NQT who can't spell

[conistonoldwoman]

Walked into her classroom and noted two errors in her message to the children on the white board.
So tempted to change them there and then!
Other teachers out there..what would you do?

Tell her plain and simple. I was the same as a junior teacher, lovely hod gave me a list of words I may need with correct spelling. I was not hurt and my spelling has improved beyond belief!

Colleague or parent?
She needs to ensure that what she spells is accurate, on the board and in books. If she is a poor speller, then she needs to use a dictionary as reference as well as any other tools and practising to improve.
If you are a colleague, talk to her mentor if you feel that she wouldn't cope with a direct approach. Don't change what's on the board, get her to change it and realise she needs to deal with her weakness like any other one.
I'm crap at one area of the curriculum, always will be. I put a lot of effort into practising before hand and being open about my need to improve and the effort it takes with colleagues and with the children.

Twenty years ago when I was a new and inexperienced TA (male), my Class 1 teacher was asking the children for words beginning with 'V'. One boy suggested 'vacuum cleaner'.

The teacher wrote up on the board: vacume cleaner. I cautiously had to tell her it might not be correct, otherwise twenty-five exercise books would have contained the wrong spelling.

She also had no idea what a 'sloth' was, and - ironically - she was the school SENco!

Not acceptable in a teacher. I am surprised it was not picked up in her training. She needs to sort this out sooner rather than later - get some help with it. Of course, it could have just been a one off if she was rushing to get something up on the whiteboard before going home or before class started and in that case she may have corrected it later.

Colleague, dustinthewind.
Isla..from a previous similar thread it seems that lots of students escape being noticed as weak spellers due to spell check facilities. However surely they must notice from the mistakes the computer highlights which words they need to work on and learn?

If they are on a white board I would just change them but if they were on a display (for example) I would point them out to her quietly.

I would point them out to her as well - because her mis-spellings will impact on the students she's teaching.

I used to teach mature students and I was pretty hard line on their spelling because I don't believe poor spelling looks professional, and they were going into a profession that had a hard enough time as it was so didn't need any more negatives! As you say, with spell check facilities, there is no real excuse for mis-spellings except where the mis-spelt word is another valid word (still remembering the solicitor's letter I received once that said "... you were lead to believe..." ) but then the writer needs to know the correct word that should be used.

And I'm a pedant.

She needs to know. Some teachers can't spell - a Maths teacher friend of mine is quite dyslexic and finds spelling difficult, but as he teaches secondary he is very upfront about it to students, and gets all his paperwork checked by someone else. He would not be offended by someone gently pointing out a mistake.

Erm, am I the only one who doesn't think it matters? If the children were expected to copy something into their books or if it was a spelling list then certainly I would say something but otherwise no. Seeing 1 wrong spelling wont impact her children forever. On a display I would because that is meant to be 'best work' and will be seen by a lot of a people for a long period.

People dont always spell correctly, or do maths correctly. This is what dictionariries and calculators are for - to check your work. It is useful for the children to see that even teachers need to check. If this is a continual problem that is a different matter. But from the OP it is 2 words wrongly spelt. Big deal.

I think it is a big deal and perhaps the teacher should use a dictionary and set a good example

I think it is a big deal if she's a teacher.
I am more about threads that whine on about us wearing Ugg boots or Per Una or not handing out birthday invitations properly.
But spelling? That should be part of the job that is expected you get right.

Wellthen, hopefully you are the only one who thinks it doesn't matter! Of course it matters - this is a teacher, one of her jobs is to teach spelling - I despair at the appalling spelling amongst teachers nowadays, and as someone upthread said it undermines a profession that doesn't need any more knocking.

And yes, I am a teacher too.

This reminds me of when my DS was in Junior school and his very politically correct NQT put up a display about occupations. We had fire persons and police persons amongst others. I was so tempted to ask her why she hadn't called them officers, as they wren't actually called persons in real life, but thought it would do my DS more harm than good, so I kept quiet.
I do have a bit of sympathy with the NQT you mention, as I still find spelling difficult (I'm in my forties) and I've not got a good memory for spellings.

Hmm fair enough for a teacher to have a few issues with spelling, but even as an NQT he/she must be aware of that by now, so then it's about taking responsibility to be extra careful about spelling.

Nothing wrong with admitting to your students that you find spelling hard, and making public use of a dictionary if necessary - to ensure that spelling is correct. I know quite a few teachers who do this.

(Am sort of teacher)

It's not new, teachers have been doing it for years. My Mum trained 50 years ago and when she was a trainee had to decide whether to correct her mentor's spelling of peotry. When you write large and up close you make mistakes you wouldn't normally. Useful advice for an NQT is to stand back and look at anything you write on a white board, even if the words are ones you can normally spell in your sleep.

If the NQT can't spell however she writes then she needs to learn some strategies, eg type it into Word with the spellcheck on then copy onto the board.

However surely they must notice from the mistakes the computer highlights which words they need to work on and learn?

Spellcheckers seem to be absolute death to noticing and working on incorrect spellings! I have seen them being used in school (by pupils, but they will have the same habits when they are adult) with complete disregard for the actual words that are wrong - it is just sufficient that a word has a squiggly line under it and that something in the list of suggestions is clicked on to remove the squiggles. I have seen the wrong word or the wrong spelling of a homophone being clicked on but the pupil is oblivious; it must be OK because the squiggles have gone! You cannot on the one hand make correcting work so completely effortless and not requiring any thought and then expect pupils (and, by extension, adults who have always worked this way) to put any effort or thought into what they are doing!

Also, you all have a touching faith in dictionaries for helping with spelling, but, as a Y8 pupil said to me a few days ago, if you can't spell the word how are you going to find it and how do you know if you've got the right word when you do find one?

As a parent I pointed out to the TA that writing

When it comes to the subject of spelling, pedantry abounds! Since Dr Johnson and Jonathan Swift decided that the English language was untidy and needed standardising, it seems to have become important for people to spell correctly.
It wasn't always the case. Opening my copy of William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament (1526), I read: 'The feaste off swete breed drue nye whych is called ester, and the hye prestes, and scrybes sought howe to kyll Jesus...' (St Luke Ch 22). The spelling isn't conventional but you can still read it.
However, nowadays, if you misspell words in an application form, your form goes in the bin, and people do make judgements about the professionality of a person if they make spelling errors.
The truth is that no-one is a perfect speller in English and it is a very difficult language to get right all the time. There are so many ways of spelling sounds in English that knowing which particular spelling to use if you've never seen a particular word before could be very difficult.
So, back to Tyndale: 'Ypocryte, first cast oute the beame oute of thyne awne eye, and then shalte thou se clearly to plucke oute the moote oute off thy brothers eye.' (Matthew Ch 7 v 5) :)

Not necessarily a NQT thing. Had a teacher one year that I counted 4 mistakes on the displays round the room. One was spelt wrong twice. Teacher had been teaching over 20 years.

I find it very irritating. I can't spell, so I would be checking and rechecking spellings before they went up on the wall. Also if I see a word written wrong then I'll pick up the wrong spelling and it's twice as hard to learn the right spelling after that.

Just being nosey, but what were the errors OP?

I was helping in an ICT lesson the other day and said to a pupil (8 years old) "look at your spellings again" and he hit F7 .

FWIW I'd be embarrassed if someone corrected my spellings, but if they did it discreetly I'd also be eternally grateful that they hadn't let me make a massive tit out of myself for a long period of time.

I recently popped a note in my ds's book to say that he wasn't really finding his reading book challenging and could he perhaps go up a level (he reads Horrid Henry at home, and is on ORT 3 at school). She responded "His reading has deffinitely improved but we will not put him up a group until his ready."

Her spelling made me find it very hard to take her judgement seriously.

Definitely mention it I'd say! (I haven't pointed out my ds's teacher's error - I couldn't reply!!)

The head of our academy group (zillions of schools) showed us a powerpoint with grammer errors - I was soo tempted to point them out - but thought better of it. It wouldn't be important if we weren't a school.

Loads of teachers can't spell - I'm better than I was, but often mark books with a dictionary to hand. I think that it definitely needs pointing out - smart boards make it so much easier - you can type up and spell check in advance.

Problem is that about 20 years ago we decided that spelling didn't really matter, so a whole generation of teachers are now in classrooms who weren't taught spelling or grammer.