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A blog about the downfall of American education as seen through the eyes of a 22 year old new teacher.
So today I go on a rant and rave about how poorly my students did on a multiple choice test. I gave my students the exact test as a study guide and just left out the vital clue. WHen bitching about how little they care and how they will never go to a four year college if they are juniors that cannot pass geometry. Going on and on about how they need to improve. and a girl says “Miss I got all my christmas presents yesterday.”
Enough said. Once an idiot. Always an idiot.
Everyone has that high school crush. The guy that was so great and dreamy. He was also so badass, never followed the rules. Where is this stud now, working his minimum wage job and way past the prime of his life. So whoo hoo this kid had a lot of friends, but now hes 45 pounds over weight and can barely make ends meet.
I’m SORRY PARENTS BUT THIS IS JUST ANOTHER EXCUSE YOUR CHILD IS USING TO NOT DO THEIR WORK.
SO if your kids are into sports and super involved EXCELLENT! They hang out with their friends in a constructive manor, and they are getting exercise. They are seeing how a team operates and are learning that practicing will get them better. BUt please never use the excuse that your child cannot do their work because they would rather toss a ball around. “I want my child to be a kid.” And they will be. What about weekends? What about school sports and spending time with friends there? Let your kid be a kid but they must gain a sense of responsibility young or else they will never get it back. I want my child to be well rounded. Congrats your kid will be funny and popular, but in the long run, how is this benefiting him. I have wonderful friends and I was very popular in high school, but you better believe if I was failing a class I kissed my sports goodbye. Stop raising your children to be failures!
So I have this little asshole is my class. He decided to cut three days in a row. Once I called the parent, who just told me he just doesn’t want to come to my class, I obviously grew a little angry. When I asked the administration what will happen to him she freaked. ” I know his life, I know his family. He has it really rough at home, you know nothing about him.” We’ll I do know that he is an asshole in my class who feels like he can get away with everything! Are you kidding?
So now we have all students integrated in the classroom. A huge step from the segregated learning communities of the 50s. They were separate but equal. Now we are equal, all children in one school, but treated and punished separately due to their financial backgrounds and home life. So how does this help? The good kids keep getting better and the bad kids keep getting worse.
Alright teachers, ready for the big reveal? Whenever a student asks me, “Do I need to show my work?”
Well young mold-able mind of America, how would you feel if I put a question on the board and just wrote the answer next to it. Without ever telling you my thought process. Then expected you to know exactly what went on in my mind. Would you be okay with that? Same thing when I read your tests, I see an answer and I have no idea how you got there.
My other favorite question. When will I ever need this in the real world.
FIrst off little Johnny what do you think we should learn in school.
Things we will use in life.
LIke what?
Usually they can never give specifics. And I reply until you truly have an answer for my question then see me, but right now this curriculum has produced engineers, doctors, lawyers and mathematicians so i guess it is doing some good.
OR (even better)
you wont need this stuff, because you suck at math and no one will ever hire you for a position in which math is required.
But don’t forget as teachers, we can no longer hurt peoples self esteem. (sadly despite their huge egos) so I would stick to the first response
Lets see kids, three days left… Have you heard me announce a quiz or test… no. So then we have about two more homework assignments, so basically no!
THen of course the next question is always, “Do you give extra credit?” Extra credit is the worst invention ever. First kids think they can slack all marking period and make up for it at the end with a mini assignment. SOrry no way! Do the homework, open your notebook, keep your head up! Not so difficult. I say to my students would it be okay if I did not teach you all week and then said, ‘Ok guys I feel like teaching on Saturday so come in then. Oh yeah, and board of ed. you should pay me overtime cause I am coming in Saturday.” So a student cannot do the work they are supposed to in the given 40 minutes, but they can just make up for it later in life and boost their grade. NO WAY!
Then my students always ask for extra help. My response is until you begin to do the homework and take notes in class I am not giving you extra help. Why do students require a private lesson from you after class. They think they are entitled to one on one tutoring when they are ready to learn. I say to the students if you won’t give me an extra minute at home to do homework, I am not giving you an extra minute outside of my job to help you. Students are so spoon fed. They just want all the answers and expect me to dish them out. I’m sorry fellow bloggers I just won’t do it.
I am taking a class as an alternate route teacher. This means I majored in mathematical sciences for undergraduate and now am taking an education course so that I know how to put my students it groups.
In tonight’s class, my professor says that as non-tenured teachers, we need to be careful about how many students we fail.
So being the obnoxious bitch that I am, I said so no matter how bad my students do, I should consider passing them to keep my job.
He replies, “We’ll it is a tough economy.”
I am sorry, I would rather get fired then pass the kids that do not deserve to pass.
Here is the problem today. No child has responsibility for what they do anymore. It is now my fault they don’t pass my class, it is my fault they arrived late to class, and it is my fault that I give homework to help them understand the material.
I then complained that most of my students would not fail if they would do their homework. Homework counts for 15% of their grade. If the student doesn’t do any homework (which happens way to often) they immediately start at an 85. So the brilliant administrator says then why give them homework? Why not just grade classwork assignments.
Okay, so let me change around the requirements cause my students want to go home and play XBOX. No! Do the work, that’s how you pass end of story. We keep altering for these kids and adjusting our standards and then we wonder why America is falling apart. Why should I adjust for a kid when then cannot listen to me when I give a lecture.
So my student was definitely not trying to be existential when saying this brilliant statement. I wrote y=x on the board. I asked my student to come to the board and graph this. After much (and I mean much) consideration she adds a +1 to the equation. So now there is y=x+1 on the board, and she happily begins to graph. I said, why did you just write this? “Cause if nothing is there, than 1 is there.” I quickly responded so if there is no money in your wallet, you have a dollar?” How did this person get to their junior math class thinking 1=0. Oh right, because of no child left behind.
Hello all. I am excited to join the blogging world. As a first year teacher, going the alternate route, I have been very interested in sharing my experiences with the world. It has taken a while for me to start this blog. I guess I was waiting for some big spark to get these fingers “a typin.” Sad to say this moment of revelation is not due to the stellar performance of my students. I am actually still waiting for 10% of my students to even care. Now I am beginning to see why.
Today I call a parent of a student who has cut my class now three times in a row. I said, your son is missing my classes but it says he is in school. She replies, “We’ll we are moving on Saturday, so I guess he just feels like he doesn’t need to come to class anymore.” I said, “This is not okay. He will be punished and he can even be punished for this in his next school.” She replies, “We’ll he is really hot headed. I have tried to talk about him cutting class before and he just doesn’t care.”
HELLO MOTHER!! Are you serious??? No wonder he doesn’t care, his mother doesn’t give two craps whether or not her child makes it to class. She is so wrapped up in her own life that she cannot raise her child, so now apparently it is my job. And we wonder why our jails are overcrowded and we wonder why we are in a state of economic crisis. NO ONE IS MOTIVATED!!! No one cares. They want all done for them, and then you call home and there is no support. What is a teacher to do???
