A study in American Sheeple... or is that lemmings

[Diane Amberg]

Ross, you don't know the rest of that young man's story any more than I do.  As I said I would have questions as to the rest of the story, both before and after. I do know that here, in rough areas ,teachers can be very much intimidated and threatened,including threatening phone calls.There is often "pay back" from siblings, the student or even older family members.    There is always some "cousin" with partial information who wants to square off with a teacher,or anyone else if they have perceived a slight, when it's actually none of their business. The troubles seem to run in families.
When I was doing 7th grade programs  at Stanton Middle School, which includes a lot of kids bussed from very rough areas in Wilmington,I was warned not to park in a particular parking lot because the kids made a game of "whose teacher's car can we vandalize today." Slashed tires, broken windows, ripped trim, contaminated gas...all a big game.This happened especially after the point of no return in the spring when the kids who were going to fail knew they couldn't possible pass, so they made life miserable for everyone.
As far as cameras in classrooms, they already exist. Some teachers have them to use in self defense, just as cops do. It wouldn't have bothered me.
We have a master teacher program here, which is a very intensive, takes most of a year and eventually leads to an increase in pay. A camera in the classroom, so the examiners can evaluate classroom management, unit presentations, and the students' performance is part of it.
  I'm not trying to offend you, why would you think that? You can't handle straight "teacher talk?'' 
As far as the classroom setting ,what happened to wanting teachers to be armed? That was supposed to settle down the trouble makers.There are always some who don't care if they or anyone else learns anything, they have an entirely different agenda. Some places just want the kids in school so they are just off the streets. We had a problem here many years ago when deseg. busing started with kids getting off the buses from "the Valley" in Wilmington and never even going into the school. They took off through the neighborhoods taking anything they could find,including clothes off the clotheslines. The local police finally got it solved, but in the meantime people were almost afraid to go to work.
I may be retired from full time classroom teaching, but I am still teaching ,keep up with the latest, including Core Curriculum and have classes next week. I stand by being "old."
Ross, I'm about to question your reading ability. How many times have I said I understand that not every teacher is a good one. School is a very unique situation and every student is different. They are a product of all the parts of life that influence their development,some good ,some terrible.The teacher is supposed to respond to all of that with every student and take them from where ever they are on the learning scale as far as they can go in the teaching year. It's especially hard now with wars that don't end and kids whose parents' are away in the military or don't come home. It's very stressful anyway and then add that to the mixture. It's hard. Almost as rewarding as knowing nobody likes going to the dentist.
So when a kid fails, what teacher can we blame, can't be any other reason....and these are the parents who won't come for teachers' conferences and won't answer the phone.
I'm sure you are not like that. I expect you do go to  teacher's conferences and are very involved with your son's school and he knows you are there when and if he needs help. Hope you both enjoy your summer break.

[Ross]

You are right I don't know the rest of the young mans story, nor the rest of the teachers story and neither do you. I do believe, I read where the teacher received discipline and the student didn't. The student with the cellphone camera did not receive any discipline to my knowledge.

My son asked if he could go to summer school, which surprised me.
And of course I said yes. I'm pretty proud of the progress he has accomplished with the aid of certain teachers.
And believe me I let those teachers know. I guess I am just weird.
I probably do spend more time at school than most parents and the most of the Teachers and the Principle/Superintendent have great attitudes.

I'd also like to see our schools improve their standards but that starts with the local school board.
But, I don't think the school board realizes that and their roll in leadership. Except for wanting to build a Taj Mahal.
Instead we have a very intelligent school superintendent that leads the school board with his leadership abilities.

I do believe we have an elected school board and that is the only people that should be sitting on the board.
And the administration should be in the audience just like the teachers and coaches.
The admin in my opinion should be making written reports to the school board and be available to discuss openly what they are doing to improve the educational standards of the school. Sports should be very secondary or less to education.

But they claim they are doing better than some other schools, now I ask you is that something to brag about?

With the lowered standards that the state  talks about, it would seem to me to be pretty easy to become a blue ribbon school. But where is the effort?

Who provides the effort. Who grades the graders. The school board don't ya think?

I stuck up for a School Superintendent when I lived in Texas, he was an excellent disciplinarian a played by all the rules. In other words he was hard as nails when he had to be. I tried to keep him from being fired but I learned of the action to late to do much. He was fired for disciplining a school board members child. Not everyone plays by the rules.

He had no problem landing a new job because he was excellent at what he did.

[Diane Amberg]

Who grades the graders? Certainly not the school board,they are too remote from the classroom.
I can't speak for Kansas of course, but here there are teacher evaluators who come unannounced into every class, including tenured teachers, every marking period for several hours, at different times of day, to see how the teacher is doing. That's that person's full time job. They are teachers wiith many years experience and have extra degrees and courses in the evaluation process. Some teachers always hated being evaluated but I didn't.I always figured she was there to help me be even better at what I was doing and welcomed it. I always welcomed new ideas in presenting math to struggling kids because I didn't have a natural feel for finding many ways of presenting the same concept as I did in other subjects.
The thing they did in Maryland that I didn't like, every fourth year they would make us change grades. It was supposed to keep us fresh, but it meant I had to start over again with the collections of "stuff" I always used for teaching props, from bird nests and snake skins to posters, stories, research books and live plants, animals and seashells.

[readyaimduck]

You are right

Well drop me dead right here!

However, Ross....in your wisdom...you just turned this similary' State issue into your issues?
Please don't confuse 'there' and here' unless they are simiiliar   (apples/oranges)   
And i MAY be wrong and judgemental!!!!...
or....just mental! 

Thank you all to the Veterans...
ready

[Diane Amberg]

Ross, the teacher of our recent conversations was not disciplined, she was given "paid administrative leave", which apparently is standard in disputes at that school. More is still coming out.
His mom is a teacher, yet he had quit school. Good for him for wanting to make it right, but I'm still not sure that he's not too old now to be in that class. He could easily have been three years older than some of them and have had totally different expectations.  The teacher has to do what's best for all of them, not just any one of them. Apparently the teacher got someone to cover her class and met with the student and the principal and he did go back to class.... according to FOX NEWS.
If our young fellow thinks he's going to get a lot of "teacher talk, you listen," classes he's sadly mistaken. With technology the way is is, the classroom will soon be a very different place.
As far as "The Packets" he was complaining about ,the teacher may have had no choice. I'm still investigating that. In Core Cirrculum classes the teacher does have a lot of flexibility in how each unit is taught, and what resourses are used as long as they reach the goal of that unit. Not all schools do that. Many are much more structured.

[Ross]

However, Ross....in your wisdom...you just turned this similary' State issue into your issues?
Please don't confuse 'there' and here' unless they are simiiliar   (apples/oranges)   
And i MAY be wrong and judgemental!!!!...
or....just mental! 

Wisdom, what ?
Me, naw.
Frustration, yea!
Mental for me, right!
Excuse me, break time -- LOL

[Bullwinkle]

If our young fellow thinks he's going to get a lot of "teacher talk, you listen," classes he's sadly mistaken. With technology the way is is, the classroom will soon be a very different place.
As far as "The Packets" he was complaining about ,the teacher may have had no choice. In Core Cirrculum classes the teacher does have a lot of flexibility in how each unit is taught, and what resourses are used as long as they reach the goal of that unit.

     And , thank you for making the kids point and the point of this thread.

   This kid merely challanged this "different place" classroom, not just the teacher. The reason why it resonated with a multitude of kids and parents and went viral. Most just sit on their hands.

[Ross]

I agree Bullwinkle. Where is teaching going? Do we need teachers or just room monitors to make sure the kids are in class and learning from the computer screens?  I'm all for technology, but if we don't need teacher talk then we don't need teachers do we?

I just posted some information that I found very interesting about teaching an teachers credibility that you might find interesting.
I sure hope the Konnected School Board President and the rest of the School Board of Education find interesting and helpful.
It is posted at http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,11780.new.html#new 

Keep your eyes open for severe storms this afternoon and stay safe.

[Diane Amberg]

It may be that the teacher will be there, but especially in upper grades, the class size may be much larger. In the lower grades ,where kids are still learning how to learn, I hope the classes won't be huge... but electronic teaching will be there even more than now. Much cheaper over the long term, and the screen can't be accused of being lazy, now can it? .... Then who will a young man blame? Lab classes will still have labs of course.
 School books as we were used to may vanish in favor of one kind of electronic device or other, easy to update and again cheaper in the long run. No more kids with 10 year old beat up text books.
  .

[Bullwinkle]

      And ......... once again the wise and powerful "Oz" takes a thread and makes it about her. The wizard of Oz was a fake and baffled everyone with his BS and so is she.

      Go back to your east coast happenings with your personal crap. Geeeze, as Sruzich would say.