Ask the Middle School Teacher

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

[QUOTE=RSSchen]
Not a middle-schooler, but…

My #1 Son started kindergarten on Monday. It’s bittersweet; there will now be things that he knows that I haven’t taught him. He might get smarter than I. More power to him!

Anyway, we were five minutes late on the second day due to poor planning on my part with regard to traffic. The teacher seemed miffed and didn’t talk to me at all upon pickup of my son. Think she was mad? Think that maybe she’s already formed an opinion? I want my son to be on the teacher’s good side, bordering on pet. I’m a major kiss-ass when it comes to teachers, so I called her voicemail and said how sorry I was and that I’m usually “oh so punctual” and “it won’t happen again”. I really don’t want MY mistake to be carried by my son, but damn it, she seemed different at pickup. Not as friendly. I’m worried. Hopefully she’ll be a little more friendly today, I’m a great room-mom to have because I love to buy supplies and snacks and realize that teachers often have to pay for things out of their own pockets and I disagree with that mode of thinking.

Did I ruin my son’s school experience or was she having a rough day? Speculation? A little help here please!

PS…I think teachers are amazing people - I couldn’t do it!
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I think you are overthinking it. Unless this lady is a really bitter and malicious person, I can’t imagine that she would hold this against your son. Don’t worry about it–yet.

I will say at this point, however, that some teachers are vindictive–just like the rest of the human race. If it gets to the point where you are certain that this is the case, then you should first go to the teacher and discuss it with them. If this yields no positive results, you would be forced to go to the principal. But please always talk to the teacher first.

ann neville, don’t worry, I doubt you were worse than I was.

22

[QUOTE=Runs With Scissors]
This is exactly why I should never speak to the teacher first.

Next, I’m going straight to each school board member. I’m going to call them at home and DEMAND that the entire math program in this district be revamped. Our kids are in extreme danger of not testing out of all their math classes in high school!!!

Next, I’m going to the superindentent. I’m going to remind him of how much money I have given to the school foundation, and that I won’t give one penny more until this math “issue” is settled to my satisfaction.

I might speak to the principal, but, frankly, he’ll probably just support best accepted practices and research which shows that kids need a hands-on approach to math instruction with an emphasis on actually understanding the concepts.

I will be satisfied!
[/QUOTE]

You’re good. You have the whole thing down to a science. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve been in conversations just like what you desribe.

23

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]
ann neville, don’t worry, I doubt you were worse than I was.
[/QUOTE]

Have you had any interesting “karma coming back at you” moments, where you realized that something your students were doing that annoyed you was something that you used to do to your teachers?

24

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]

It’s all about contacts–just like Hollywood.
[/QUOTE]

nods

We were never told this stuff in ed school. In fact, I’m wagering to say there are probably very few ed schools that even touch on this subject. If I’m remembering correctly, only a few of my classmates landed FT permanent positions upon graduation. They had either special ed or math/science certification. Oh, and one was elementary.

The rest of us humanities people? shrug I landed my sub position only because I had a recommendation from the principal at the school where I student taught. It was considered a “prestigious sub” position because I was assigned to only one school, had my own classes, and taught my certified subject.

Unfortunately public education in my neck of the woods is highly political. There’s always been an overload of certified humanities teachers waiting for openings. Fe openings + overload = very little turnover in the subject area.

It doesn’t make me feel better, though.

(sorry for the hijack!)

25

When I graduated high school in 88’ (Milwaukee, suburbs, “good” school) I had a 3.00 GPA and was ranked 60th in a class of 300. So basically only about a fifth of my class were at a 3.00 or higher.
Nowdays it seems like every kid I know is either on the honor roll or high honor roll. Has “B” become the average? Are teachers under pressure from parents and the school board to give out more good grades?

Maybe just my opinion but it seems like years ago 3.00 meant you were college bound and 4.00 meant the college of your choice. Now every little ruggrat gets a 3.00 just for showing up.

Am I wrong?

26

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
Have you had any interesting “karma coming back at you” moments, where you realized that something your students were doing that annoyed you was something that you used to do to your teachers?
[/QUOTE]

Acutally no. I’ve been fortunate, and most of the things I did would be tough to get away with in this day and age of “zero tolerance”.

27

[QUOTE=Hampshire]
When I graduated high school in 88’ (Milwaukee, suburbs, “good” school) I had a 3.00 GPA and was ranked 60th in a class of 300. So basically only about a fifth of my class were at a 3.00 or higher.
Nowdays it seems like every kid I know is either on the honor roll or high honor roll. Has “B” become the average? Are teachers under pressure from parents and the school board to give out more good grades?

Maybe just my opinion but it seems like years ago 3.00 meant you were college bound and 4.00 meant the college of your choice. Now every little ruggrat gets a 3.00 just for showing up.

Am I wrong?
[/QUOTE]

Sit back and enjoy the flight on this one…

This, in my opinion, is one of the biggest problems in education. Grade inflation is rampant from elementary school through college. Harvard is a good example–and maybe I’ll dig those stats up later.

Pressure for kids to get scholarships is sky high because of the unreal cost of higher education. Because of this, parents are desperate for thier kids to maintain that perfect g.p.a. This pressure definitely hits teachers early and often in their teachign career–and is exactly why I think most teachers who start out with good intentions start to cave in and eventually just give everyone good grades to keep everyone happy–and make thier job easier.

It is so much easier to be this type of teacher. If I give cake work, tons of extra credit, and little homework, then everyone is happy. I have only seen a handful of parents that actually expect thier child’s teacher to challenge them to excel. No phone calls or meetings with irate parents is nice. Administrators not telling you to change your expectations to keep everyone happy is nice.

The problem is that the elementary is the worst offender. Once students and parents become use to certain grades on the report card–the don’t know how to react when things get challenging and grades start to decline. This usually leads to parents calling the principal to get the teacher “straightened out”.

At the end of my first grading period teaching, my principal came to me and directly told me that too many of my students had low grades, and that I needed to do something so that the grades would be higher next time around. He told me that more of my students should be on the honor roll. I refused to change my standards, and this led to many conflicts with him and many parents as well. I was incredibly close to quitting during that year because of some of the meetings and conversations I had to go through. All I knew is that I wanted my students to learn a great deal and to maximize thier potential. I wasn’t about to start accepting sub-standard work and handing out A’s and B’s to everyone to keep everyone happy.

Eight years later, the community I’m in knows what to expect from me. They know I expect a great deal, but that I also provide lots of support for any student who wants to work hard. I make my classroom environment a fun place to come to during the day, but I also expect that when the time comes my students will work hard and take the class seriously. Things are very smooth for me now, but it took about five years to get to that point.

Grade inflation is just a result of the current philosophy that kids shouldn’t have to endure any type of hardships. No one should ever tell a kid what thier weaknesses are and expect them to work on those–only cater to their strengths. No one should expect a kid to be responsible for thier behavior, it must be someone’s fault–but certainly not the child. Cater to thier strengths, compliment them about everything they do whether it is quality or not, and tell them that everything will turn out o.k. How can people look themselves in the mirror knowing what kind of failure awaits these kids in the future?

When a student gets an A in my class they have an unreal sense of accomplishment–and they are respected for it by thier classmates as well. When a student makes great improvements in my class through hard work and determination–they are complimented for it and encouraged to keep making themself better.

I want these kids to learn more than just mathematics. I want them to learn how to become a success by working hard in every aspect of their life.

28

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]
You’re good. You have the whole thing down to a science. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve been in conversations just like what you desribe.
[/QUOTE]

It’s really tough to deal with.

And I don’t feel I was exaggerating. I know you know I wasn’t, but I don’t know if many posters who aren’t teachers (or are married to them) know.

Hopefully you have a strong, respected administration team. Whatever you do is never going to be enough…you just have to pass those parents on.

I’ve always noticed, though, that the bigger the assholes the parents are, the nicer the kids are, lol. I hope you have the same experience.

Have a great school year!

29

  1. There are some districts around here that save money by firing every teacher who nears tenure. Does that happen in your area?

  2. There are places where elected school boards have forced intelligent design and abstinence-only sex ed. Has it happened where you are?

30

[QUOTE=Runs With Scissors]
It’s really tough to deal with.

And I don’t feel I was exaggerating. I know you know I wasn’t, but I don’t know if many posters who aren’t teachers (or are married to them) know.

Hopefully you have a strong, respected administration team. Whatever you do is never going to be enough…you just have to pass those parents on.

I’ve always noticed, though, that the bigger the assholes the parents are, the nicer the kids are, lol. I hope you have the same experience.

Have a great school year!
[/QUOTE]

I think you are correct about those parents and students for the most part. Have a great year yourself.

31

[QUOTE=AskNott]

  1. There are some districts around here that save money by firing every teacher who nears tenure. Does that happen in your area?

  2. There are places where elected school boards have forced intelligent design and abstinence-only sex ed. Has it happened where you are?
    [/QUOTE]

  1. No. I’m lucky to be in a district that has a pretty strong focus on academics. They value their experienced teachers and celebrate them when they decide to leave. We actually have many retired teachers who have come back to work for us part time–which is great.

  2. No. I’m sure most of the board members believe in intelligent design and abstinence only sex-ed, but they tend to leave these matters to the teachers. This is a very conservative area, and I know some of the science teachers do talk about creationism to their classes. Fortunately, the ones I have known that do mention it normally talk about it in the sense of “this is something that some people choose to believe in” and not “this is another scientific approach to how our world was formed”.

32

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law are all teachers. It’s a tough job; everyone thinks they can do it until they actually try.

No questions to ask, but just wanted to thank you for your hard work, and for maintaining academic rigor. Your students will be far better off, down the road, for having had a teacher who held them to high standards and expected the best of them. Keep up the good work!

33

[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law are all teachers. It’s a tough job; everyone thinks they can do it until they actually try.

No questions to ask, but just wanted to thank you for your hard work, and for maintaining academic rigor. Your students will be far better off, down the road, for having had a teacher who held them to high standards and expected the best of them. Keep up the good work!
[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much. Those are the kind of comments that help me to keep going strong!

Doesn’t anyone want to know about the Teacher’s Lounge conversations, or whether or not we have favorites, or when we go to the bathroom?

34

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]
Doesn’t anyone want to know about the Teacher’s Lounge conversations, or whether or not we have favorites, or when we go to the bathroom?
[/QUOTE]

Now that you mention it…

35

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
Now that you mention it…
[/QUOTE]

Yes! Teacher’s lounge conversations unfortunately consist mostly of teachers complaining about the students who cause problems. Other topics of conversation could include: Complaining about the principal, complaining about the superintendent, complaining about the parents, or complaining about the building. This is why I don’t eat in the lounge.

All teachers have favorites. Some really give these students an advantage in almost every way. Some keep things fair academically and let the favorites go first when it comes to helping them out and so on. This works on a class basis as well. My current favorite class is 2nd period. They are my favorite because they work harder than the other classes. I teach all of my classes the same way, but probably have more fun in 2nd period–they deserve it.

Going to the bathroom…This depends on the teacher and their schedule. We only have 3 minutes inbetween classes and only 2 staff restrooms in the entire building. You can’t really leave between classes, because kids are already in your room–I’ll come back to this soon. This means you can spend part of your 27 minute lunch in the bathroom, or wait until your conference period comes around. I train my bladder to last all day long, because…

During the second week of my first year, I really had to go. It was go between classes or pee on the floor. I ran down to the restroom, and it was in use, so I had to go downstairs. The bell rang as soon as I left the bathroom. I was running up the stairs and all the way down the hall to get back to my room. I decided it would be kind of funny to go flying in my room with a jump and slide across the always dusty floor on my tractionless, old dress shoes.

I pulled off the move and realized halfway through, to my first year teacher horror, that the principal was standing at the front of the room–arms crossed with a concerned look on his face. I was already in mid slide, so nothing left to do to stop my momentum really. I slid right up next to him, and he simply looked at me, put his head down, and walked out of the room without saying a word. I was scared to death!

My class waits about 2 minutes and then erupts with laughter. They start shouting “you are so dead”, “you’re going to get fired!”–you know, really comforting words.

I talked to the principal later, and we very understanding about coming back late from the bathroom, but was a little worried about my entrance technique.

36

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]
All teachers have favorites.
[/QUOTE]

What kind of students are usually the teachers’ favorites? Are they the good kids who try hard in class, or some other type of student?

37

I guess I do have some questions, after all. How often do you have to spend your own hard-earned money for school supplies or teaching aids? How much do you have to spend in an average school year? In your experience, teachers of what classes have to do this most often?

38

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
What kind of students are usually the teachers’ favorites? Are they the good kids who try hard in class, or some other type of student?
[/QUOTE]

I think this depends on the teacher’s personality. I joke around a lot. I like a kid with a sense of humor, especially when they can understand my usually dry sense of humor.

If a teacher is a quiet person in their everyday life, then those are the students they gravitate towards.

The kids I like are normally slightly on the nerdy side, have a grasp of culture, and like to joke around.

39

[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I guess I do have some questions, after all. How often do you have to spend your own hard-earned money for school supplies or teaching aids? How much do you have to spend in an average school year? In your experience, teachers of what classes have to do this most often?
[/QUOTE]

I have probably spent less than $50 total in the last seven years. I am definitely the exception, and am lucky to be teaching math. Most of the materials I need to teach were already available when I started. I also get a $150 stipend to spend each year.

Other teachers can spend a great deal more. The teacher that I just asked said he and his wife spend about $1000 combined per year on supplies out of their own pocket. I would guess that most teachers spend at least 3-400 per year on supplies.

Art teachers at any level spend a lot, and elementary teachers across the board spend a great deal as well. Most of this goes for decorations or materials that they don’t want the kids to to have to spend money on.

I’m lucky in that I teach math in the middle school, and that I decorate my room with stuff that kids have given me–mostly rubber chickens!

40

[QUOTE=RancidYakButterTeaParty]
I pulled off the move and realized halfway through, to my first year teacher horror, that the principal was standing at the front of the room–arms crossed with a concerned look on his face. I was already in mid slide, so nothing left to do to stop my momentum really. I slid right up next to him, and he simply looked at me, put his head down, and walked out of the room without saying a word. I was scared to death!

[/QUOTE]
Ha, ha! Good one! Got any other anecdotes you’d like to share?