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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to expect a teacher to actually teach and HELP, not just shout and then tell off when something goes wrong!!

36 replies

psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 15:58

I apologise in advance here, I am angry and therefore ranting, and so may not sound quite sane in the following......and if I offend any teacher it is not teachers as a proffession I have issue with, it is one teacher, on one day, and two daughters upset.....!!!!

cooking

DD1 is doing GSCE catering (she will never be a chef, we know this, but it was the only option that fitted in with her dance and drame that she is doing, but never-the-less she is willing to trying to learn....she will still need to know how to cook as a life skill......I digress....).....she is finding things hard. today, after being away from school for 5 wks (before and after xmas) because of knee injury, she has had her first lesson with cake baking. the previous lesson the teacher showed the class what to do......DD1 missed this thru her absence. still, DD1 went to see the teacher, asked for and was given the topic (baking two cakes, one of which was to have a cream filling, other of choice), and proceeded to sort out what she was baking. One cake was choc/cream swiss roll, the other was marsys infamous LDC.

sadly, all has gone wrong.....DD1 was having issue with doing two cakes in the time allowed (two double lessons, so 1.5hrs), and also had issues with the cooking time of the LDC. she asked for help, was shouted at for not being prepared and for not paying attention in the previous lesson, when she replied saying that she had missed the lesson, was shouted at for being rude (she may have been I do grant....she is 14, she has attitiude, I am not cross about this).....what I am cross about is that the teacher pulled the cake out of the oven before it was ready, and told DD1 that it was pointless continueing and told to just carry on with the swiss roll.

now, not being funny, but we payed for the ingredients for this cake, who is this teacher to effectivly ruin a cake because my DD was having difficulty, surely she should have gone thru what had happened and explained to her how to continue so she can finish the cake,.....in other words, TEACH my DD1 to do, not give up on her.

DD2, same teacher, next double lesson.

had been told that she is to make a pasta dish that uses chicken, and with pasta shapes not spaghetti.....ok, she chose chicken pasta salad.

I went thru everything with her last night, found the recipe on here, and told her the planning and timing etc.

she got a bit muddled with the chicken......she wanted to cook the chicken from raw in school (DD2 coulc make a chef, she is actually a good little cook), so asked the teacher for help grilling the chicken.

the teacher told her that grilling chicken leads to food poisoning, she is to bake it or fry it.

now, DD2 has helped me grill before, she knows it is safe, what she was confused with was the grill at school more than how (IYGWIM), as all ovens are different.

anyway.............she then did what she was told, and then lost points for it as she didn;t follow the menu plan.......

argh.

this I know is about one teacher, and two problems with two girls, but it is both on one day, they are both upset, and I feel that they haven;t actually learnt what to do and how, but they have learnt that this teacher is unfair!

am off for dancing runs now.....will be back for my flack later

OP posts:
deste · 20/01/2009 16:07

I would write a note explaining the difference between constructive critcism and destructive criticism and ask what category hers was in.

TheButterflyEffect · 20/01/2009 16:09

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VinegarTits · 20/01/2009 16:14

Grilled chicken leads to food posioning

Well i should probably be dead by now then

YANBU but sounds like the teacher was flapping, is she quite inexperienced?

wastingmyeducation · 20/01/2009 16:17

It can't be my cooking teacher as she must have retired years ago (please God!) but she was a bitch.
Told me I had as much common sense as her little finger because I couldn't turn a gas oven on - er, only ever had electric!
Regularly called boys stupid.
Went 'Ew, maggotty things!' when I brought in rice.
And knocked marks off when I did a craft project innovatively, rather than doing it exactly as she said. (It was genius I tell you!)
So wish I complained. Definitely say something.

duchesse · 20/01/2009 16:22

There must be something about cookery teachers. Mine was a complete bitch as well. I used to work with a lovely one though.

TheButterflyEffect · 20/01/2009 16:22

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paolosgirl · 20/01/2009 16:27

Is she the Head of Dept? If not, I'd make an appointment to see him/her and explain your understanding of it, then ask for their comments and how they plan to deal with it. If they are the Head of Dept, then God help the department and make an appointment to see the Headteacher.

Oh - and I'd ask for a refund for the ingredients. But do it calllllllllllmly - so suggest you may not want to do anything until you've had a lie down in a darkened room

dmo · 20/01/2009 16:29

well the only GCSE i passed was food studies (mostly paperwork) and when i met dh i wasnst sure how long it took to boil an egg (dh will never let me forget that ) so he does all food shopping and cooking.

my sons yr6 teacher didnt like him and reg made class laugh at him and go back to planet ds

at least your girls are only in the class for an hour or so a week, would write in but to be truthful they will close ranks and nothing will be sorted

ds1 art teacher shouts all the time in her class and says things like "i dont care if you dont learn anything i still get paid" went in to talk to assistant head and he said she was just joking its her personallity say no more

TsarChasm · 20/01/2009 16:34

Cookery teacher at my school was only outclassed in nastiness by the needlework teacher who hated me with a passion.

Sorry no help but I was interested to hear things don't seem to have changed much in 30 years

NewAmazingBeginning · 20/01/2009 16:37

I would go and speak to the teacher. She clearly isn't fit to teach.

for you.

herbietea · 20/01/2009 16:43

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loobeylou · 20/01/2009 16:47

when I was 13 our home ec teacher used to hate those of us who would miss 20 mins of her lesson (3 x 35 min lesson slot) for music lessons or choir practice. It sometimes meant having to go in and start our prep at break/overrun into lunch time/get a pal to watch the oven for us etc. However, not only did I still get 1st place in the written exam, but the headteacher came round to judge our exam entry cakes/table setting etc etc, and my cake won. I bet she is still mad about it 25 years on (GOd I had to work out when it was - eek!!¬ 25 years ago!! [faints])

OP - YANBU to be very annoyed, but is she always like this or was it just a bad day?

Mspontipine · 20/01/2009 16:50

Oh for the olden days when cookery teachers didn't give a fig for food safety and hygiene - still remember ours determindley scraping the mould off the strawberry jam before using it - or was it ants ??!

Woman sounds like a very unproffessional teacher but a proffessional bitch - needs sorting. It's her job to ensure her pupils do actually learn.

psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 16:56

am back, and on quick skim, thankyou,,,,,,not being flame

will be back in a mo once I have read properly

OP posts:
mummyflood · 20/01/2009 16:58

Must be technology teachers at the mo, Having probs with DS2's sewing teacher very similar to this. He asks for help, she tells him he is disrupting the class. He waits for a technician to finish something on the machine he is waiting to use when she says she will be 'just one minute' so he sees no point in getting on with anything else, teacher tells him he is wasting time & not using his initiative. Culminated last week in her saying to him 'I don't even know why you're in this class'. He is Yr8 - he was PUT in that particular class FGS, didn't ask for it! He's not keen on the subject but does his best. He has had a 10 min detention every week after school from her so far for the last 4 weeks, when she says things like 'you really don't know what you're doing, do you?'

I considered speaking to her, but tbh came to the same conclusions as dmo. I honestly think that some technology teachers are so passionate about their subject that they expect their students to be naturally gifted at their subject and have no patience with those who aren't. I remember my cooking teacher being exactly like this, vivid memories and I am now in my 40's!! DS does however actually enjoy cooking, seems reasonably good at it so I have told him to just do his best for the final 2/3 weeks he has this teacher.

Do you have a parents evening coming up anytime soon? Maybe you could have a word then, if not and your DD's want you to have a word, and if they have several more lessons of cooking this rotation, then I would make an appointment in view of the fact that both of them have the same teacher.

Good luck!

psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 17:15

deste.....am thinking what I should write in a note??

butterfly...yes, classes are pretty big...20+ girls I think

vinegar, not idea how old the teacher is, or experience.

poalo....not sure, will need to ask the girls.

looby.....I have thought before that she isn;t great about teaching them, but never had both girls upset in this way before so wasn;t sure how much was the teacher, how much the girls, IYGWIM

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 17:18

mummyflood......DD1 has this teacher now until she leaves school, as she is doing her GCSE with her, so I will be seeing her in parents evening. I will think about what to do, and see what happens I think between now and then.

DD2 thankfully has one more lesson and then the rotation swaps at half term for textiles

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 17:21

and everyone esle who has commented....thankyou. I too remember my hidious home ec. teacher at school.....she really was something else with regards to barking out orders and watching, not teaching. she died of a heart attack halfway thru our GCSE year, I am sure in part down to how stress she used to get with us. She wasn;t an old teacher.......unless it was due to trying all our (very bad in her eyes) food we made.....

OP posts:
smudgethepuppydog · 20/01/2009 17:56

What is it with cookery teachers?

I can remember my similarly opinionated DD having a discussion with her cookery teacher about how to make a lasange. DD was convinced teh school shoulf not be teaching them to open two jars of Dolmio sauce but should be teaching them from scratch. The teacher was convinced two jars of sauce was an ok way to go.

I can just about see the griling chicken thing in school, Health and safety breathe down our necks about cutting fruit for our Primary aged class in the classroom rather than our cookery room as it's deemed as food preparation and therefore is 'cooking' (it's not, we're just chopping up a banana and an apple for the children to share). Schol would be worried that IF the chicken didn't get hot enough to kill bugs then they could be in hot water with H&S.

I'd be asking for a meeting with teh head of department I think to try to iron out teh problems.

psychomum5 · 20/01/2009 19:54

my DD's teacher is similarly convinced that jars are ok!!!

I am still angry about this........and what is worse, DD1 had done the LDC dairy free for me, as it was going to be my birthday cake (unknown to me). kinds of rubs salt in the wound now

OP posts:
nkf · 20/01/2009 19:56

Off topic,is GCSE cookery really as dreary as chicken pasta salad?

slayerette · 20/01/2009 20:03

No helpful advice except would like to say that as a member of the esteemed profession myself, I officially pronounce this teacher crap

And am v. relieved that DS's potential secondary school does not teach food technology and thus I will be able to teach DS myself without useless teachers contradicting what I teach him! Am at the two jars of sauce lasagne!

Wonderstuff · 20/01/2009 20:20

Our head is a cookery food technology teacher, she is very odd

wastingmyeducation · 20/01/2009 20:31

'food technology', ffs

Wonderstuff · 20/01/2009 21:52

I know. I have a friend who is a food technologist and he says 'food technology' in school isn't food technology at all really.

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