if there is an issue, unless you can give better examples.

Standard response to a pupil who lacks focus imo.

Would people really complain about this? Have always been cynical about the existence of a snowflake generation but maybe it's true if parents are going to complain about things like this. It's secondary school, the kids aren't going to like everyone and everything.

As a teacher there is nothing more annoying than giving a series of instructions and then getting kid after kid ask "what page?", "What are we doing?", "should I write the answer?" or questions about content that you've already answered. It happens in every single lesson to at least some degree every day, regardless of whether it's year 7 or year 13. I have probably been known to reply with "weren't you listening?" or more often "I've just answered that question. Ask X, she was listening". Sometimes the child will be completely convinced that I haven't explained this already. Before you go in too heavy handed I would make sure that the teacher definitely hadn't explained already.

I don't think sarcasm is necessarily a no-go for teachers. I use good-natured sarcasm in class. A year 7 the other day asked if when I said write the title I meant in her exercise book, I told her no, she should write on her hand but she'd need to come to the staff room with me at lunch so that she could be marked. She wrote in her book.

The context here of the subject matters actually.

This subject is very different in terms of having to teach with lovely shiny machines that are just too tempting for a lot of students. When they should be listening, they are clicking a mouse or tapping a keyboard (even when the screen is locked) and giving instructions for all 30+ class to follow always has some who don't follow verbal instructions, don't want to spend time reading the same instructions and as soon as something doesn't go right, immediate put up their hand to want to be shown personally. Even if just three put up their hand, that's still having to move about and inevitably have your back to some pupils who then try and get away with....

There is a skill to delivering a Computing lesson (ICT has been removed from the curriculum) and I tend to stay at the front, watch my screen that sees theirs and if a pupil asks for help that isn't technical (I.e my computer crashed) I too say "I've told you what to do, try it first" sort of mould. And yes, have said "Weren't you listening?" before, after stating instructions, getting a pupil to repeat back what I said and putting the same instructions on board but instead, they prefer to be 'shown'. That can't be done with so many pupils and the layout of a computer room.

I've taught Maths too and the style of teaching in a 'classic' classroom with textbooks etc. is vastly different.

I am sorry your DD is unhappy but unless I knew of any SEND, I too might reacted that way. I suppose we don't have all the facts (only your teacher and DD do) though so of course you are within your right to question the school. It's just, I can see the lesson scenario play out a different way to what you are fearing.

That's me screwed.
I gave instructions last week (think - write the date and title on the next page) and got bombarded with questions like 'is that the title? Shall I write it here (not where I said)? Do we need the title? Do I use the next page? Shall I stay on thr same page?
They got a 'were you not listening?'

Equally, I set a task. If students almost instantly start with 'i don't get it/I'm stuck', they get told there is no way they get help when they should spend more than 10 seconds thinking for themselves.
Shall I prepare for a meeting?

I'm not seeing nasty sarcasm here.

Tell your DD that you don't click with everyone in life. If you called my school for a meeting because a teacher said they weren't listening, it would be the talk of the department.

Hmmm. This sounds exactly like my kids ICT teacher. She is also told (when she says she says she doesn’t understand) that it is because she isn’t listening or concentrating. And she needs to listen more.

She has adhd. I have explained to the school that this kind of subject is a real struggle due to the nature of it and she may need an alternative way to explain it. School haven’t done anything.