Silly things teachers think will work

[NAR4]

One of the teachers at my child's school (he is in sixth form) thinks giving out yellow cards and red cards for 'bad' behaviour in class will somehow motivate 17 year olds.

At my 14 year old's school (a different school) he was asked to write a letter to Father Christmas during an English lesson. The teacher was dead serious. REALLY?

I pressume that nether of these teachers have children of their own, but should surely have been taught at uni that these things were completely age inappropriate.

Thanks Evil maybe I am not so hazy about the other thread after all.

Oh Chibi good golly gosh wow you've totally proved me wrong with that amazing argument, wow such clarity of thought, really scything through the point there. I don't know anything about stereostelective methods of synthesis so therefore I know nothing about children or schools are anything really. If someone had said that earlier. I could have got the ironing done.

Is saying something is silly a useful thing to say? I'm not sure it would count as formative feedback...

Well Aris some people can't even remember what they wrote on this thread not two hours ago so I'd be quite surprised if they can remember what they wrote on another one quite a bit longer ago than that

senua The problem with describing a technique used by a teacher as 'silly' and that it 'won't work' is that all classes are different, and sometimes what you might think are the silliest things actually do work if you give it a go with a class. An experienced teacher would know this. Someone who is not a teacher might not understand this at all. The OP doesn't appear to. That's not to offensively imply that teaching is an arcane secret understood only by the chosen few; that's due to there being no hard and fast rules about what will and won't work in teaching, on any given day, in any given period and with any given class, which might be hard to believe unless you've been there.

As a teacher, if someone said 'I give out yellow and red cards to my sixth form' my first response would not be 'that's silly' it would be 'Does it work?'. Because it might, and I might learn something new to try.

So not that the OP "has no idea" but that she specifically has no idea whether such things work. Which she doesn't. Given that she hasn't researched them - why would she? Not her job.

Her 'job' is being a parent and listening to what her DC tell her. They told her that the "silly" scheme was risible and they lost respect for the teacher because of it.
But what do they know?

It might've saved us all some time if you had got the ironing done, tbh. We seem to have wasted quite a bit analysing your inaccurate synopses of other posters' opinions.

Brycie, can you please stop referring to me as "some people" or "they". It's very rude.

To be fair I don't usually remember what I post, I would make a rather shit troll.

However I do remember that thread, although I may muddle up your posts with those by the other strong willed maverick on the thread.

Still, made a nice change from marking year 11's books, to be fair!

But then, equally it could just be a bunch of arse, because not all teachers are good.

What do those kids know, Senua? They know it didn't work for them. That still doesn't make it silly, or an idea that would never work.

x-posts

Senua - what the OP knows is that her DS doesn't like the red card/yellow card system. He thinks it's silly. That's what she knows. Not that it, in itself is silly.

That's why i asked - i.figured as a parent you must have shedloaads of experience explaining really conceptually difficult ideas to a range of people of varying abilities.

As regards your ironing, although i haven't seen it, or seen you do it, you're doing it wrong. Hth

I have marked my books this weekend, I think I finished by about 10:30pm which is very good for me.

Er...I'm not quite sure Evil why you're saying something and then saying - no I didn't say that! And then saying .. exactly the same thing.

Anyway I think my role in this thread can happily draw to a close with the score - teachers: 100 per cent in agreement with each other (about something or other but I'm sure they're right because after all they're fellow teachers). The parent, of course, is just wrong.

Of course you know about children. Your children best of all, of course. But whether, as Aris says, you know how to get the best out of them in a class of thirty individual children, all of whom share your focus? That's another thing entirely.

And as for whether you know how to turn a letter to Father Christmas into a useful exercise for 14 yos - I don't, because I teach Science. Raven does, because she has expertise that I don't have. There's no shame in that.

But if I heard that my child had done that, my response would be "how did you do that then?", rather than "REALLY?".

Aw chibi you'd be wrong. I don't know anything about really conceptually difficult ideas like stereosynthesising. But you could start a thread about them if you like? It would after all be about something completely different to what we're talking about here? There'd be loads of teachers along to agree with you about it. Could be fun.

I don't think teachers always agree with each other either, you would only need to spend 15 minutes in our department meetings tomorrow to know that is true.

Although we probably would agree that trained teachers know more about teaching than non trained teachers.

I'd have no idea how to calculate the rate of acceleration of his sleigh though, TFM. .

No, I'm sure they don't Aris: however put a parent in the room and teachers are shoulder to shoulder.

What do those kids know, Senua? They know it didn't work for them. That still doesn't make it silly, or an idea that would never work.

ha ha ha. Are we parents being asked to prove negatives? That's brilliant.

I could get some kids to act out the whole Santa/Reindeer thing. And maybe sing a song.

So, this is a fun, albeit pointless, thread :)