School Teacher

how do you deal w/poorly behaved students that are a bane to the classroom, but aren't *quite* bad enough to get kicked out of school or moved to special ed? are there ways to contain them?

Asked by dana about 11 years ago

Who do teachers have tenure? Can't think of too many other jobs that have anything similar.

Asked by fun_in_boise over 11 years ago

what do you think of the idea being kicked around about arming teachers and school officials?

Asked by ernesto over 11 years ago

No. That's what I've got for you. No, never. Metal detectors change the vibe of a school. I know they are deemed more necessary in some schools but there is a different feel when you walk through one to go teach or learn than when you walk in a building without one. I know many schools that have a buzz-in system. I know schools that have security. But arming teachers? No, no no.

When you hear something as tragic as the Connecticut story today, does that alone make you never want to set foot in a classroom again?

Asked by so, so saddened... over 11 years ago

I'm sorry for the delay. I wanted to take time to process and consider without just replying through pure emotion. Because I have been just so, so sad this week. My honest answer is no. Sadly, I can say no because I was training to be a teacher when Columbine happened. And since then, there were at least four others I can think of off the top of my head before Sandy Hook. Are you a bit rattled? Sure. I can fully and totally reconcile the statistical chance of me being harmed in my classroom or my students being harmed or there being an incident in my school being very, very, very low. Years of being afraid of flying have made me better about saying, ok, things happen but that doesn't mean thing is going to happen to me. I'm not anymore scared of being in my classroom than I am of being at a movie theater or a mall. The sad truth is that these events are happening in many places. So I don't worry, per se, more about entering the school the next day. I have the heaviest of hearts but more I'm sad that this is happening at all, anywhere. And, I feel equipped, as best any of us can be, to talk with my students and colleagues. I've done a lot of counseling training in an effort to best serve my students. My first week of teaching was 9/11 and that profoundly shaped how I view the role of teacher in times of crises. So as horrific as it is, I can be a person kids talk to. I know the way their brains work and know how to toggle between the terrifying and the inane as kids their age do. I know what's appropriate to share, how to know which kids are struggling more, and which kids to keep an eye on for other reasons. When I heard the news on Friday I had two parallel reactions. One was as a teacher, angry beyond measure that someone would desecrate my holy place. As a child, school was the only place I felt totally safe. I loved being in schools. In previous answers I shared how critical good schools were towards me being somebody, anybody. To target a school is just blasphemous. It's horrific. It's unbelievable. The fact that I've had to explain to 7th graders why the walls of windows that make my room so warm and welcoming are dangerous during lock down drills. The fact that we're discussing concealed carry laws in daycares make me want to scream. My other reaction was as a mother. These little children were so, so little. To think of the joy of a first grade classroom, the small feet and the tiny chairs and tables. Cubbies with pictures of families as anything other than a beautiful, warm space made me die a little inside. Thinking of my friends' new kindergarteners. Thinking of my own daughter skipping into her preschool now because, aside from home, it is her favorite place in the world makes my heart leap. Knowing that 20 families had that joy ripped from them makes me want to curl up in a ball and quit. But it doesn't make me want to stop teaching. Would I be as heroic as the teachers who cleverly hid students? Or read to them so a story was soothing? Or put my arms around a group of students willing my body to be a shield? God, I hope I would be that teacher. I don't think I should have to be willing to die for my profession. I realize firemen and other professions take their jobs knowing an inherent level of terrifying risk. I don't think teachers should be in that camp. That's a long winded answer, I know. But no, I don't fear going into the classroom. I fear guns. There was a mall shooting and a theater shooting in recent memory. I cannot allow myself to begin fearing going anywhere and everywhere. So I return to my school as sanctuary model and hope society finds its civic and civil core.

Why do male teachers who have sex with female students get treated more harshly than when a female teacher has sex with an underage male student? Aren't they both pedophiles?

Asked by guest123 almost 12 years ago

Hmm. I gotta say. I don't think it's true. I don't think men get treated more harshly. In fact, I personally know of three male teachers who have gone on to marry former students. Whether relations were happening while the student was a minor, I can't say for sure. But they were accepted by the school communities and allowed to stay in their positions. One is now the head of a terribly prestigious independent school, the school that he met his wife at in fact. His wife is in her 30s (she was in my graduating class from high school) now so the shock factor isn't there but I know I kept looking at my colleagues with a "seriously? NO ONE is mentioning this??" look. But the idea of an older man/younger woman seems far less scandalous than a older woman/younger man. And, age of consent in many states means a high schooler could technically consent to sex. Statutory rape laws often make it illegal because of an age gap. Before you assume I'm justifying the behavior, know that I'm not. Even if a teacher truly truly thought they were in love with a student, the power dynamic means there's an inherent imbalance. A teacher should have the mental faculties to realize that just isn't good, right, or what we signed up for when we became teachers. And the ethics of the job mean you just DON'T do that. And, I mean, ew. The ick factor is super icky. I'm not terribly knowledgable about what the specific medical definition of a pedophile is...like if a 22 year old teacher has sex with an 18 year old...but it's just not right because of the teacher/student relationship. Heck, I even get weirded out when I hear a professor married a former student, who is most likely of age. I happen to think there is an honor and privilege and responsibility of being a teacher that rules out lusty stuff. BUT, I think if you truly think about the public reaction, the country seems to love a good young (often kind of cute) female teacher doing something gross with a teenage boy. If you look back at the news, female teachers having sex with male students get sensationalized attention on sites like CNN. Starting with Mary Kay Latourneau in 1995 and the parade of gross just continued from there. It is ALL over the national news when a woman does it. Male teachers, like the guys in California who were busted for molestation of very young children and many of them, also make big news. But the interviews and made for TV movies are more likely, I think, to be about some 25 year old blonde lady.

Report card time! If a student is right on the brink of getting a higher vs lower grade, how do you decide?

Asked by Janice dub almost 12 years ago

Brinksmanship! I like it! Let me start by saying I despise letter grades. Blech. What does an A mean in a world of totally different schools, teachers, whatever, grade inflation, parents threatening to sue, kids feeling like they should apply to 23 colleges? I can tell you: not much. I took all my classes in college for Pass/Fail. Yup, that was me. It was my one moment of revolutionary zeal in a very quiet life. BUT, I got written narratives by professors (or, you know, TAs) that were far more revealing, I think than a simple letter grade. Specific papers were mentioned, skills I had honed or needed to hone, contributions I made in discussions and one claim of "insubordination". I sought out a school to teach at, then, that allowed for narratives since I think they do a much better job of telling a student's story. That school also felt like it was obligated to still assign letter grades to kids at the semesters, so I've done those too. I'm not a total hippie. So what then to do with the kid on the brink? Unless you are a teacher that just straight up calculates an average, you are going to deal with this. The 89.9. The 64.5. It's totally subjective for many teachers. But that doesn't mean it is unfair. All of my projects and work include rubrics, standards the kids must meet. So they are accumulating wisdom about what it takes to be successful in my class (and I think as a human being) as the year progresses. When I sit down to do the semester grades, I look at the scores of all of those things. I look at whether they consistently turn in work. I think about what is going on at home (I am not going to fail a kid who doesn't turn in homework AND I know mom is battling cancer, if that makes sense). And then I come up with a letter. And often, kids are stuck in between. My logic for the bump up or down includes some of the following: 1. Effort. If the kid was coasting and getting As on tests but unprepared daily and not trying to engage, I'd go lower. If a kid was killing themselves to do well and was SO close to a B but not quite there, I'd bump them up to motivate them. You want to figure out if the individual kid is going to be inspired by needing to bring it OR in being rewarded for trying really hard to bring it. 2. Trajectory. If a kid had struggled all semester and really seems to be making progress, I consider the second half of the scores more heavily than the first half. Some kids have to adjust to a new teacher or new grade and find their groove. And, change over time matters. It really does. 3. Class participation/attitude. If a kid is a turd during group projects or is rude and dismissive, that factors negatively into the grade (and I make sure all my students are aware of that from day 1). I like the wiggle room of classroom demeanor/civitas/whatever. A kid who struggles a bit with writing but is just awesome in discussions, a wonderful cooperative partner, helps classmates should be rewarded for that as those are skills society needs. The nice thing about my school is that I can then go into more detail about what I'm seeing in my room and why that grade makes sense. I also choose my language carefully. A kid never "gets" a C in my class. Or an A. They earn it.

A couple months ago a teacher in California was fired when her porn past was discovered (http://fxn.ws/JxFgVi). Do you think this was fair?

Asked by BX almost 12 years ago

Oh.Hmm.Can I skip this one?? Here's the thing. I teach Civics. And Ethics. So I'm clearly a nerd who never did much wrong. I don't speed. I pick up litter. I return my shopping cart EVERY time to the shopping cart thing in the parking lot. I do. I never downloaded music illegally. And I knew I wanted to be a teacher forever. And I vote and do good things because I want to model that for my kids. I don't even complain about jury duty. I LIKE JURY DUTY. And so, I'm going to do the magic teacher trick. Instead of answering a question I just don't know the answer to, I'm going to turn it back on you. Sorry, buddy. I believe in the redemptive spirit of mankind. That we can be people who grow and change and evolve and improve. I've seen people change. But maybe this teacher sees nothing wrong with it and thus feels it isn't something she needs to redeem. Perhaps she believes porn and teaching are not mutually exclusive things (well, I'm assuming she thinks they should at least not be done at the same time). And with what people under 40 are putting on "Texts from Last Night" and Facebook and Tumblr the number of folks who are likely to have damning things appear from their pasts seems like it will be maybe 5 people total in 10 years who are able to be teachers without any questionable past. So what do we do with that? What if someone was a really raunchy comic on weekends? Is that bad? I don't think so. But what if they made jokes about religious groups or homophobic comments? Yes, that is bad. But what if he made a joke about women? Or about something some people found offensive and others didn't. The challenge is that morality and ethics are, well, they're subjective. What if she was dancing topless during a parade. What if she is in a Mardi Gras troupe? Is that bad? What if it was a gay pride parade? What if she participated in protests against/for gay marriage? Abortion? Who decides what an immoral thing IS for a teacher to do? If porn is legal and she was of age and consented, did she do something wrong? So, here's a super oblique answer. If she lied about it on her application or during an interview, yes, she deserves to be fired. If they asked about previous careers and she omitted this (assuming she was paid and not just a really, really bad decision maker) then she lied on a job application and that's not awesome. Man, my brain hurts. I will say, I'd totally gossip about a coworker who did porn. Not gonna lie. But I wouldn't be the one telling the admin to fire her.