to be fed up with correcting teacher's spelling mistakes

[dealer]

No doubt I will now write a post riddled with spelling mistakes, but I'm not teaching small children in my defence.

I accept, no-one can spell everything, and I would not be surprised if a teacher had to look up stationary/stationery for instance. But I'm really fed up with ones that I would expect children to be able to spell turning up in homework/letters/displays. And I feel compelled to correct them.

Recently we've had Antartica, in huge coloured letters on a display. Got me a very grumpy response since he then felt he had to change it. We've had a work sheet home with Autum on. My son asked for barbecue/barbeque in his spelling book (not sure how to spell it myself) but I think the teacher writing bar-b-q is a bit out of order. And the latest one is the teacher correcting squirl to skwirel on homework. I wrote on it in red 'teacher please correct correctly', possibly a bit snotty of me but I'm getting fed up of it.

Do other people get this? And do they get annoyed? Or AIBU?

I think it did start in the late-70s/early 80s and then as those children became teachers, the DC they taught didn't learn how to spell...

In the late 80s I worked in London with a girl whose school work had not been corrected so long as the teachers could understand what she was trying to say. She found it a big disadvantage as obviously professional firms care greatly whether letters/forms, etc are spelt properly and the excuse that you weren't taught properly won't hold water. I think it's a real shame as quite often in a professional situation you are judged on your spelling/grammar and regarded in a different light if they are not good.

Hadn't had a problem when my DC were at primary, but at secondary some teachers correct all mistakes and some don't. I check afterwards and tell them the correct spelling!

Oh, I wasn't doubting the veracity of the 'seeside' and the correction thereof; I was saying I believe it is a fondly remembered story that has been 'polished' as it gets retold...

My daughter's best friend is Autistic and I know full well that they can be bright, precocious etc and also incredibly tactless (she rates my food in a constant stream of chatter 'this pizza is okay, it doesn't look great and it doesn't have enough colours, but it tastes nice, but not as nice as at home, but I think I'll have another piece...'), but I just find that particular story too polished and perfect to be believable. Far more likely the little boy corrected the spelling in a more 'ooh!ooh! Miss!!! You spelled 'seaside' wrong!' sort of way.

I'm a TA in a primary school and sometimes I'm aghast at the spelling errors I come across, not just in my year 1 class but other classes around school, especially displays.

There was the time a teacher had a display headed "Goldilocks and the Three Bear's" and, when I said it was wrong (in a nice way), she just wouldn't have it so I asked the Head to have a word. It was soon corrected. On a Shapes display were the words "hexogon" and "octogon".

I have a few of the teachers on my FB page (not just my school but others too) and really can't be bothered/brave enough to pull them up on their spelling on there. It really has to be seen to be believed. DS1 is a teacher and I'm proud to say his spelling is practically faultless.

Clam I've found that as soon as you suggest to someone that they substitute practice/practise with advice/advise and see which one sounds right, most people can easily see which one to use and no longer struggle.

It's just scary how many people haven't been told such a basic tip to help with this, which is something that lots of people do struggle with.

But that's what I do, thinking it's got to solve the problem! The depressing thing is, though, that people still look at me blankly!!

I actually am beginning to think that there are just too many people who simply Do Not Care.

Teachers do make mistakes. I remember finding a colleague had written Edinborough in a child's spelling book and wondering whether to correct it or not.
It's even worse when you are a supply teacher and find the teacher has written a word on the board that is spelt incorrectly. What a dilemma.

I teach in FE. The number of students who are poor spellers, and who have no concept of the rules and grammar and punctuation, is frightening. Despite, for most, eleven years of primary and secondary education ....

The problem with practise/practice is that the latter is becoming more commonly used for both firms due to influences from across the pond.

At reports time every year we have colleagues refusing to correct these terms due to the fact they hail from America/Canada.

Gah! Firms = forms. Hate this iPhone autocorrect at times.

I think it's an age thing. I'm teacher training in my forties, have to confess to being a real pedant, and used to work in publishing. My mentor's in her 20s. I see a fair few things that make me wince. There is no way of raising it, although I did mention that 'jewls' had a second e as it was on a lot of resources during ofsted

Norfolk dh was saying the same thing only yesterday. He works for in the UK for a company that was British, was taken over by a US company - that has been taken over by another US company, the latter a big multi-national. The teams he works on tend to span across several countries on 3 continents. So whenever it is right for him it is wrong for his colleagues.

They tend to do it based on whoever is main author of a document - so if it is his document it will be in English but if he works on a document that is owned by an American author then he will switch his spellcheck to American.

I used to design photocopier interfaces and although they were initially in English, one of my jobs was to translate it into American English and Canadian English versions too.

I totally agree that the standard of literacy in the teaching profession is poor nowadays.

However, in response to those who believe secondary teachers should correct every error in every book...... I teach 6 classes of 25. Three or four hours a week each. It's English. Often they do a lot of writing. If I corrected every error in every book I would never see my family. Or have time to sleep.
It has been practice in the last ten years to only mark a set number of errors (say 5) in many schools. This way the child is not demoralised. Or only marking spelling mistakes when you are assessing spelling (rather than comprehension for example). Not saying it's right. Just saying.

"I teach 6 classes of 25. Three or four hours a week each. It's English. Often they do a lot of writing. If I corrected every error in every book I would never see my family. Or have time to sleep."

It says a lot for the quality of teaching in your school elinor. Not to say that it is your fault though.

@ this thread. The Prulets are still TBC (to be conceived) and yet this thread already has me considering homeschooling.

I once refused to sign a petition to save a school as there was a spelling mistake in the flyer asking me to do so.
I thought if that was how important they considered basic literacy, the school deserved to be closed.

Hmmm this thread started off well and then descended into the usual 'teachers can never make errors because errors will prevent my child from being the image of perfection' crap.

OP - your examples are very good ones! Errors on displays or when correcting a child's spelling are just not acceptable! And generally speaking, errors on worksheets or grammatical errors are not so good.

But the occasional error in a letter home (or in a post on a forum ) or in reports I think are forgettable. Correcting and returning is incredibly arrogant (you've NEVER made a spelling mistake?) and embarrasses the poor person who wrote it. It isn't really necessary and to me comes off spiteful.

More importantly; we don't just teach spelling. We don't even just teach English and Maths. So to highlight that a teacher has made a tiny, insignificant error in one tiny area of their work (hardly comparable to giving a child the wrong level for example) and then justify it by saying 'well they teach small children' is ludicrous!

I hope the children I teach know that spelling is an important part of making ourselves understood and presenting our work well, in a way that will make us proud. But what we say and how we say it (sentence structure for example) is far more important. For this reason I focus on spelling at the last stage of writing, after all the drafts etc have been written.

My DH works in schools, and comes home with some fabulous tales of teacher ineptitude. My favourites are the teacher who told a class of 5 year olds that the past tense of 'run' is 'run' - "I know that after him sounds right, but it should be after him..." and the photo he took of a spelling card showing a soft-boiled egg with 'yolk' spelled 'yoke'.

When I was 5 my mam made an appointment with my teacher and tore her a new one for calling me 'arrogant' on my report card. My crime? Correcting Mrs Miller's spelling of the word 'receipt' on the blackboard in front of the class. She hadn't put a p in it.

Please forgive failed italics, on iPhone!

bemybebe, 92% A-C. What does that say about the quality of GCSEs?

elinor either you have an amazing bunch of children or indeed quality of GCSE is questionable...

incidentally, I do think one can teach themselves spelling by reading a lot

Don't get me started on Americanisms. Our science textbooks and I will never agree - as far as I'm concerned foetus has an o in it, and sulphur a ph, and that's that.

YADNBU.

DS is disabled and was timetabled for a weekly activity group. I asked what this entailed and was sent a copy of the teacher's scheme of work/lesson plans for the term. The theme was superheroes....or Superheroes......or super hero's, super-heros or any other variant of spelling, punctuation or capitals that you can think of. It wasn't that the teacher had chosen the wrong one and then been consistent; but that the same document contained every variant!
The aim of the sessions was to help the students learn about appropriate clothing and at the end of term they would be able to put their jackets on........back to front. I kid you not.

I don't think reading a lot necessarily helps with spelling. I think caring about spelling helps with spelling. I know quite a few bright people who are avid readers and poor spellers.

Bad spelling does tend to leap out at me, though I appreciate that everyone makes mistakes. Typographical errors don't bother me so much, unless it's in published work. Others - perhaps those who are less judgmental - seem happy to overlook it. I find it hard to convince one of my children (a very careless speller) that it really does matter to some people. What I have tried to explain to him is that - in a business environment - he will be judged (by people like me ) even though those doing the judging will probably never tell him so.