Charter schools

[Banditbandit]

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU’RE A TEACHER?

1.You get a secret thrill out of laminating things.

2.You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.

3.You've just had your profession slagged of by the same person who said "I wouldn't do your job for the world".

4.You have 25 people who accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.

5.You can eat a multi-course meal in under 25 minutes.

6.You’ve trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day, lunch and planning period.

7.You start saving other people’s trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.

8.You believe the Teacher’s Lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.

9.You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 7 to 3 and have summers off”.

10.You believe chocolate is a food group.

11.You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.

12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, “Boy, the kids are sure mellow today.”

13.You believe that "shallow gene pool" should be a tick box on a report card.

14.You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.

15.You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

16.You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.

17.You can’t pass the school supply aisle without getting at least 5 items!

18. You believe there should be a Prozac Salt Lick in the staff room.

19.You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils.

20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.

21.You understand, instantaneously, why a child behaves in a certain way after meeting his/her parents.

[mashman]

If she was the teacher, I'd still be at school. If she was the pupil, I would have been de-registered by now.

... send her to the head?

[oldrider]

You appear to be for them? Why?

How on earth do you get that idea ... I don't know anything about them but am interested to see how they work out!

I do know that the current school methods are full of short comings and teachers by their own admission are afraid to have their performance measured against reality!

The only other measures that I have witnessed is the quality of the product (students) that I have been involved with over time!

Different strokes for different folks, everyone is individually different, one size fits all is just crap! IMHO.

[Banditbandit]

How on earth do you get that idea ... I don't know anything about them but am interested to see how they work out!

I do know that the current school methods are full of short comings and teachers by their own admission are afraid to have their performance measured against reality!

That's not what I see - what I see that teachers are quite happy to be measured on performance - but the question is what will that look like??

Teachers are responsible for teaching, but only to a certain extent for student learning - students are largely responsible for their learning. Teachers are part of that process, but not the whole process. So pass rates are ony one measuere, and in isolation, tell you bugger all ...

And if students don't even get into class (truancy etc) how can you judge the teacher?

The only other measures that I have witnessed is the quality of the product (students) that I have been involved with over time!

Yeah .. naaa .. too much of the "quality of the student" you talk about is outside teacher control.

[mansell]

That's not what I see - what I see that teachers are quite happy to be measured on performance - but the question is what will that look like??

Teachers are responsible for teaching, but only to a certain extent for student learning - students are largely responsible for their learning. Teachers are part of that process, but not the whole process. So pass rates are ony one measuere, and in isolation, tell you bugger all ...

And if students don't even get into class (truancy etc) how can you judge the teacher?



Yeah .. naaa .. too much of the "quality of the student" you talk about is outside teacher control.

Thank You

[mashman]

And if students don't even get into class (truancy etc) how can you judge the teacher?

There are things being put in place to address the issue of teacher/student judgement ... but I can say no more

[SVboy]

How on earth do you get that idea ... I don't know anything about them but am interested to see how they work out!

I do know that the current school methods are full of short comings and teachers by their own admission are afraid to have their performance measured against reality!

The only other measures that I have witnessed is the quality of the product (students) that I have been involved with over time!

Different strokes for different folks, everyone is individually different, one size fits all is just crap! IMHO.

"Teachers by their own admission are afraid to have their performance measured against reality" You really dont have an inkling do you? By YOUR own admission you know little to nothing of current education and boy does it show! As I and other have said before: Teachers have many legislative criteria and professional standards we HAVE to meet in order to be deemed competent and legally registered to teach.[And rightly so]. Your "real world" only exists in your mind. I apologise for thinking you supported charter schools-I thought you would have been in favour of any right wing cost cutting measure-except anything threatening your pension of course!

[oldrider]

"Teachers by their own admission are afraid to have their performance measured against reality" You really dont have an inkling do you? By YOUR own admission you know little to nothing of current education and boy does it show! As I and other have said before: Teachers have many legislative criteria and professional standards we HAVE to meet in order to be deemed competent and legally registered to teach.[And rightly so]. Your "real world" only exists in your mind. I apologise for thinking you supported charter schools-I thought you would have been in favour of any right wing cost cutting measure-except anything threatening your pension of course!

You really ought to get a life!

[SVboy]

I had hoped for a better comeback than that. Teachers do try to have positive expectations!

[Ocean1]

Of cause students find the sciences hard - there seems to be some cultural thing.

Damned right there's a cultural thing. Science is no more difficult than any other discipline, (oops, there's that D word) it's just that you can't lower the bar with the hard sciences like they've done with the soft ones. It's not only culturally correct as far as the significantly socialist leaning teaching profession's concerned but also a fucking site less work to just gloss over the lack of performance by simply expecting less of the students.

[Ocean1]

From "parents" like you?

Ah, just like old times.

It's been 20 years since a teacher tried to blame me for her inability to do her job. Disappointing to see the attitude seems to have become ingrained as a first line of defence.

[mashman]

Damned right there's a cultural thing. Science is no more difficult than any other discipline, (oops, there's that D word) it's just that you can't lower the bar with the hard sciences like they've done with the soft ones. It's not only culturally correct as far as the significantly socialist leaning teaching profession's concerned but also a fucking site less work to just gloss over the lack of performance by simply expecting less of the students.

Aye, that's the issue . The entire system is inflexible. Shite at science, you alternative is, erm, hmmmm, well, doing science and failing because there is no real alternative because it's a core subject. Finally start understanding science 2 years after you started it but need to go back to the ground level to backfill your new found understanding? Tough shit, why should you be allowed to go backwards when you have been clearly branded a failure?

Get a clue fella.

[avgas]

To me, this concept goes against everything that education should be. If a society wants its' people educated, then secrecy and profits have no place in that education system.
The current system needs major overhauling, but this charter schools is not the answer.

Huh? Come again? You do know how Universities work don't you?
Or do you not count them as education?

As for overhauling by any other means - care to name one? Or you going to stomp your feet and throw your toys out of the cot like standard 2.

[mansell]

Aye, that's the issue . The entire system is inflexible. Shite at science, you alternative is, erm, hmmmm, well, doing science and failing because there is no real alternative because it's a core subject. Finally start understanding science 2 years after you started it but need to go back to the ground level to backfill your new found understanding? Tough shit, why should you be allowed to go backwards when you have been clearly branded a failure?

Get a clue fella.

The alternative is - living in fucking caves eating raw meat - Science is so ingrained in modern society we would be severely disadvantaging anyone to just put it in the too hard basket. Yes at higher levels the Sciences are difficult but I firmly believe we need at least an understanding of the thought processes behind it and an ability to sort fact out from mumbo jumbo.

[mashman]

The alternative is - living in fucking caves eating raw meat - Science is so ingrained in modern society we would be severely disadvantaging anyone to just put it in the too hard basket. Yes at higher levels the Sciences are difficult but I firmly believe we need at least an understanding of the thought processes behind it and an ability to sort fact out from mumbo jumbo.

Bit dramatic given that we are were we are, not because of a school system but because of our curiosity. But yeah, science being taught will shorten the learning curve and pique the interest of future scientists etc... tis a shame the too hard basket is too easy, certainly much easier than gearing the education system towards the student and their learning ability/want to learn at any given point in time in their development.