[etni] Fwd: Re: student teachers on ETNI
- From: ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:40:08 +0200
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: francine widerker <widerker@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: student teachers on ETNI
I feel a need to add my two cents here.
When I was a student in Gordon English Intensive program the message
was very clear. Always double check your spelling. You are an
English teacher and errors in spelling, even when they are typos are
unacceptable anywhere, anytime, and any place.
I too have never corrected any one's spelling on the list but I have a
very sad tale to tell.
When my oldest daughter (now 23) was in 9th grade she wrote a report
that her English teacher didn't feel was well organized. Her teacher
at the time, was not a native English speaker and unfortunately there
were a lot of spelling and grammatical errors in the teacher's comment
page. My daughter, who was in an irate and snooty stage at the time,
responded by grading the teacher's comment page and correcting it with
red ink.
I walked into the principal's office and asked him for advice on how
to handle it. The solution they found was to pull her out of the
English class and a different teacher provided her with self-study
guidelines. I needless to say, was left with a huge conundrum at
home. She is not allowed to mouth off at a teacher. She must respect
a teacher. The message at homeis clear. Yet the teacher made a joke of
herself. I write this freely as I know that the teacher in question
no longer teaches and is not on the list.
And here is an outrageous thought. Maybe someone who doesn't know
basic spelling should not be an English teacher. I, on my part,
promise never to teach Hebrew.
Francine
Rivka wrote:
> While I certainly don't condone writing nasty letters to anyone on the list,
> I do question whether the tone of the responses were really that nasty, or
> whether the person receiving them was just insulted because she was taken to
> task for her spelling. Because honestly, I do think that spelling is
> important when posting to a professional list of English teachers. If these
> student teachers can't be bothered to improve their spelling or even to use
> spell check and a dictionary when writing on ETNI, they'll surely make just
> as many mistakes in the classroom. As someone who also teaches student and
> beginning teachers, I cringe at some of the mistakes I find on their
> assignments - how can they possibly be expected to teach correct English to
> students? My absolute "favorite" is a teacher who took 2 points off a
> student's test for misspelling a word, then wrote in big letters next to the
> 98 - "Exalent!" (yes, that's how she spelled it). The student's mother, who
> happens to be my cousin, called me to ask for advice on whether to say
> something to the teacher or not. Not surprisingly, she's lost all confidence
> in the system, and doesn't expect her daughter to learn too much English
> without a massive dose of private lessons. So perhaps your student teachers
> should, instead of just quitting ETNI, consider that perhaps there is a
> something to learn from those nasty messages?
Avraham wrote:
> I am encouraging my student teachers to sign up and post to the ETNI list.
> On the whole they get very friendly replies and good advice, hoewever, some
> got surprisingly nasty responses from teachers commenting on their
> spelling. One of these new subscibers has already told me she is not going
> to write again.
>
> Could that really be within the ETNI spirit?
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