To correct the teacher's spelling?

[Dany0909]

I'm a year 4 TA in a primary school. This year I have a new class and a new teacher.
She's an ok teacher in general, I've definitely worked with better.

Yesterday, she handed out the spelling list and had spelt one of the words wrong. I pointed it out to her privately as I didn't want parents to notice and she got in a huff. She didn't believe me and checked the spelling online before changing it.

Just today, she misspelt three subject-specific words that I'm sure she has been teaching for years so I was surprised she didn't know them. The kids copied them off the board incorrectly but I felt too uncomfortable to say anything.
I'm not going to specify the words so this post doesn't give me away just in case.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do. It's annoying because obviously the kids are learning incorrect spellings from her, but at the same time I don't really want to annoy the teacher. I'm not sure if she's dyslexic but surely if you knew you were then you would double check the information you're asking children to copy down. She's not overly nice or welcoming towards me so not sure how to approach it. Should I just leave it???

There’s a big difference between correcting a spelling and a teacher saying something is rubbish. There’s also a big difference between the 5 year old you described and my then 7 year old dd. My dd really struggled, when the teacher started correcting the spelling of words she had been using for years. She couldn't understand why they hadn’t corrected her earlier and it made her question what other things she had been doing incorrectly, that they hadn’t pointed out yet.

The americnisation of our language and spelling is appalling. We have a car dealership calling itself a care 'center'. My urge to get out a fat marker pen is strong!
At a well-known shopping centre, a notice appeared stating 'the wearing of ski-masks, crash helmets and face coverings are not allowed...

Report to the Head Teacher. This is one job where SPaG is actually important

"Edited for spelling and fat-finger typos*

I had British spellings 'corrected' to American ones at uni.

I was studying BSL / English interpreting!

The same lecturer produced a video of her fingerspelling certain words and you had to write them in English, she even got a couple of those wrong.

It was nice to write 'Schol [sic] School' or whatever, I don't think it was that word but hey.

BTW I'm dyslexic.

I asked for a subject data request. I got reams of paper including a memo where one of the lecturers had gone to student support to ask if I actually am dyslexic and to see my dyslexia report.

The had confirmed the first and refused the second as it was confidential.

The thing is if she had asked me I would have happily given her the report, or at least the recommendations.

Sorry bit of a rant and going of topic.

OP go to the head and go with a proposed solution, a way you can signal the teacher that the spelling is wrong. Something simple like holding your pen in the other hand. As the children are older make it in to a game (I know an FE teacher who did this because her spelling was crap) that is to tell the children and you that she is going to spell some words wrong every day and who ever notices it gets a star, or a merit or whatever reward system you have.

Why? You are happy for children's education to be compromised by shit teachers?
Would you be operated on by a surgeon who makes mistakes because staff who worked with him, or patients who had been harmed by him didn't want any 'friction'

Such low standards are being accepted; no wonder it's shite in the world

😬😬🤯🤯🤯😲😲😳

Surely that's 'should of known better,'
😅😅

Omg! You sound like a wonderful teacher! I agree wholeheartedly with your approach.

I remember being aged 9 or 10, and getting my first spelling wrong in a test (I was mortified, I was semi famous in my class for ALWAYS getting full marks for spelling 😳🤣)

The word was millennium. I KNEW I'd spelt it right but the teacher just wouldn't have it. I took a dictionary up to her and showed her the word that I had, in fact, spelled correctly.

I was told off for being rude, and the teacher phoned my mother 🤣 she was given an extremely short shrift 🤷‍♀️ silly cow, I'd always hated that teacher and that was just one of the reasons

I'm not going to specify the words so this post doesn't give me away just in case
Good idea. You wouldn't want your post to be identifying in any way 😂😂😂

And, no, you shouldn't 'leave it' but I'm pretty sure you know that.

Making one tiny mistake on a spelling if a relatively infrequently used word, especially at the end of a 12 hour day doesn't make a teacher 'shit' or "incompetent' as some posters have suggested, it makes he or she human.
What is your job op? Have you never made a mistake?

If you want to maintain your relationship with the teacher, then you have to professionally address it with her again. Don't go above her head immediately.

"I wasn't sure about the spellings yesterday, so I checked in the dictionary. Did you realise we made a few errors". (Notice we, not you, try to build team) See how she responds. Gently point out that you don't want the parents feedback, so suggest some solutions for her to implement like getting a dictionary to check them all (remind her Google is no ones friend because it's all American or something), ask if she'd like you to be a second pair of eyes on her spelling lists each week before the children see them, or anything else that might work in your school.

You won't be able to change her ingrained learned spellings, but you can suggest ways to make sure your class learn the correct ones.

If you chat to her about this a couple of times and it still happens, then I'd leave notes on her desk as she's writing the words up for them to copy (or handing out the new spelling list)

The other alternative to try is the next time you know she has a lesson obs planned, ask the observer to do a book look at the spelling book/wherever the spellings get put.

Also, have a chat with the TA who worked with her last year. See how they handled it.

There are teachers who struggle with spelling. Some are excellent teachers. Some are not. Most who struggle with spelling have strategies in place to minimise their mistakes. 99% of them are open to correction, as they know their Achilles heel.

Good luck approaching this again.

Nerve
Touched

Tell that to a surgeon undertaking micro-surgery...

Tell the head teacher then - don't leave it!

Oh wow. That’s awful.

Show me a doctor who has never made a mistake and I will show you a liar!

By the time you've gone through this palaver, many motre children will be taught incorrect spelling of words.
There are times when the team-building 'we' approach is not appropriate. This is one of them
A teacher being able to spell is a basic bloody requisite of the job.
Some drugs differ by one letter; so the kid taught that an e and and i can make a word the same and doesn't know difference can maake a potentially grave mistake
So yes, the ability to spell correctly in this job is basic

As someone in a similar post to you i think you need to speak to the head teacher. It's really not acceptable for a teacher to be teaching kids wrong spellings.

The principal, If I remember correctly was to teach the way the words sounded with odd formations thrown in.

Do you mean ‘principle’ ;-) ? (Sorry!)

People know how to spell a word or they don't.

It's unlikely they're going to go from knowing a word to spelling it incorrectly because they've had a long day. These are words for year 4s we're talking about.

I work in an infant school, all qualified staff, and you wouldn't believe the amount of spelling and grammar mistakes by teachers. Also from my own child's school. Recent example: letter sent home about school "photo's"... 🫠 Feel like it's only me who notices/cares!
You should correct if you can stand the awkwardness, but it won't stem the tide of poor spelling & grammar in general.

I am not a teacher, but yes, I sometimes make mistakes.It is the human condition. The only people who don't make mistakes are the ones who dont do anything.
If this bothers you, why don't you just show your child the correct spelling in a dictionary?
I always tried to be very supportive to my own kids' teachers because I knew this would ultimately benefit my children.

This is, sadly, not new. In the late 70s, at the age of 8 and with a perfect spelling record, I was copying down the week’s spellings written on the board by the head of our tiny village primary school. They were all ‘ie’ words, so field, shield and so on.

Except every single one was wrongly spelled, with ‘ei’ instead of ‘ie’. Tiny me, moved up to the top class a year early, had to put my hand up and point it out, so that all the other children didn’t learn the wrong spellings. Luckily, after consulting the spellings book and a dictionary, he agreed with me, changed them all on the board and ensured the class corrected their spelling books.

I cannot stand when I see this….

@mm81736 Did you really just ask what the OPs job is?? It’s literally the first sentence of the OP. She is a TA working WITH the teacher. And of course people make mistakes but then they should acknowledge them and recognise when someone is trying to help them, not “get in a huff”