[edi581] Re: illiterate teachers
- From: "Deb Helberg" <debs3_98@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: edi581@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 00:57:49 +0000
Hi everyone!!
Carl brings up a really good point with this email. I am also a substitute
teacher and have seen some incompetent teachers in my day. My point in
writing back was to relay an experience I had with a teacher who I had in
high school. She was a 10th grade global studies teacher who no one really
got along with. She was new at the time (to teaching in general, I don't
know but new to the school). She spent the entire year working on this
project with us for a mock model UN that we were going to be doing at the
end of the year. This had nothing to do with the curriculum or for that
matter, the Regents exam we all had to take in June. Well, to make a long
story short, I received a phone call after the exam had been corrected that
I had failed the exam with a 62 and was being forced to take the Regents
Competency exam, thinking I was the only one from her classes that had
failed. I took the exam and then enrolled in a 2 week "refresher" course
that was being taught that summer to get students ready to take the Regents
again in August. When I walked in the first day, a very large number of
students were in her classes. How interesting was that!! Anyway, I ended up
passing the exam with flying colors (I believe I scored an 85 or something)
with only a 2 week refresher of both years of Global Studies. The reason I
am telling you this is because I saw the same teacher at one of the schools
where I sub as a building substitute teacher. She had basically been
demoted. I'm assuming (and may be wrong) that she got tenure but possibly
because of her incompetence, she was demoted to a building substitute
position. I talked to a few of the teachers that I am familiar with and was
told that she does nothing while in her classes. On one particular day, she
was in for the instructional support teacher on the team I was subbing for
and walked around the room and looked at different books and things while
she was in the room I was subbing in and wasn't helping those students she
should have been working with. Another teacher on the team said she didn't
want this particular person in her room when she was supposed to be in there
because she was just getting in the way. Why wasn't this teacher let go from
the district? Obviously they didn't feel she could handle being a full time
teacher so instead of letting her go, they put her in a building substitute
position. Very interesting!!
Anyway, hope this adds to the conversation.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!
-Deb
P.S. Does anyone know where I can download Microsoft Publisher without
having to purchase it? For some reason the windows XP that I have installed
on my computer did not come with publisher. Thanks!
>From: "diana romeo" <dromeo@xxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: edi581@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: edi581@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [edi581] illiterate teachers
>Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 11:56:49 -0500
>
>
>Hi Class,
> It seems to me that except for required assignments, our class
>listserve has been very quiet this year, although parhaps the traffic level
>has been normal. Only Jerry can tell that.
> I thought that I would try to generate a little activity before class
>ends, and possibly make myself unpopular at the same time. Maybe some of
>you (including Jerry) will share your thoughts on this!
>
> The following e-mail appeared recently on Middle-L listserve. I have
>not put it in quotation marks or altered it in any way, because I wanted to
>reproduce it exactly as it was sent. It reads:
>
> Has anyone read the book Mick Harte was here. We're doing that book
>with my sixth graders and was wondering if there was any lesson plans with
>it. Thanks for your help!
>Vickie!
>
> I sometimes make typographical errors in my messages and in my haste,
>fail to correct them, although I consider this poor form and try not to do
>it. However, I think, in fairness, anyone can let a mistake or two go
>through. However, one does not need to be judgemental to conclude that the
>above is an illiterate atrocity by someone who has no command of proper
>grammar, and is purportedly TEACHING English to young children.
>
> I count 3 errors in the first sentence alone, and they are not the type
>which are generated from hitting the wrong key on the keyboard- they are
>generated from ignorance of the English language. The second sentence has
>three more, including using a singular verb for a plural noun.
>
> We have had some interesting discussions on teacher tenure. My wife is
>a teacher, and I have been associated with education in one way or another
>all my life, and I strongly believe in a tenured system. It provides just
>and needed protection to millions of GOOD teachers who would be helpless
>without it.However, the controversy, and continuing question is: "does
>tenure shelter bad teachers along with the goods ones?"
>
> My own theory is that it does not do so by design, and does not need
>to do so, but sometimes does. In my 5 years inside schools as a teacher
>(albeit substitute), I have encountered many teachers who lack
>professionalism, work ethic, and even competence, and not only continue in
>the profession, but get the same increase at the end of the year as the
>good teachers, who work hard for their students.
>
> As Jerry has pointed out, contrary to popular belief, tenure does not
>guarantee a lifetime job, but only assures just cause for dismissal. Under
>this formula a teacher can be fired for any just cause, including
>incompetence.
>
> However, we all know that bad teachers do exist (as some incompetent
>people, in all fairness, do in every profession). Out of our entire class,
>and all of the teachers we have cumulatively known in our student and
>teacher years, how many TENURED teachers can we name who were fired for
>INCOMPETENCE and only incompetence, not involving any malfeasance or any
>other charges? If, as a group, we can come up with 12 out of the thousands
>of teachers we have known, I will be surprised- but surprise me. I would
>like nothing better. It will give me a new level of faith in the system.
>
> So the final question is (I don't know if there is a final answer),
>how can we do a better job of purging bad teachers from the profession
>without destroying tenure or entertaining bird brained ideas like the
>"renewable tenure" Jerry has alluded to, which is non-tenure? It is unfair
>that these slugs damage students and get the same pay and salary increases
>as the great majority of good teachers who work so hard to be good at their
>profession.
>
> Does the answer lie in better Administration? Would the Unions back
>Administrators in the dismissal of teachers who had commited no other
>offense than just being very bad teachers. Then, the final, final question.
>How do we judge who is a good and who is a bad teacher (Even though
>everyone knows)?
> Thoughts please!
>
>Carl
>P.S. Please excuse any uncorrected "typos" in this message. Yuk! Yuk!
>
>
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