Rah rah rah! Go teachers go! Rah rah rah!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Well, my mother was a teacher and I married a teacher. ( Hey now…play nice. :smiley: ). I spent last spring substitute teaching in the local public schools. Yes, sub TEACHING. Every day I walked in knowing I’d be left lesson plans and by god I followed them with a zeal and merciless monomaniacal pursuit that no doubt annoyed the Elementary kids who were used to cupcake “let’s play and share and watch a video on American Expansion” subs who while away every day they work. Word around here is, that’s a lotta subs on the list.

I’d taught adults before, and so had an understanding of how to deal with the bigger kids. The younger ones came easy to me too ( I do well with small children and domestic pets :wink: ). I enjoyed the work, but my god after the first day I came home more aware of how oveworked and poorly paid teachers are, than I’d ever seen in the previous 39 years of life.

Saddled by State Mandates and guidelines, political machinations and in-fighting at the building AND district level, over worked, bulging classes, less prep time ( which contrary to popular opinion is spent truly PREPPING the next lesson plan, gather up materials for said lesson plan or relieving one’s self very quickly, and is typically NOT spent hanging out and chatting in the teacher’s lounge ), reduced benefits, physically more dangerous schools, unsupportive parents.

When you’re on the way out the door after Open House Night this fall, stop re-living your own educational memories long enough to look your kids’ teacher in the eye and thank them BEFORE HAND for the year of their lives they are about to dedicate to your kid.

I do not believe it is a thankless job. There are myriad thankful moments big and small in that career. I say, we show our respect and appreciation for our kids’ teachers, and for our own. Voting for a raise in the local budget is but one small first step in turning around many districts losing their cream to outlying towns.

I’m registered again to Sub, and I have no doubt but that the phone will ring soon…at 5am…morning after morning… :slight_smile:

Cartooniverse

22

The OP says:

Squish - why don’t you start a teacher bashing thread? Your responses have been replies that would fit in another thread. Thanks for your cooperation. Have a very nice day.

23

I’ve been teaching for 14 years now. A year in public schools in Texas, 4 as a TA during grad school, 3 in private institutes in Asia, and 7 in a Korean university. I take it seriously, I try to do a good job and be responsible to my students’ needs, and usually I like my job a lot. But I still shudder to think of the year I spent in public schools. That’s a hard, hard job, at least for those who do not have the ideal personality for it. Teaching at the college level is like a vacation compared to public school, from my experience.

I had a few crappy teachers in high school, and they stand out in my memory as much as the few good ones. I had one algebra teacher in my junior year who told me that I could never, ever, as long as I lived, go to college–because I had failed her class. I stupidly believed her. I failed her class after asking her for an entire semester to help me understand the lessons, and being consistently ignored. She admitted later that she always ignored those who quietly raised their hands for help, focusing only on the students who noisily demanded her attention. Her classroom style was noisy and chaotic, and I just couldn’t concentrate on algebra in such an atmosphere. I was quiet, I raised my hand and waited. I failed.

After high school, I spent 8 years in blue-collar labor jobs, thinking I was forever banned from college, having failed high school algebra. I dug ditches, washed dishes, built houses, drove trucks, fought fires. Finally I decided to check things out for myself. Four years later, I graduated with a BA and a 3.855 GPA (4 point scale). Then I graduated again with an MA and a 4.0. I had a 4.0 in my PhD work too, but after a couple of years, I just got sick of being a starving student, and dropped out to go to work full time.

My point is only that a bad teacher can wreck a student’s life, as Mrs. W almost did mine. She completely failed to recognize any potential at all in me. Get a few bad teachers during one’s school career, and one could easily get the impression that all public school teachers are morons. But the job that a public school faces is enormous and complicated and very political. I’m amazed that they have any success stories at all, and my hat is off to any public school teacher who gets through a school year without doing permanent psychological damage to his or her students. My year of public school teaching wasn’t enough to make me forgive Mrs. W, but it was enough to make me long for my old ditch-digging job.

It’s not only bad teachers and politics that hurt the US school system. It’s social–many parents don’t really know or care what their kids are doing in school. My parents, bless their uneducated hearts, cared but didn’t understand it, and didn’t know how to offer me any encouragement or help.

I will not claim that Korean education is better than American education–there are just too many factors that make comparison impossible. But parents here are involved in their kids’ education in a way that I never imagined in the US. Squish, I think you were unlucky at school, but it sounds like you were very lucky at home. Please remember that not everyone has parents like yours. If everyone did, I think US schools would be a lot better.

Good teachers can also make an impression. I had a few of those in high school too, but sadly, I don’t remember them as well as I remember Mrs. W. I remember several good teachers from my university years–partly because they were more recent, I suppose, but partly because it’s an easier job, and it’s easier to do a good job at it.

School starts again for me tomorrow, but I teach college kids. Nothing to it.

24

If no opinions are sought, then why is this thread in IMHO and not MPSIMS?

25

Because this is the forum I thought appropriate. There’s a lot of crossover between MPSIMS and IMHO, and since I was asking for Dopers to respond with various encouragements, I thought it best to go here.

Mods, if moving this to MPSIMS will help keep this thread on topic, then please do so.

26

Squish:

from the OP:

Stay on topic and follow directions, Squish. Apparently you really didn’t learn anything from your school experience.

27

See? Look at that. What a great teacher. Instead of saying, “Hey, jerk-boy, don’t take your negative experiences out on us,” Ruffian ignored the offenses of your post and tried to show how you could take your negativity and turn it around in a way that could help make a possitive change.
Wow.
I wish my kids were in her class…if I had kids.

28

Since only opinions of a certain nature are being requested, I’m going to go ahead and move this to MPSIMS.
Squish, if you wish to bash teachers, you are welcome to do so in The BBQ Pit.

29

Good Luck all you smart little Dopeteachers! Thanks for all you do. Have a great year!

30

After that, Ruffian, you make me so relieved I’ve never taught in the public education system.

The whole math textbook thing made me giggle. I can completely picture that happening. Forget about developmentally appropriate lessons. Just do the simple, CHEAP solution! Let the teachers figure it out!

Argh. I don’t envy you all. Good luck.

(former Elementary teacher, 11 years)

31

I think I’m as ready as I’m going to get.

I spent the day cleaning–knowing I wouldn’t have the energy, desire, or time to do so for a while–and then cooking. I made enough pasta salad to take care of my week’s lunches, and then baked muffins for the office staff (the unsung heroes of every school). I packaged up the muffins, as well as the cookies I already had baked for the teachers in my grade level, and wrote little notes of appreciation and encouragement in starting the year. I know that for our two brand-new teachers it will be an overwhelming day and week, and wanted to be sure to let them know they aren’t alone, and of course…that they’ll do fine. We’ll all help see to it that they do, in a good way. :slight_smile:

I’ve reviewed my lesson plans, done internet searches for get-to-know-you class activities, researched ideas for discussing Sept. 11 (and I bought two books for children dealing with the matter), and spent some time reviewing the new science text (as we’re teaming, I’ll be teaching science to all 160 fifth graders!) to prepare for the first few lessons. I bought Educating Esme and have read and chuckled through)\ quite a bit of it–thanks so much for the tip, Violet! What she goes through in her first year is so completely outrageous (the principal calling her at 11:30pm practically every night?!?!?), it makes me feel all the better about the weird crud we’re sifting through in my district.

I also took the time to watch a horse show-jumping competition, water plants, journal write, and spend some quality time with the hubby. All a matter of balance, of course.

I look forward to tomorrow, and the year, whatever it may bring. I look forward to trying new ideas, visiting new places, and meeting those bright, nervous, bored, tired, eager, frightened, cheery, freshly-cleaned faces.

I look forward to being a teacher, their teacher.

32

I thank God for my children’s teachers. No, not every single experience we’ve had with the public school system has been positive and no, their teachers have not been perfect (although they come a damn sight closer to it than I would). I’ve talked to them, though, and I know that my kids’ teachers truly care about their students, they know what they’re doing, and they do their level best to give my children the best education possible, not just an adequate one.

My older daughter started middle school last year. The school in our old neighborhood was awful, which had a lot more to do with the families there rather than the teachers, and I wasn’t about to send her somewhere I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be safe. Before we ended up finding a way to move to an area with a good middle school, many people suggested to me that I homeschool “since you’re home with them anyway.” I gave that idea about 15 seconds of thought before rejecting it, but I’m astonished by the number of people who think that teaching children math and English and science and social studies and the rest of it is as simple a matter as, say, teaching them to make their beds. There is no way on earth that I could give my daughter anything like the quality of education that she gets from her teachers, who, like Ruffian, have spent a great deal of time learning how to teach, developing lesson plans, researching new material and educational methods, and covering the thousands of details that go into preparing for another school year. And all they ask in return is that I take an interest in my child’s education and maybe send a box of Kleenex. I wager that even the teachers in the bad school would have served her better than I could, if only they didn’t have to deal with the budding criminals in their classrooms.

I wish that people who knock public education would spend as much time looking at the good public schools as they do seeking out the lousy ones. “American public education” is not a single entity, and if the general public would put as much energy into supporting the efforts of good teachers and principals as it does bitching about the bad ones, I’ll bet there would be even more great public schools than there are now. If people truly want to improve public education, they could do it by performing even one support task for a neighborhood school. You don’t have to be a parent to help the schools.

I think I’ll go bake something to put in the teachers’ lounge now. And maybe plan a lobbying effort for our next school bond election. Thank you, Ruffian, FisherQueen, jacksen9, vivalostwages, and Cartooniverse (subbing deserves its own special award), for helping parents like me try to bring up our children to be the thoughtful, creative, well-equipped young adults we hope they’ll become.

33

The first time I went to college, I wanted to become a foreign language teacher. For a variety of reasons, I dropped out and joined the Navy. Interestingly enough, I held several training positions, starting in boot camp, and I was good at it. After I rejoined the civilian world, I taught Algebra in junior college for a semester. I loved it, but when you factored all the hours I put in at home, I was barely making minimum wage. So I took an engineering job.

Today, I was looking at the requirements for teaching in Maryland. I can retire for the Govt in 8 years. I think I might like to teach for a few years - math or physical science. I’m really excited at the prospect.

And I’m one of those parents who goes to all the orientations and meets all the teachers. I work with my kid at home and she knows that I won’t tolerate any nonsense when it comes to her education. Luckily, she is the Perfect Child[sup]TM[/sup] and she enjoys school for the most part. Seriously, she knows how important her education is and she’s had more excellent teachers than poor ones.

I salute all you teachers! Don’t let the bureaucracy wear you down! Keep your sense of humor! Have a great year, and know that somewhere, someone thinks you’re the greatest teacher ever!