spooje, first she would have to make sure the teacher would have no legal means to supress the tape by finding the recording consent laws that apply in her state. There are a few states that only require one-party consent, meaning that only one of the parties involved (in most cases, the party doing the tape recording) need have given consent, but many others require that both parties acknowledge that the conversation is being recorded.
I hope that made sense; I’m getting pretty tired.
In the first grade I had to teach myself how to subtract. Actually, I didn’t teach myself, I heard a girl back of me whisper Two from three is one and I figured it out from there. Why was this necessary and why did I fail two tests, before my discovery?
[ul]
[sup]Because I was daydreaming when the teacher explained how to subtract.[/sup][/ul]
[sub]disclaimer - this was a true story, but is not meant to imply any relationship to monica’s tale of woe.[/sub]
She a teacher in a public school, teaching to 30 or more individuals. I don’t think she has an expectation of privacy. She is expecting the students to write down at least some of what she says. We’re not talking about taping a phone call, after all
Just for the record, I am a teacher, and if I had a student taping my class without my consent so he/she could use it in evidence against me for a charge he/she had not yet brought directly to me in a state in which surreptitious taping is illegal…
I would kick up a stink you could smell from here to the capital.
From monica’s comments, it sounds like the principal and teacher have been notified on multiple occasions. At the very least, notifying the principal a number of times should have been sufficient; facing a teacher - who apparently becomes hostile when questioned about classroom material - over her teaching method is imposing, and could conceivably (to a student’s mind at least) put the student’s grade in jeopardy. Think of it in a work situation - employees are screamed at by their boss when they don’t understand some of their work tasks and ask questions, and are expected to simply know how to do others that are new to them. They finally bring the topic up to the boss’ boss, who seems to brush them off. Now imagine you don’t have the option of getting a different job. Frankly, if the teacher really is screaming at them for asking honest questions, that is a hostile class environment not suited to learning, and something has to be done. I wouldn’t blame a student in that situation for considering taping, though I don’t know the legality.
As for the “you should be learning on your own” remarks, I should add that if monica is not performing the assigned reading and is being tested on it, that’s one thing. If she’s being tested on material that is neither in the assigned reading or lecture, or the teacher is truly refusing to clarify matters that are unclear, or answer questions, then that’s another matter entirely - the teacher is not doing her job properly.
Yea, get concent for any taping.
Beyond that, Horrid teachers suck. I have realised that I really only have three requirements from teachers.
1- Figure out what you want me to know/be able to do.
2- Present/demonstrate this knowledge/skill.
3- Test me on what you have presented.
Step 2 can be accomplished in a myriad of ways, from assigned reading, to class discussion, to example problems, to random comments and citations in class. I’m fairly independant and I like to learn, its honestly not hard to teach me. Unless your definition of “teaching” is to stand in front of the class doing half problems and telling historical anecdotes. (Unless you are going to grade me on the first half of my solution of a tricky technical problem and the story of how this particular equation was discovered…)
Its honestly not that hare of a concept to me, but I get about one professor a term who doesn’t get it. Plan. Teach. Test. (The one above also refused to answer questions insisting that we should be able to replicate without assistance and over night the life’s work of the many genius theory people that have come before us. If we could do that, yes we would learn more than if you told us the trick to the proof. But the reason that some dead guy’s name is on this formula is that he spent 30-40 years figuring out that “simple, little trick”. Me, bitter?)
Guided practice is a required step in the teaching process.
I had a calculus teacher in college who didn’t think this was necessarily true. I think maybe once we got to practice what he’d been talking about before taking a quiz on the material he’s just finished presenting. Just plain bad. He was great at explaining things, and very nice, and very smart, but somehow thought that if you were in college it should all make sense because he’d just said it.
The hell? “KiMIno?”. Apparently, someone hadn’t actually learned any Japanese.
The characters are kimono.
Someone up there said that you’re in Virginia. According to this site, you don’t need the teacher’s permission to tape her. This site and this one agree.
This is just an short explaination of the law.
I have to disagree with some of the views expressed here.
It is true that children have a right to an education. One of the perks of being American, that is.
They have a right to be alive, too, but I don’t see anyone holding YOU at gunpoint and demanding that YOU feed, clothe, and house them.
When teachers strike, it is quite often for a good reason. Pay that doesn’t keep up with inflation, insane conditions, school boards with unrealistic expectations. I mean, come on, when the school board decides that test scores should go UP when they’ve just increased class sizes beyond 35-40, what the hell is a teacher supposed to DO? At that kind of class size, a teacher is doing mighty well just to keep up with the PAPERWORK, and there is NO time for ANY kind of individual instruction… the best you can do is throw the material out there and hope a majority of them catch it.
This isn’t to mention our Glorious Leader’s “No Child Left Behind” plan, which, as far as I can tell, makes it illegal to be stupid. Politicians excepted, of course.
Believe it or not, when teachers go on strike, it’s NOT always about the money. Teachers, as a rule, WANT to do their jobs, same as any public servant. Come on, you DON’T go into teaching, police work, or firefighting to get RICH!
…but it sounds to me like some folks are saying, “Oh, well, if the situation is utterly intolerable, teachers should just shut up and deal with it, because our children have a right to an education.”
Crapola.
The alternative is this: Every experienced teacher quits. Every teacher who gives a damn about the job quits. Every teacher who is not utterly desperate for the job quits. Before long, the school is woefully understaffed. All the worthwhile administrators quit. Pretty soon, the place is an utter madhouse, understaffed, and without competent administration.
Tell me, friends, what happens to your child’s RIGHT to an EDUCATION, then? It doesn’t happen. What’cha gonna do then? Hunt down good teachers and enslave them, or something?
Seen it happen. Hell, I’m seeing it happen right now, at a major school district. Glad I don’t work there. Sometimes, you have to shut the hell up and give the pros room to work, and the materials they need to do their jobs. You can’t legislate stuff into and out of existence, and the longer the politicians and school boards take to realize this, the longer YOUR child gets screwed.
What the hell??
As a teacher in training, I completely agree with Wang-Ka’s post.
The current state of our nation’s school systems is appalling.
I wonder what the subject is and if the teacher is qualified to teach it.
This is typical in many schools for different reasons.
School Board add classes in computers.
School umm we need money for computers and money and time for our teachers to be trained to teach it. This means subs will be brought in while our teachers get additional training.
School Board here are some computers, good luck
Now some ‘teacher’ is thrown in teaching a subject that students want and need but the teacher is not trained to teach (through no fault of their own) and there is no budget for training.
My sister teaches and this year all field trips are cancelled. Well you can have one if
The teacher pays for a private bus and pays all expenses for the trip including paying for a sub to teach her other classes.
That’s right the school has canceled subs this year as well.
In her school ‘No child is left behind’ means No child will be left behind at the museum because we aren’t going there.
I thing W’s No Child thing really means that he wants them all to be Christians so none will be left behind when the rapture comes.
Thank you, Wang-Ka.
I was going to respond to friedo, but Wang-Ka beat me to it, and in a better way than I could have right now.
Thanks.
Oh, she did give us reading to do. And I checked. The stuff on the quest wasn’t in the book.
monica, we had a teacher who had been around for ever and was AWFUL. He had poor hygiene. He didn’t teach the subject in a way that any of us could understand. He constantly interrupted class with personal stories of his that he thought related to the topic at hand in one way or another. The entire class thought that this guy was a poor teacher.
One classroom-full petition later, we had a new teacher. We also ended up having several teachers in to try and replace him that year - and they all taught the SAME portion of the subject as they all seemed to disappear after we just had finished that part.
Lesson of the story - yes, you can get rid of her if you all get together - but believe it or not, it may make YOUR education, for this semester at least, WORSE.
Best of luck.
Nicely put, Wang-Ka! Don’t know whether I’m depressed the same stuff happens semingly everywhere, or comforted that we’re not alone.
I have to join the chorus and praise **Wang-Ka ** too. I teach college, but much of that post resonates with me and mine. I certainly wouldn’t want a crappy instructor around, because they make the rest of us look bad, and I hope my colleagues would agree with me.