Teacher says to class "you can watch this dvd whilst i prepare some work for the Ofsted review" reported her to head - agree?

[SexyDomesticatedDad]

Title probably says it all - just back from holidays and the secondary school is told it has an Ofsted inspection later that week. DS 2 comes home and reports they were allowed to watch Simpsons DVD during a lesson for above reason. Apparently teacher is quite newly qualified but thats no excuse right?

I doubt that the teacher would be bragging about this in the staffroom the next day.

don't worry, she'll probably just go off ill with stress instead and your dd will get a series of under qualified and poorly motivated supply teachers instead

ofsted is absolutely awful, poor teacher probably stressed out, give her a break

This is exactly the sort of thing that gets discussed in our staffroom.

Oh dear

Have not read the whole thread but I often use the simpsons in my lessons, including in my top set where I have most of my class consistently working at an A* grade.

ho pointy I do not think all teachers are crap

I do think dvds have a part to play in lessons, I do think teachers work hard (etc etc) but it's the curriculum and the inspection system -- I think some/many teachers must be frustrated by it. This is the kind of silliness they lead to.

I don't think the head would care and on reflection it is more reasonable to talk to the teacher not the head.

But videos shouldn't be used to babysit in school. And whatever twinset's opinion is,I agree with that.

See and THIS is why the system is so shit.

Instead of educating our children, the teachers are form filling, quota meeting, test passing..and our kids have not been so poorly educated since, well, since they started BEING educated!

OK, this simpsons thing may well have been a one off for that teacher, but maybe not, what do you expect when things are the way they are? results, league tables, inspections...

And all of this is harming the children's education, not improving it.

It it the system that is at fault here. If the government stopped with all the tables and targets shit and put the focus on ensuring that our children left school actually able to read and write, that would be great!

Reminds me of a cartoon. Think it was russia. the government set targets for nail production. All that mattered was the target was met. 10 tons of nails per day. So they made one ten ton nail every day, and they passed and all was well because they had met their target - 10 tons of nails.

Didn't matter that this ten ton nail was totally useless. Box was ticked. 10 tons - success. Bonuses all round.

I always think of that when I think about our education system.

I think she was foolish to tell the kids that's why they were watching the simpsons but I think you were a bit unreasonable to go running to the head.
She'd have got away with it if she'd put on something educational and not told them why.
Now she's in the shit with the head AND she's got an inspection which is about the most horrible thing you can go thru as a teacher!

Stuffitlama when have I said I use videos to babysit. I often use a film clip to start a lesson, provoke a discussion or to simplify a comlex issue, for excample I use the Matrix and Kylie Minogue to teach PLato.

I have used films today but not to babysit.

Today I have been teaching about fertility treatments and surrogacy. we watched parts of 2 episodes which prompted a discussion on the motivations of women who offer to become surrogates, the positives and negatives of fertility treatment etc. For homework they are going to write a piece about whether Phoebe was acting in a Christian manner in this episode.

I am letting my year 11s watch almost all of the film Gandhi but that is because it is directly relevant to a number of the GCSE units we are doing. The film has been interrupted by written and discussion activities. I will not lie I have used the time while they are watching to catch up with marking but that is understandable as I teach
1 AS class
11 GCSE classes as well as my key stage 3 classes.

Most importantly I always tell my classes why we are watching a clip and it is linked to the lesson objective.

A one of Simpsons video - shock horror, the world still turns, its just a one off not an every day/weekly thing. You have got to lighten up. I can understand you thought it was off but report it? No slack off otherwise you'll be in with the head over everything and get a right reputation and when you do have a valid reason they'll just think " here we go again blah blah".
Don't want to be rude but it will help

Your child will hate you, teacher will hate you, Head will hate you...and message will come back that dvd was part of learning about slang and therefore perfectly legit and that the notorious 'school - home' translation is all to blame.....

I agree with you Blu but it doesn't make it right does it. Ex stepford is also right I think saying it's just going to get op a flaky reputation in the staffroom and make it more difficult to be listened to later.

Thanks Twinset, v interesting explanation. I think using it as part of a lesson is SO different from babysitting.

hecate you are spot on, totally agree with you

yabu, we used to watch the simpsons in r.e. (often the one where homer creates his own religion). think is quite possible your ds reported things not entirely accurately.

OK, so this may have been ofsted-related panic, but sometimes watching a particular video can get a point across better than normal teaching.

everyone of my generation can remember watching blackadder's goodbyeee in school, and it getting across the sheer futility of WW1 more than any lesson on the subject could.

I am on the supply list and I am both very motivated and fully qualified.

As for the original question - I agree that it would have been better to approach the teacher in the first instance. Being new in a job is stressful for anyone. I also know a lot of teachers who make use of the Simpsons as part of their lessons.

Having taught I think it was totally OTT of you to report to the head. Teachers have enough crap to put up with and as someone else said ofsted is so awful you should have more sympathy for teacher.

Message withdrawn

But you should not be up ntil 11 or 12pm doing the marking ( I usually am by the way so totally understand why you are but it makes me angry that it is necessary}

Twinset just read your post again and realise you think I was criticising you but no, not in the least, not at all. Sorry if you read it that way. God no. Au contraire I think you are fount of calm and wisdom -- you helped me manage a classroom issue a looonngg time ago.

lol stuffit! have go admit I was not sure if you were agreeing or disagreeing.

Am glad to have been of help, can;t remember what it was though.

I use The Simpsons as part of a media unit with year 8. I have also used the 'Treehouse of Horror' episode when teaching Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, at both GCSE & KS3.

If this NQT were using the dvd as a babysitter, then she's demonstrating her inexperience.

I have files full of mildly dreary worksheets which I deploy if I have to be out of school, or if I desperately need to buy myself half an hour for some ghastly form-filling exercise (Hecate is spot on...).

The rest of the time, I hasten to add, I'm as all-singing & all-dancing as I possibly can be.

Saying 'you can watch this whilst I prepare for Ofsted' - if she did & it's not OP's dd's own interpretation - doesn't prove that she's a crap teacher or a lazy one - merely an inexperienced one who has yet to acquire a suitable arsenal of 'keeping the buggers quiet' tasks.

This is true. When I had my pre-ofsted inspection I had to produce a detailed weekly plan and duly did so, in minute writing on an A4 sheet. Heads reaction was 'oh somebody is worried' I could have throttled him! Then saw everyone elses was a few lines. Teaching is a minefield of demands from parents,head, and various others. My colleagues and I would put children in front of dvds while we took down displays at end of summer or else we would have been there for hours after school. Sorry not v.coherent but cross.

YABU. It was only one lesson.

oh I was venting big time about a school trip and staffrooms being dens of parent haters

you enlightened me and showed me my inner abrasiveness

abrasivity? abrasitude?