to be annoyed with teacher for "Practice the words carefully" instruction

[JustDoMyLippyThenWeWillGo]

In dd's spelling book. FFS, am despairing.

Practise the words carefully

Practise what ?

Spelling,
articulating
writing
recalling definition
using in an appropriate context

or perhaps

creating a grammatically correct and fully formed sentence

I once emailed DS's teacher to gently point out the difference between practice and practise. I got on well with her so felt reasonably comfortable doing this. She replied that she'd been wondering about the correct spelling, had asked the other teachers and they'd told her the wrong thing...

Oh DS spellings come with a complete list of instuctions about how to do it each day

This is the problem with the way English is spelt! The word dyslexia doesn't exist in a lot of countries because their spelling makes sence (or should it be sense?)

However, the condition of dyslexia exists in those same countries. It exists in all languages, even Chinese.

yes - dyslexia isn't just not being able to spell- it's being able to decipher and recall words, and letters sometimes, too. (i know it's a lot more complicated than that, but I don't know a lot about it, so i don't want to put loads and find half of it is wrong interpretation)

actually nickel thats a good anylisis. I'm dyslexic and never knew that the word practice could and should be spelt with an 's' at times. As PP I wouldn't have noticed that DS practise these spellings was spelt with an 's' in practice if this thread hadn't pointed it out. Thats because my dyslexia means I wouldn't process the difference I'd see the word but not absorb the spelling if that makes sense.

I bet she doesn't know the difference. My dd's teacher makes the same mistake ALL the time.

That was one of the amazing things I learned when I started hanging round mumsnet...I was all, "Really? You have two forms of 'practice'? Really?!" :o So exotic to a little midwestern American girl, don'tya know!

I once knew a teacher who routinely used 'your' in place of 'you're', which is just going too far IMO.

I would imagine she probably doesn`t know the difference.

If this girl is a probationer she will have a mentor. A polite word in that direction would be appropriate. I would imagine she is reasonably intellegent. If she is in Scotland she will have a degree of some shape or description. While that does not necessarily imply intellectual/academic rigour I would image she would be more than capable of understanding the rule about practice and practise if it was pointed out to her.

That would be the responsible and, dare I say it, the more compassionate thing to do. Should it be your job to do this...most probably not. But think how good you will feel that you have contributed to her continuing development and stopped yourself having a year of annoyance.

"intellegent"

Crisproll, she will have a degree regardless, wherever she teaches - you have to have a degree to teach, although there are various different routes which are described earlier in the thread. I agree with you about speaking to her mentor, though.

I was top of my class at spellings at both primary and post-primary schools , but I didn't know the difference between those words!

You't can't denounce a teacher for one mistake!

I pulled DD's teacher up last year on her repeated misuse of the apostrophe in her newsletters home (several instances every week). It was one of the most toe-curlingly embarrassing conversations of my life (and for her I think) but she used it correctly from then on.

I work as an editor so I did explain that I am very pedantic about this sort of thing (and would also expect a teacher to be so too).

You may have been top of the class at spelling and not be sure about this, lady007pink, but this teacher has to actually teach the difference between them. Likewise apostrophes. We also have to teach self-editing skilss and taking pride in our work. Difficult to teach if teachers aren't practising what they preach!

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Cheers Feenie, am an idiot!!

Was very funny though!

feeeeeeeeenieeeeeee (imitating whining child....)

I need to tell you!

yesterday, DH and I were playing scrabble, and i had loads and loads of vowels, and a couple of consonants, and I saw in my letters that i could spell out your nickname!

I pointed it out to DH and said "this is when I need one of those "you know you spend too much time on MN when..."

just thought i'd share!

That made me smile!