Posted on 09/08/2010 9:35:24 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
A look inside a teacher's mind could help you understand lesson plans and maybe even guide your child to perform better.
1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.
2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
Actually more, "you're" getting paid for doing nothing.
#10 is SO TRUE! (kids dish on your secrets)
My aunt taught Kindergarten for 27 yrs. and had more juicy gossip available to her than anyone else in town!
So is #2. Not just for teachers. Years ago I had a job selling retail electronics, and I was amazed how many couples would wait until they were 3 feet away from me across a counter before having their marriage-ending argument about whether they really needed to buy this thing or not.
What’s on the standardized tests that you’re not teaching the information that’s going to be covered on them all year? Why do you have to specifically concentrate on covering that information the month before the test?
3. We’re sick of standardized testing and having to “teach to the test.”
Tough - that is the requirement. We as parents are required by law to supervise our children and to provide an education. To do that, we need to know not only how our childern perform but how the teachers and schools perform as well. Quit complaining and do the job you have been paid to do.
9. We take on the role of mother, father, psychologist, friend, and adviser every day.
Then you are not doing your job. You are there to teach and NOT be a mother or father or psychologist to my child.
I wonder if there’s another list:
“13 Things That Teen At The Fast Foot Register Won’t Tell You”
Unlike some homeschoolers, I don’t mind standardized tests as it gives me a snapshot of what my kids have retained.
However, I never prep them for it or teach towards it. I teach, they learn. If they learned it well, it shows on the test.
In GA, we only have to test every 3 years, and in my experience that has been enough. There have been several studies showing most of these children who are “behind” in K-2 usually catch up by 4th grade anyway.
Might be fun to come up with ‘13 Things a Student’s Parents Won’t Tell You’
Standardized testing is different than assessment testing. Standardized testing has been around for decades. Assessment testing is the new kid on the block and what (most) teachers detest.
Which is fine with me. The reason politicians started down the road of assessment tests is because the teaching establishment abdicated their main responsibility of actually teaching kids in favor of making sure no kid had self-esteem issues. Curriculum was dumbed down, down, down, to the point where huge numbers of kids were graduating high school without knowing even the most basic things.
Assessment tests were mandated in an attempt to get teachers back on track.
Wasn't there a South Park episode about that?
Parent-teacher conferences are an UTTER, TOTAL, COMPLETE, and IRREDEEMABLE **WASTE** OF TIME!
(Principles and teachers in government schools will do what **they** want irregardless of parent opinion.)
(Yes, I am shouting and being redundant!)
The other challenge is that all the kids take the same test, including those that are mild to moderately disabled, learning disabled, autistic, emotionally disturbed, and/or disadvantaged in a variety of ways. Schools are now up to needing close to 100% passing now (I think the goal is 88% this year) so even have 87% passing in one or more subgroups labels the entire school as failing. It's nerve-wracking.
Luckily for me, I teach reading, so that cramming session doesn't happen for me. But I do see others go through it.
So when a 12 year old comes up in tears because she doesn't have her homework because the mother's live-in boyfriend kicked them out and she didn't have a chance to grab her backpack and they slept in the car all night, my reaction should be "That's nice, but you get a zero" and not a comforting hug and an offer to go talk to somebody?
“You think teaching is easy? Are you insane?! It’s not just hard, it’s IMPOSSIBLE! I’d rather work in a factory for 70 hours a week.
You don’t just stick 30 kids in a room and explain the ABCs, you bear the entire weight of the community and it’s endless problems on your shoulders. Unless the teacher doesn’t care about the kids...then it’s a breeze”
If liberals would stop paying for failure and out of wedlock children and worry more about educating for future success instead of brainwashing liberal ideas, it would be a good start. Liberals love taxpayers almost as much as their modern slaves on welfare who vote them into office. I’m sure teachers deal with a whole host of issues due to family issues, but it’s not going to get better as long as liberal mentality seeps into everything. I’m just sick of greedy, worthless politicians always using teachers, policemen and firemen as the weapons to get communities to go along with higher and higher taxes. If teachers want pity from me, please stop whining every August about how sad it is for you that your summer vacation is soon over and how you have to start 2 days earlier than the kids. Boo Hooo Hooo. Most of the world was working 60 hours a week or more all summer. The whining doesn’t generate sympathy, it just makes me want to pay you less.
I also loved the whining I heard last summer from a teacher who now had to cope with a health plan that required $20 copays for Dr’s visits. Hellooooo, the real world has had copays and employee contributions for premiums for at least a decade.
Don’t take this post as anti teacher, I have many good friends who are teachers. Just stop whining - we all have sucky jobs. Jobs just suck in general. In the real world where you have to make it work on a budget and you can’t just raise taxes on everyone when you want more money and your annual pay increase, it’s not too easy either.
Some points valid. However, a pet peeve to me is the constant complaining of teaching to the test. If you teach a kid fundamentals, math skills, reading comprehension, etc...the kid will have no problem passing a test.
“8. Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.”
Learn to play Basketball.
I repeat Corin’s call for you to explain what part of this is BS?
As you can see by the many replies, teachers are often unfairly criticized.
But you think these 13 (and 20) points are baseless? You think this teacher is whining?
I think you are an uneducated moron.
I have an issue with 2-3 months of the school year being wasted teaching to the test.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Uh?....Isn’t that what is scheduled to be taught anyway?
If they don’t learn what’s on the test, then the year is wasted and they arrive at the next grade level unprepared for the next year’s work. ( Is a “duh” needed here?)
I have an idea!
Let’s make the government school year 2 to 3 months, since that’s what’s needed to teach the essentials for that year, and let the kids stay home for the rest of the year. Think of the budget savings in salaries, fewer schools ( since the kids could rotate schedules), pensions...etc.
A comforting hug is a neighborly thing to do. Hugs can be given by friends, church members, etc. In other words, hugs are not exclusive to mothers / fathers.
Teaching my kid morality ... that it is ok for Bob and Steve to have a fisting party for their gay friends is NOT ok. Nor is how to put on a condom or that it is not ok to fight for any reason even to defend yourself or requiring school supplies be shared (forceably taken from everyone so that things that they have purchased on their own really belong to others)
1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.
Happens to all sorts of professions. Get used to it.
2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.
Please. I'm not a career counselor so don't tell me how you don't get paid enough. Let's stick to Dakota's progress.
3. We’re sick of standardized testing and having to “teach to the test.”
Too bad. If you have a better way of measuring progress let's hear it. Otherwise, teach what's on the test so we know you are doing your job.
4. Kids used to go out and play after school and resolve problems on their own. Now, with computers and TV, they lack the skills to communicate. They don’t know how to get past hurt feelings without telling the teacher and having her fix it.
Technology isn't the problem. Perhaps there's too much focus on feeeeeeeelings these days... just a thought
5. When I hear a loud belch, I remember that a student’s manners are a reflection of his parents’.
So what. If it's not permitted in your class room, enforce your rules.
6. Your child may be the center of your universe, but I have to share mine with 25 others.
Amen. Totally agree. Also keep in mind you are just one of many, many teachers out there too.
7. Please help us by turning off the texting feature on your child’s phone during school hours.
If this is a rule in your classroom, enforce it.
8. Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.
Stop whining about your paycheck. Let's stay focused on Dakota shall we?
9. We take on the role of mother, father, psychologist, friend, and adviser every day. Plus, we’re watching for learning disabilities, issues at home, peer pressure, drug abuse, and bullying.
You may take on some of those roles but that's NOT OK for many mothers, fathers and psychologists. As for the rest of it, what of it? Isn't that the job you signed up for?
10. Kids dish on your secrets all the time—money, religion, politics, even Dad’s vasectomy.
And? So? What's your point. Kids tell parents the stupid things teachers say and do in classrooms too.
11. Please, no more mugs, frames, or stuffed animals. A gift card to Starbucks or Staples would be more than enough. A thank-you note: even better. How about a no gifts policy? People in the private sector rarely get gifts for doing their job.
12. We love snow days and three-day weekends as much as your kid does.
Duh! Remember, parents have to go to work when it snows too.
13. The students we remember are happy, respectful, and good-hearted, not necessarily the ones with the highest grades.
What do I care who you remember? Let's stay focused on Dakota shall we?
There are some reasonable points mixed in there, but ...
- My wife is an elementary school music teacher ... and is well aware that her job is kinda “cute”.
- Good teachers generally don’t complain about the money. Teachers make GOOD money for 9-months of work. Good teachers that are smart know that they should complain about the Union, who insists that bad teachers be paid the same as good ones. Merit-pay is how the world works ... and scarcity drives the market. It is more difficult to find a guy that can hit .330 and slug .550 off major league pitching than it is to find a good Kindergarten teacher.
SnakeDoc
The quote was “mother, father, friend, advisor.” I do those things every day. I’ve never been asked to teach anything sexual, and that goes well beyond the roles of “mother, father, friend, and advisor.”
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