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.

[Arisbottle]

Chloe most teachers posting on here are parents, it would be rather daft for us to look down on parents.

[noblegiraffe]

Brycie

I paid for this so do as I say This is pretty much what Chloe is demanding

you know nothing because you're only a parent so I don't have to listen to you at all No one has said this, or anything close to this.

[Brycie]

Ok fair enough noble, am guilty of being a thread dilettante tonight. I disagree with Chole then. Oh hang on I must say - one of the first five posts was something like "so you're a qualified teacher are you" as if you don't have anything useful to say otherwise.

[Arisbottle]

Chloe 74 The only answer is selection but seeing as we are not going to get that, parents have no choice but to try and push teachers to spend as much time on the bright kids as they do on the grade boundary kids who make them look good

As a teacher on the higher payscale part of my pay depends on results. I am judged against each individual target, therefore it makes no sense to ignore my brightest students. That is if my only motivater was my wage, as you seem to think.

[noblegiraffe]

Brycie As a response to the OP, asking if they are a qualified teacher when they describe a teacher's methods as 'silly' is not the same as saying 'you know nothing because you're only a parent so I don't have to listen to you at all'.

[Brycie]

But when it's like this:

"I take it you are a qualified teacher?"

there's a jolly strong whiff of it.

[noblegiraffe]

No. There is no suggestion that the person asking if the OP was a qualified teacher disregards anything any parent might say because parents know nothing. There is a suggestion that they might disregard anything that the OP says on this particular matter, because the OP sounds like they don't know what they're talking about.

[EvilTwins]

The thread title - "silly things teachers think will work" was foolish, IMO. The OP is not a teacher, and therefore has no idea whether such things are "silly" or whether they "will work". She clearly wanted other people to pile in with other examples of "silly" things, which is both patronising and openly inviting negativity.

[Brycie]

Seriously there is! The op just read like a parent, no indication of being a teacher at all. Then "I take it you are a qualified teacher?" is definitely missing the words .."as you feel able to make this assessment?" For sure!

Maybe they'll come back and say they just got, like, a spooky feeling that it might be a teacher. Anyway I've seen it myself and experienced it. Any time you say anything about education it's implied you haven't an opinion to be valued because you're not a teacher. Sometimes people outright say it.

[chloe74]

I am not going to accept that noblegiraffe.

Whilst the common throw away comment is 'gold plated', the sentiments are justified. For those of us who work for a living in the private sector: I have more qualifications than most teachers, work longer hours, have to justify every penny of my wage, don't have a job for life, yet get paid less than teachers and get a worse pension than teachers and for some weird reason I have to take some of my hard earned money and contribute to teachers pensions. And what really hurts is when teachers strike demanding more of my money for no extra benefit to us, its me who loses a days wages.

So the conclusion I come to on here is that when teachers are asked to account for themselves all they do is swear and say I don't have time to explain myself to ill-informed parents.

tichy, I am buying a product and just like electricity (for all intents and purpose) its compulsory. On the surface you can shop around but its essentially a state monopoly and just like the energy companies open to abuse. Its a rip off.

[Brycie]

In fact wasn't I on a thread with you where the same thing happened? I'm sure you didn't do it and I know we've been on a few of the same threads so I don't know when or which one, but I've definitely been on them and had this happen.

[Brycie]

"The OP is not a teacher, and therefore has no idea whether such things are "silly" or whether they "will work". "

I rest my case.

[ravenAK]

It's lucky my ivory tower in the firing line is flack-proof, Chloe74.

I don't mind the odd mixed metaphor, but all attempt at coherence appears to have left the building.

[noblegiraffe]

all they do is swear

This thread would be much shorter if that were the case.

For those of us who work for a living in the private sector

Why not become a teacher then? If it's such a comparative doss and paid better? Sounds like a no-brainer in your situation.

[LDNmummy]

When you have a Grammar school, by the very nature of it, you are going to have a selective school. So, the 'bad eggs' or 'bad seeds', for want of a better phrase, are often excluded from these institutions and standards tend to be high because of this reason.

Additionally a private school, lets say Eton, will charge you a fee of 20 to 30 thousand a year. So what you tend to get are kids who will behave and are successful because mother of father are making a huge investment in them. They can also hire 'super tutors' who will help them pass exams.

Unfortunately, in a comprehensive school a lot of the children do not want to be there. Some parents do not support their children and in some cases tell my husband to 'talk' to their child because he/she will not listen to them. The teachers in private schools do not have to deal with the same difficulties that comprehensive teachers face on a daily basis.

You talk about not being given an explanation of how teachers give you 'value for money', but the concept of Ofsted is to do just that. You are offered a full break down of teaching and learning quality as well as a detailed review of the examination results. The system is very transparent, the same can not be said for other public services.

Is your desire for teachers to have the power to exclude students who fail to behave in the appropriate fashion? It is a lot harder for schools to exclude pupils then you think, and in some cases parents have overturned permanent exclusions.

It seems to me that the original point of discussion, which was the methods of discipline employed my teachers, has been deviated from by parents such as chloe still trying to find blame in teachers, for issues of concern in classroom settings, that ultimately stem from the home environment.

chloe I would really like if you could explain exactly where teachers have failed to be transparent and fobbed off parents or even sworn at them over this issue? Where and when did you experience this?

[noblegiraffe]

Brycie, really you can't extrapolate that teachers simply ignore the views of parents from the response to the OP on this particular thread.

Stupid views from the ill-informed we might well ignore.

[chloe74]

I am exactly suggesting that because we pay teachers salaries they should listen to us. I didn't say they had to agree with us or do what we say but they should listen, consider and respond politely to our opinions. Just like half the world in the private sector has to do.

[EvilTwins]

Brycie - why WOULD the OP know whether things were silly and whether they worked? It's not her job to know such things. It's the language I object to. Plenty of people would think that some of the stuff I do every day is silly. Doesn't mean they don't work. People who do not know the ins and outs of someone else's job (whatever that job is) shouldn't slag them off.

[Brycie]

So - hello? saying parents know nothing and have no contribution to make is as damaging as saying teachers should do every damn thing I say because I pay tax.

[Brycie]

Well there's one teacher here who thinks parents don't have a clue and I've experienced it elsewhere too. All I'm saying is that it's equally damaging. I'm not saying all teachers think that. I'm saying there's evidence of it on this thread, and I think it's equally damaging? Well now you can't deny there's evidence on this thread, but you can say whether you agree with it or not. And whether you think it's damaging.

"why WOULD the OP know whether things were silly and whether they worked? It's not her job to know such things"

like this for example

[LDNmummy]

chloe, so move from the private sector into teaching then, its as simple as that. It seems as if you are deviating from the original point of discussion in order to vent some ill informed views.

Last week a student threatened to stab my husband because he dared to push him to actually participate in class work.

Two weeks before that the police had to be called to the school for another even more serious incident.

Teaching is not easy, much like most other public sector jobs, it is demanding and underpaid.

[TheFallenMadonna]

Chloe, when your opinion is not "factual", then surely that makes it ill-informed, rather than informed.

I am very happy to explain what I do to parents, and indeed make quite a lot of effort to do so. But I'm not overly keen on people describing how I do things as "silly", when they do not have my experience and expertise.

[Brycie]

"Last week a student threatened to stab my husband because he dared to push him to actually participate in class work.

Two weeks before that the police had to be called to the school for another even more serious incident."

Why are these children even in school? Yet if a parent says they don't want children like this disrupting the school and you get lectured by teachers about inclusion.

[EvilTwins]

I don't think that "parents" don't have a clue, I just think that the OP doesn't have the right to hear about one thing being tried in a classroom from one child, and assume that it is "silly" and that it "won't work". I disagree with the OP, who is an individual. I do not therefore think that ALL parents have no clue. I am a parent as well as a teacher.

What bugs me is people who don't have a full understanding of something feeling that they have a right to disregard it without trying to find out the facts. That's not limited to teaching or to teachers and parents. It's arrogant.

[LDNmummy]

And why are you targeting teachers as if they are responsible?

Teachers have just as much control over these problems as you do. All they can do is make the best of a syllabus handed down to them by a higher authority. Do you think they all go to some sort of annual convention and vote on what they teach, how they discipline the kids and anything else to do with their jobs? They have little to no control over anything and are simply trying to make the best of it by educating children to achieve their full potential.

That's why teachers strike in the first place, because they can't even fart in the classroom without someone breathing down their neck's telling them how it should smell.