to be annoyed at school teachers?

[smd5018]

I'll try to keep a long story short...my daughter(13) has come home on a few occasions over the past couple of weeks telling me that her new English supply teacher hates her. The teacher has mis-spelled a word on the whiteboard and my daughter corrected her (which I can understand would be miffing and embarrassing.) A couple of times when another child has asked for help with spelling the teacher has said something like "Oh why don't you ask her, since she's a walking dictionary" and called her to the front to write on the whiteboard. She now comes home and tells me all the words the techer has misspelled but doesn't mention it to the teacher, she is, however convinced that the teacher hates her. On Thursday the class was asked by the form teacher to write about how she feels about some of her lessons/subjects and was encouraged to include her thoughts on English. She said she wasn't enjoying it because the teacher didn't like her because she's corrected her on her spelling. Today she has been pulled to one side by the form teacher and called arrogant and told to worry about her own education, not the teacher's spelling. She's now saying she wants to miss school and doesn't want to go to her English classes, which she used to enjoy. The supply teacher is covering for maternity leave so will be around for a while. I'm not happy with either teacher, aibu, and is my child an arrogant little shit? Or is it fair enough to question a teacher?

The firm teachers response to honest feedback is truly disgraceful.
I would be going to the head.

I'm a teacher, and I think all teachers should be able to spell and write standard English. They should also be prepared to check with a dictionary if they're unsure Don't we expect pupils to do that?
Sometimes I make a mistake, and I'm OK with having it pointed out to me.
If it's done politely, the pupil gets a housepoint. If it's rude and I'm wrong, I thank them and change the mistake. It's usually when I'm multitasking and the mistakes are obvious.
Where's the benefit in antagonising a pupil for no reason?

I am a teacher who has a few mind blanks with certain spellings, I am not an English teacher and do make a joke about it when I get to them.

However I have had a few students who take great delight and pleasure in pointing out mistakes with some relish which does come across as rude and arrogant.

I will take it on the chin, but then I am an old bird who can take it, others may take it personally and find the way in which students can seem to delight in a mistake (which we can all make) so much.

I would ask for a meeting with the English teacher and HoD to try and clear the air.

I currently have one student who I 'pick on constantly' all because I won't let them talk over me when I am teaching and tell other students off!

'I would ask for a meeting with the English teacher and HoD to try and clear the air.'

Always the best choice. Second best is a polite email.

Usually when a child says "Teacher x hates me" it means that the child hates Teacher X and is projecting.

"Picked on" is another term commonly used by a child to describe a teacher telling them off when they feel others do the same thing all the time but are never pulled up on it. Eg child A talks for 30 mins out of a 60 min lesson. Child B talks for 15 mins and child C talks for 5 mins. Child A is told off but not Child B or C. Child A proclaims themself "picked upon."

I don't think from what you say either of these apply to your DD; I am just mentioning them so you advise those terms as they have certain negative connotations.

I would suggest you contact HOY saying your DD corrected the supply teacher's spelling and has since constantly had negative attention drawn to her because of it, implying in sneery terms that she is a know-it-all etc. Shew would never have done it if she had known these would be the repercussions etc and you would be grateful to know what their advice would be when a student spots a glaring error. (Most teachers have strategies to accept corrections from students with exceptional good grace).

Even if she were rude is it right for a teacher to respond to that by making jibes at her in class and making her feel uncomfortable?

No it is not!!

Everyone can make mistakes, teachers too. Teachers in my school used to say "just testing", laugh and move on. You should I think go into the school - and also encourage your child to think as to how they point out errors. Good luck!

Even if the way she corrected the teacher was ro appeared rude it should have been dealt with there and then and should not be continuing. If a pupil was doing this to a pupil (public humiliation) it would be called bullying.

The students were asked for feedback. A lot of secondary schools are doing this nowadays. (My friends DD just started year 7 and here's is hilariously honest!). Why ask students what they think of subjects and teachers if they aren't actually allowed to say what they think?

Personally I'd send an email to tutor.

It's fair to correct a teacher. Having taught in FE and secondary I can tell you that teachers come from a cross-section of society so some are arrogant and selfish, cruel and stupid, whilst others are kind and caring, fair and have a sense of humour. So stand up for your child. She needs you.

As a teacher, I'd be grateful for a child pointing out an error-happened on Thursday, I missed a letter out of the date and told the girl I was grateful she pointed it out.

I think I'd want to talk to the English teacher. Teachers sometimes think it's ok to be quite frankly rude with children and it's not. Once the teacher is made aware that you know, then hopefully things will improve. I'm not saying the teacher needs to feel threatened. Also, the Head of Department should know that someone in his or her department can't spell, pretty shameful for an English teacher if it's true. The form tutor is an idiot. I take comments like that-always unsolicited, my form feel they can open up to me-and would try to tease out of the child why there's an issue and if needed, I'll talk to the head of department.

It seems a pretty basic requirement, I'd say. English teachers really should know how to spell! If she's a bright, articulate student, she can probably see that the teacher isn't good and hence can't be feeling particularly motivated.

FWIW, when I studied A'level English, our amazing teacher was replaced with a NQT who took great delight in telling us how she'd only scraped an E in English herself and couldn't spell, didn't know much about grammar etc. She was a joke. Precocious or not, I took myself off to the head of English and said I wouldn't be going to any of her lessons. I didn't, for 18 months. I still got an A.

I've been teaching 20 years. I've never disliked a pupil. If a student accuses me of picking on them, it's usually for good reason. Generally it means I've noticed something about behaviour/attitude that I'm trying to rectify.

I also use 'experts' in the class to help or deliver very small bits of the lesson.

It sounds like your daughter is a good girl and a good student. She wouldn't be getting glowing reports from all the other teachers if she weren't.

An English teacher should be able to spell. A form tutor should be giving gentle guidance, it's a pastoral role! Both have failed on this occasion.

Everyone makes mistakes, of course, but I would hold the grown ups, who have all the power in this situation, to a higher standard than the 13 year old. The 13 year old, no matter how clever, is still a child and still emotionally immature. We would be horified if a child was put down and humiliated by teachers for being "thick," and it is no more acceptable to emotionally abuse them for being clever.

sonlypuppyfat

"My DD is getting ATLs of 1 and 2 in all her lessons where she gets 4 she acts exactly the same in his lesson as she does the others."

I have had several children go through my lessons where I have given them lower ATLs than other teachers, Some have had 1s and 2s and come out of mine with 3s and 4s. It is not unheard of for children to behave differently for different teachers in different lessons.

But it is only occasionally that parents believe that their PFBs "act exactly the same" as in in other lessons and ring up to complain.

I've mentioned 2 teachers in my post, the supply teacher who can't spell and her form teacher who called her arrogant for pointing out mistakes.

Still not all teachers and still fucking goady thread title, as you well know.

Or do you need a lesson in the limits of generalising from the particular?

A missing "a" there.

thank you everyone for your comments, I hope I'm doing things correctly it's my first time posting on mumsnet. my mind is certainly not closed to the idea that she may have come across as a bit rude or arrogant, I've been a teenager myself once :-) but I still don't think it's been dealt with well. There's something on at the school one evening this week and I think the form teacher will be there so hopefully I can have a quick word with him then and get his side of the story. I'm not very confident myself and I feel unsure a lot of the time so I'm glad that people think I'm justified in bringing it up. I'll probably try and put it as 'she's not very happy and doesn't want to come in to school, how can we move forward?' rather than framing it as a complaint.

I'm a teacher in primary and teachers should lead by example ( handwriting, spelling etc). If they make mistakes they should own up to it. English teachers especially. I'd be in and asking about it.

Don't bring something like this up at an unrelated event, it's not the right way to go about resolving this. Contact the school through the usual channels, depending on your school's policy and give them the chance to respond and deal with this better.

I had an email from a parent asking why I'd given her daughter a detention, that her dd was very upset because she didn't do it and accusing me of picking on her. Her dd had told another girl to fuck off a mere foot away from me. My HoY replied on my behalf. Never had an apology.

Sometimes teens make stuff up to get themselves out of trouble, sometimes they exaggerate, sometimes they get the wrong end of the stick, sometimes they are absolutely right. Approach with caution.

YANBU I find it very alarming that some teachers can't master basic spelling. Someone I went to college with got a D and two E's in his science a levels but because there is a shortage of physics teachers was given a bursary to become one. I couldn't fathom how someone with so little grasp on the subject is encouraged to teach young people. I think there are some (not all!) teachers with low ability creeping into the system now because the talented people don't see it as a rewarding profession anymore.

It was certainly not intended to be goady, I'm sorry if it seemed that way. I've read this forum a bit and seen lots of thread titles that were somewhat abbreviated in a similar way and thought it was acceptable to do so. I just assumed people would realise what I meant. I'm sorry if I've upset/irritated/offended you.

Thank you for pointing that out etch, I would go back and correct it if I knew how to edit my posts.