a teacher's rant

HMP

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Want to question your profession? Give students a short answer written response and NOT give them the prompts beforehand...

I know we got some smart history folks on here...yalls heads would explode.
Imperialism and WW1 Test (so we're looking at 1890s-1920... goes that far cause we lump in 19thA in there)
Youd be shocked at how many mention Mexican American War (likely confused with Spanish American War, I SORT OF get that, but it's wrong), talk of how Germans were in America fighting the Mexicans, Germans in American fighting WITH the Mexicans, and just rambling on.

One mentioned the first female US senator...and even wrote it as "the first US Senator named ___________ ____________ who was in government work"
Yes, she left a big blank area because she didnt know the name.
Fun part is that we're talking about ww1, during which women didnt even have the right to vote, sure as heck werent any senators, and I KNOW I didnt teach them about an female politicians. Ever.

Ive seen "women" spelled "wemon" four times
Random facts just tossed in randomly (ie: Open Door Policy was about China)
And about 1/3 you strain to read because their handwriting is THAT bad. One I made a note that the student would need to read it to me because I could NOT read it.

And I was so excited during this unit, the kids seemed interested (it's a world war, kids love that stuff!).

Thanks for letting me vent
 
Sounds like they need better teaching.
That sounds like an indictment on the op.
Im not willing to go that far.
What I will say, from a mother with 38 years experience in the school system, is it is much harder to get the kids to care about learning nowadays. If they dont care, they half ass it. The tend to b.s. their way through daily life outside school and think they can do it there, too. In their instant gratification, spoon fed world, it is very near impossible to think and recall info on their own.
Add it all together and this is the result you get.


I truly empathize with educators today.
Hold your head high, @HMP
You might just reach one.
 
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That sounds like an indictment on the op.
Im not willing to go that far.
What I will say, from a mother with 38 years experience, is it is much harder to get the kids to care about learning nowadays. If they dont care, they half ass it. The tend to b.s. their way through daily life outside school and think they can do it there, too. In their instant gratification, spoon fed world, it is very near impossible to think and recall info on their own.
Add it all together and this is the result you get.


I truly empathize with educators today.
Hold your head high, @HMP
You might just reach one.


Oh, they arent all terrible, but some definitely are.
Fact is you have kids who are given a study guide on Friday for a test on Wednesday, time to work on it in class, go over the answers to SG etc and they still fail.
Some just dont pay attention or THINK.
The prompts, and this is not verbatim because it's not in front of me at the moment, had things like, "How did American women's roles in society change because of WW1"
 
Wow did I say it was the OP's fault? Heck take it as you want. But yes I think they need better teaching. Unfortunately the teaching that actually mattered was from 1st -5th grade. I remember taking a tour of the public school in Kindergarten and they had the colors on the wall to teach kids. Honestly what the hell did these so called parents teach them.
 
Oh, they arent all terrible, but some definitely are.
Fact is you have kids who are given a study guide on Friday for a test on Wednesday, time to work on it in class, go over the answers to SG etc and they still fail.
Some just dont pay attention or THINK.
The prompts, and this is not verbatim because it's not in front of me at the moment, had things like, "How did American women's roles in society change because of WW1"

I was definitely painting with a very wide brush, but yes, I agree they arent all bad.
I have a mixed bag of recent graduates in my classes at CCC (as you might remember from my free Constitution thread lol). Some are sharp, care, want to do well. Some are argumentative, always right, and throw out the most random stuff as fact.
The former understand where the good grade comes from and the latter think the professors hate them.
Unfortunately, you can't have one without the other and I have no idea how to reach the latter. I sincerely hope you are able to.
Educating is a noble profession. I wish you Godspeed in it.
 
I feel ya man. My brother, who teaches middle school, was once informed that the south lost the Civil War because the north had superior Air Power.

Your students must have been watching The Three Amigos where the German dude is delivering guns to El Guapo.
 
Wow did I say it was the OP's fault? Heck take it as you want. But yes I think they need better teaching. Unfortunately the teaching that actually mattered was from 1st -5th grade. I remember taking a tour of the public school in Kindergarten and they had the colors on the wall to teach kids. Honestly what the hell did these so called parents teach them.
Thanks a lot No Child Left Behind.

Kids cant read. Kids cant write.
If youre of a certain age and female it's 'popular' to write your "S" on it's side, like a backward "N"...I dont accept that. I count off if a junior or senior in HS is writing in a way that I have to re-read to figure out what the heck they are writing. Youre almost voting age, write normal.

Kids arent pushed to THINK enough, why I give an essay with each test. Why I give DBQs (Document based questions) often -you have to read and comprehend what it says or what it means (sometimes its a political cartoon) and then form those thoughts into words/sentences.
They hate it. They dont like it cause they cant guess when they dont know. Like what Im seeing, and referenced above - if they dont know they just spew information that may or may not be factual.

Yes, there are many types of students today. I do my absolute best to reach them all, some cant be.
I'll give you an example from two weeks ago - I was showing imperialism-era cartoons (political cartoons), and calling on random folks to just tell me "what you see in this," get them finding things in the image and then let's figure out why it might be there, what it might mean.
So I randomly call on this one girl and she says the classic 'I dont know.'
You cant identify ANYTHING in this image? Ok, what about that tall lanky fellow with the tophat?
"I dont know"
Who could it be in the stars and stripes outfit with the tophat?'
"I dont know who that guy is"

So I have multiple kids waving their hands in the air, call on one, 'Uncle Sam' and we discuss that/who it is/represent.
Next image I go back to the SAME girl as before, "hey _____, who's this guy?"
"I dont know"

Third image, again, back to the girl - NOTHING.

She simply doesnt get that because it's not the same drawing and slightly different that it represents the same guy.

They arent TRYING to figure that out.
Again, broad brush, cause there are some AMAZING kids in there.

ANd even the ones that drive me batty by their nonsense, I care about them all and will do my best as long as they are trying.
 
Also, since Im ranting.

Got this kid at school, he's an 18 year old Freshman. Think about that a second.
Ive had him once before (going to/supposed to have him next semester), and he wasnt a 'bad' kid, but he didnt care and made a lot of bad decisions in life.
Home life sucks, and I feel for him for that, but if youre doing stupid stuff I have little sympathy... he made the news just over a year ago with two more students/former students for a 'Thomasville teens' snapchat drug deal gone wrong' in which he, and the other two, got pistol whipped and robbed by the drug dealer. Look it up. Anyway, I saw him Wednesday in the hall and he had his hood up, which goes against our schools rules. "Hey, _________, take your hood off bud"
He did...took four steps and put it back on.
So I wrote him up. That's just a jerk thing to do.
As Im writing him up he starts going on and on about how much I hate him and abused him and that I was the reason he dropped out last year. Yeah, it's my fault, not the other classes you failed etc. He went off about how I attacked him and always punished him and wrote him up etc...we looked it up, Wednesday was the first day I'd ever written him up.

Kids take no responsibility for their actions. They dont have to, their parents allow this nonsense.
Their parents make excuses for them (Ive mentioned it before, a parent tried to tell me their kid couldnt concentrate because they were breathing TOO WELL...too much oxygen to their brain...YEAH. That was the same kid that called me a C yoU Next Tuesday online)

I love this job, I really do.
Ive met some AMAZING kids, and, truly, the 'bad' ones are the minority - like 2 or 3% of the kids I have, not much at all.
But it's the bad ones that take all your energy and attention, sadly.
But those great ones...wow, I love em, they brighten your day and make you know youre doing right.
 
my ex was a teacher - she had the same experience you describe. like a lot of areas of govt - they have the wrong people making the decisions.
 
My little brother was a history teacher/football coach for a number of years till he just couldn't take it anymore. Since he was a Male they put all the at risk students in his class . It's made him have a dim view on society and changed his demeanor unfortunately.
My daughter is studying to be a teacher right now, I just hope she can take all the up's and downs .
 
I know we got some smart history folks on here...yalls heads would explode.
Imperialism and WW1 Test (so we're looking at 1890s-1920... goes that far cause we lump in 19thA in there)
Youd be shocked at how many mention Mexican American War (likely confused with Spanish American War, I SORT OF get that, but it's wrong), talk of how Germans were in America fighting the Mexicans, Germans in American fighting WITH the Mexicans, and just rambling on.

I don't count myself a smart history person and I have resisted the urge to Google before this post.
What is the proper name for the unpleasantness involving Pershing, Patton, and Pancho Villa along the US-Mexican border for some time before WWI?
Wasn't there a scandal before/during WWI in which German diplomats were plotting some type of Mexican involvement against the US?

Kids cant read. Kids cant write.
If youre of a certain age and female it's 'popular' to write your "S" on it's side, like a backward "N"...I dont accept that. I count off if a junior or senior in HS is writing in a way that I have to re-read to figure out what the heck they are writing. Youre almost voting age, write normal.

And you're complaining about kids in high school???
I moved to North Carolina 25 years ago and my job entailed managing a group of professionals whose primary work products were long and complex written analyses. About half of those people could not write worth a flip. They could not order or prioritize topics. They could not make an orderly transition from general ideas to supporting details. They could not summarize what they had already written. They did not bother to use available tools like spelling and grammar checkers. And they were people who typically had a couple of college degrees and at least a decade of work experience.
 
Thanks a lot No Child Left Behind.

Kids cant read. Kids cant write.
If youre of a certain age and female it's 'popular' to write your "S" on it's side, like a backward "N"...I dont accept that. I count off if a junior or senior in HS is writing in a way that I have to re-read to figure out what the heck they are writing. Youre almost voting age, write normal.

Kids arent pushed to THINK enough, why I give an essay with each test. Why I give DBQs (Document based questions) often -you have to read and comprehend what it says or what it means (sometimes its a political cartoon) and then form those thoughts into words/sentences.
They hate it. They dont like it cause they cant guess when they dont know. Like what Im seeing, and referenced above - if they dont know they just spew information that may or may not be factual.

Yes, there are many types of students today. I do my absolute best to reach them all, some cant be.
I'll give you an example from two weeks ago - I was showing imperialism-era cartoons (political cartoons), and calling on random folks to just tell me "what you see in this," get them finding things in the image and then let's figure out why it might be there, what it might mean.
So I randomly call on this one girl and she says the classic 'I dont know.'
You cant identify ANYTHING in this image? Ok, what about that tall lanky fellow with the tophat?
"I dont know"
Who could it be in the stars and stripes outfit with the tophat?'
"I dont know who that guy is"

So I have multiple kids waving their hands in the air, call on one, 'Uncle Sam' and we discuss that/who it is/represent.
Next image I go back to the SAME girl as before, "hey _____, who's this guy?"
"I dont know"

Third image, again, back to the girl - NOTHING.

She simply doesnt get that because it's not the same drawing and slightly different that it represents the same guy.

They arent TRYING to figure that out.
Again, broad brush, cause there are some AMAZING kids in there.

ANd even the ones that drive me batty by their nonsense, I care about them all and will do my best as long as they are trying.

Tough job. I deal with adults like this every day. When this nation goes "tits up" those that care and have their wits about them will survive. The rest is cannon fodder.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk
 
So in the 10th grade, back in the last century, world history class Mr. Watson would go over and discuss Friday's test on Thursday in reverse order (e.g. questions 10 to 1) and a good number of my fellow students still failed the test. What can you say?
 
So as not to start a pissing match I'll say this. Some parents suck, some students suck, some teachers suck, and most public school administration suck. Plenty of blame to go around. Blow it all up and start over. It's 2018, we don't need to keep structuring and teaching like Dewey is still alive and computers haven't been invented.

My daughter's AP Bio teacher thinks too many kids major in Bio in College and drop out so his mission is to discourage as many kids as possible. He proudly tells kids and parents this. My daughter plans on majoring in Bio and has the highest grade in the class. I think it is a 68 right now. Parents and kids have complained to admin for several years. No change. He has no consistency, structure or plan that helps the kids learn. They do labs every day and he never reviews them or grades the work. So the kids don't know if they are really learning anything or not. And in my daughter's case she has about a 4.3 GPA as she applies to colleges and really doesn't need a 68 in a class she will be majoring in.

So plenty of stupidity and incompetence to go around. By all parties.
 
I don't count myself a smart history person and I have resisted the urge to Google before this post.
What is the proper name for the unpleasantness involving Pershing, Patton, and Pancho Villa along the US-Mexican border for some time before WWI?
Wasn't there a scandal before/during WWI in which German diplomats were plotting some type of Mexican involvement against the US?



And you're complaining about kids in high school???
I moved to North Carolina 25 years ago and my job entailed managing a group of professionals whose primary work products were long and complex written analyses. About half of those people could not write worth a flip. They could not order or prioritize topics. They could not make an orderly transition from general ideas to supporting details. They could not summarize what they had already written. They did not bother to use available tools like spelling and grammar checkers. And they were people who typically had a couple of college degrees and at least a decade of work experience.

Youre referring to the Zimmerman Note/Telegram where Germany wanted Mex to attack us to keep us occupied here.

You know those little red squiggly lines under some words - kids will just ignore them on work they are turning in.
 
I feel ya man. My brother, who teaches middle school, was once informed that the south lost the Civil War because the north had superior Air Power.

Your students must have been watching The Three Amigos where the German dude is delivering guns to El Guapo.

Are you saying The South actually had the superior air power? :D
 
To the OP, I feel for you. My son is in 8th grade. He has been taught that it is OK to answer "I don't know" and sometimes I think that is the only lesson that has stuck, because he learned the hell out of that lesson. I take him to tutoring twice a week because his writing is so bad (I'd say 4th grade level). He is a good kid, is working at overcoming some ADHD stuff, and as a parent I have tried. He gets math, and science so I know he is smart enough...but I don't know how to teach him the stuff he needs (thus the tutoring) and I don't feel like he has anyone getting up in his face about his deficiencies at school.

To you I just say "Thanks". Kids are not being challenged and I'm glad that someone out there is at least trying.

Full disclosure - I typed the word "teh" six times in this reply, so I guess I am the doofus.
 
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He has been taught that it is OK to answer "I don't know" and sometimes I think that is the only lesson that has stuck, because he learned the hell out of that lesson.
He needs a minor adjustment on that lesson. It's ok to say I don't know and it's often times better to do so honestly than to make do something up, at least in a professional setting, but it still counts as the wrong answer on the test questions.
 
Its ok to not know something, but too many dont TRY to learn it.
That was the point I hoped to make above, I was giving her the same question in different ways/images but she just didnt try to think.

If you dont know something first go round - no worries, that's what Im here for. but if it's been a week and youre still not getting it then at what point does the blame rest on you?
 
@HMP are you CPI certified? I’m sure my wife wouldn’t mind a helping hand one day if you don’t mind the risk of being bitten, intentionally peed on, kicked, cursed at, scratched, punched, told how terrible of a person you are, or simply ignored.

Did I mention this was K-3?

There’s always something worse out there.
 
Are you saying The South actually had the superior air power? :D

Ill explain it once, so print it out:

The South lost because the North was able to hack into the souths Data Network and steal the plans to the Enterprise D Schematics. Upon learning of this, plans to develop a further air force was scrapped and the funds allocated were shipped overseas to the Nigerian royal family with the promise that it would be returned at some future date. During this lul in the development of advance aerospace technology the North was able to slip in undetected behind Lees firewall and hack into The ATL mainframe. They uploaded a virus that caused MARTA to stop running for the day which prevented JEB Stuart from making it to the Varsity for his Plain Chocolate, two hotdogs, fries and a burger. Anyone who has been to ATL knows that missing the Varsity pretty much makes the south not worth fighting for. On top of this Dale Murphy announced he was retiring, which was pretty much the only thing the Braves had going for them at the time. While GA was falling, the North Carolina troops withdrew from Virginia because Texas started claiming they had superior BBQ. The Lexington regiments, who took personal offense, rushed home to stoke the fires for the annual BBqs to prove the texans (who were kinda considered Mexicans anyway) wrong. The governor of Fla realized that if he subdivided his beach front property he could make far more money selling property to retired white folk from New Jersey. Alabama and Louisiana had been holding pretty strong, but seeing North Carolina, GA, and FL were throwing in the towel decided that they should probably capitalize on their women showing their boobies at a party once per year. Unfortunately for Alabama, New Orleans had drawn these creole ladies who had far superior mamaries, so Alabama lost out on the great boobie struggle of 1865. South Carolina, seeing its neighbors falling back due to internal issues, decided that they would release genetically engineered mosquitos into their atmosphere. They have successfully used this defense to keep most Yankees out of their state thus far. At this time, Josey Wales began his bloody swath of terror through the western states. Virginia, the remaining state holding out, was promised to be spared the largest part of the pending flood of carpet baggers if they would help find Wales. To do this, they sent some red legged dude along with this very plain looking blond chick with mild autism. They were relatively successful as Wales moved further west, and vanished along with the autistic albino doe eyed woman.

And that is how we got to where we are today. The Varsity rules Ga. Boobies rule Louisiana. Rich retirees rule Florida. South Carolina is ruled by mosquitos. NC and Texas still fight about BBQ. Virginia acts southern in the most yankee ways possible. And a Nigerian prince is still trying to find someone to transfer the Souths wealth to.
 
My favorite teaching story is of my father in law. He took over the family business outside Detroit after college and serving in the Marines at the end of Korea. He was a History Major and really wanted to teach but family obligation brought him into the family business. When he retired in early 2000's and sold the business, he decided to teach. The fun part was he was a 6' 6" white dude of german decent teaching in inner city Detroit. First position available and he took it. Only white person in the entire school for the 3 years he ended up teaching there. Did I mention he is a Liberty minded conservative? He spoke the truth while there and for the most part, it was well received. Really no parental involvement as this was a school for at risk kids and dropouts. He had some fantastic stories of kids asking why they had never been taught these things before. He was occasionally challenged but always had facts on his side. He also learned some fancy handshakes which he was convinced could get him into some seedy neighborhoods or allow him to score some illegal substances if needed.
 
I've worked with brilliant people that would misspell the most basic words, worked with great engineers that couldn't tell you a bit of history, and chemists that couldn't write a legible sentence to save their life. I get that you want the kids to do a good job on your subject, but some just aren't going to see it as important.

Hang in there buddy, just enjoy the kids for what they are (cause some just aren't getting it outside of a one-on-one environment), and know that some years are rougher than others.
 
This is my 20th year in education, but I left the classroom 7 years ago about a year after my son was born. I found myself ignoring my own child and husband so that I could grade papers, write feedback on essays, and answer countless emails. Evenings and weekends were spent on the sofa with a stack of papers and at least part of every holiday. So I left the classroom and now I work 12 months a year, but I would say that I spend just as much time (if not more) with my family as I did when I worked 10 months. The evenings are mine and the weekends and holidays are filled with family.


Most nights I am able to leave my work at work. I say all of this to say “thank you.” Teaching is a tough job. A really freakin’ tough job. Particularly for the ones that care. The ones that are not in it for the pay check and benefits but the ones that are there to make a difference. And for anyone who disagrees I politely say “suck it” until you have walked in a teacher’s shoes.


Hang in there. Let the little successes you have with students fuel you to keep pushing forward. Remember the ones you know you made a difference for. There are so many reasons I could list for why some students seem to just not care, even more so now, then when I started 20 years ago. But the fact is they are all out of your circle of control. Focus on what you can control. Keep keepin’ on.
 
I've worked with brilliant people that would misspell the most basic words, worked with great engineers that couldn't tell you a bit of history, and chemists that couldn't write a legible sentence to save their life. I get that you want the kids to do a good job on your subject, but some just aren't going to see it as important.

This is the truth. I'm the worlds worst speller. If you look at a lot of my post it says *edited* because I go back and realize I spelled incorrectly or had bad grammar. I can't see when it happens then after I post I have to fix it.

Right here is the perfect example.
 
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This is the truth. I'm the worlds worst speller. If you look at a lot of my post it says *edited* because I go back and realize I spelled incorrectly or had bad grammar. I can't see it when I happens then after I post I have to fix it.

C'mon dude, I'm trying to make him feel better about his students, now you're telling him they might turn out like you.

Seriously though, I understand and support a well rounded education, but schools have moved to far away from trades and workplace training. I don't need the guy that works on my well to know the subtle nuances of the Franco-Prussian War or my dentist or derive IUPAC names of illicit drugs.
 
C'mon dude, I'm trying to make him feel better about his students, now you're telling him they might turn out like you.

Seriously though, I understand and support a well rounded education, but schools have moved to far away from trades and workplace training. I don't need the guy that works on my well to know the subtle nuances of the Franco-Prussian War or my dentist or derive IUPAC names of illicit drugs.

I completely agree. In Germany they do high school then a required 2 years of military/Trade school or university. I had a foreign exchange student that ended up doing a trade school for medical equipment and makes a six figure living.
 
Colleges accept kids that can't read or do basic arithmetic. They get loans.
This right here.
Good grief. I just finished up a college program, and freely admit I was dumb and kind of lazy as a teenager, but some of the kids I've seen are just worthless.

We had an online class where all you had to do was watch a movie each week and write a summary with focus on camera technique, etc that amounted to a paragraph.
We had 40 students enrolled. 5 of us did the assignments all the way through.
 
Ill explain it once, so print it out:

The South lost because the North was able to hack into the souths Data Network and steal the plans to the Enterprise D Schematics. Upon learning of this, plans to develop a further air force was scrapped and the funds allocated were shipped overseas to the Nigerian royal family with the promise that it would be returned at some future date. During this lul in the development of advance aerospace technology the North was able to slip in undetected behind Lees firewall and hack into The ATL mainframe. They uploaded a virus that caused MARTA to stop running for the day which prevented JEB Stuart from making it to the Varsity for his Plain Chocolate, two hotdogs, fries and a burger. Anyone who has been to ATL knows that missing the Varsity pretty much makes the south not worth fighting for. On top of this Dale Murphy announced he was retiring, which was pretty much the only thing the Braves had going for them at the time. While GA was falling, the North Carolina troops withdrew from Virginia because Texas started claiming they had superior BBQ. The Lexington regiments, who took personal offense, rushed home to stoke the fires for the annual BBqs to prove the texans (who were kinda considered Mexicans anyway) wrong. The governor of Fla realized that if he subdivided his beach front property he could make far more money selling property to retired white folk from New Jersey. Alabama and Louisiana had been holding pretty strong, but seeing North Carolina, GA, and FL were throwing in the towel decided that they should probably capitalize on their women showing their boobies at a party once per year. Unfortunately for Alabama, New Orleans had drawn these creole ladies who had far superior mamaries, so Alabama lost out on the great boobie struggle of 1865. South Carolina, seeing its neighbors falling back due to internal issues, decided that they would release genetically engineered mosquitos into their atmosphere. They have successfully used this defense to keep most Yankees out of their state thus far. At this time, Josey Wales began his bloody swath of terror through the western states. Virginia, the remaining state holding out, was promised to be spared the largest part of the pending flood of carpet baggers if they would help find Wales. To do this, they sent some red legged dude along with this very plain looking blond chick with mild autism. They were relatively successful as Wales moved further west, and vanished along with the autistic albino doe eyed woman.

And that is how we got to where we are today. The Varsity rules Ga. Boobies rule Louisiana. Rich retirees rule Florida. South Carolina is ruled by mosquitos. NC and Texas still fight about BBQ. Virginia acts southern in the most yankee ways possible. And a Nigerian prince is still trying to find someone to transfer the Souths wealth to.
I did print this out! Great stuff....
 
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