A maths teacher apparently decided to up the ante by threatening to reveal Game of Thrones spoilers to his misbehaving students.
One day while teaching in a noisy classroom, the educator asked who watched Game of Thrones, to which the majority raised their hands.
‘Well, I’ve read all the books,’ he told them. ‘If there is too much noise, I will write the name of the dead on the board. They are enough to fill the whole year and I can even describe how they die,’ reports nieuwsblad.be.
Those troublemakers who took it as an empty threat soon found themselves living to regret it when the teacher proceeded to write the names of those killed off in the third series on the board.
Unsurprisingly, the class got back pretty sharpish to working on long division and the like in silence after that.
The cost of being imaginative and creative when developing lessons can come with a price. Take the story of a teacher that brought in non-alcoholic beer for her students in order to give them the feel of life in the 1700’s. Was she right to give her students the ale? Quite clearly the answer is no.
But at least she tried to make her teaching meaningful. Too many teachers steer away from the risks of trying something new and avoid the time and energy expended providing their students with engaging and vibrant lessons.
So while this teacher gets publicly humiliated for a mistake in the name of a meaningful and exciting lesson, other teachers are hiding behind turgid worksheets that bore their students to death but allow them to keep their reputation blissfully intact:
A Michigan teacher made a poor choice by giving non-alcoholic beer to a class of fifth graders in a history lesson, a school official said.
Superintendent Ed Koledo said the teacher allowed Hyatt Elementary students in Linden to sample O’Doul’s that had been brought to school by a student March 6 to represent ale common in the 1700s. The students were told that many people drank ale at the time because water was sometimes dirty or unhealthy.
“We talked to the teacher and said this was an inappropriate choice,” Koledo said. “There were a lot better choices to represent a colonial-era drink than what was chosen here.”
The students were allowed a small taste but none were forced to try the non-alcoholic beer, school officials said.
Koledo, who didn’t identify the teacher, said allowing non-alcoholic beer into the classroom and allowing students to drink it was a mistake.
Hyatt Principal Vicki Malkaravage sent a letter to parents on Friday informing them of what happened, The Flint Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1kZSamt ). The teacher thought O’Doul’s would be OK because the label said it was a non-alcoholic beverage, according to the letter. Three students in the class also took a bottle home, she said.
O’Doul’s is advertised as non-alcoholic beer, but it contains a small amount of alcohol. Liquor Control Commission spokeswoman Andrea Miller says giving O’Doul’s or similar drinks to minors can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor in Michigan.
Oh dear! Just when you thought the discourse regarding education was getting rather strange, comes a most odd suggestion.
Apparently, because I haven’t been given specific training about teaching left-handed students, I am risking their self esteem. I wonder why people assume that teachers have an inability to apply common sense to the needs of their students:
Every teacher should be trained to recognise the needs of left handed children, a former minister has said.
Teacher training and the national curriculum should be overhauled so that children are given the space and “correct implements” to achieve the same results as right handed pupils, Peter Luff said.
The current lack of understanding is leaving the “self-esteem and self-worth” of left handed children at risk as they often end up struggling with right handed scissors or having cramped, illegible handwriting because teachers are unaware of their differing needs, he said.
The former Conservative defence minister said children were left feeling “clumsy and awkward” in the classroom and on the sports field and were not being able to reach their full creative potential.
Mr Luff has written to David Laws, the Schools minister, asking him to bring a simple set of guidelines into mandatory teacher training that takes into account the “slightly different needs” of those children who favour their left hand.
Mr Luff told The Telegraph: “If teachers are made to realise that someone is left handed, then maybe there are some things that they would want to do differently than for the rest of the class.
“Using left handed scissors, writing differently, having the mouse on the other side of the computer. In the sports room they could be taught how to use a bat or racquet in a better way.
“There are all sorts of small things which are terribly, terribly easy to put right – it’s just that teachers need to be told as part of their training to look out for those kind of kids and make sure their slightly different needs are addressed thoughtfully in the classroom.
As if book publishers and sellers don’t have enough to worry about. There used to be plenty of bookshops in my area, now there is one (which has changed management 3 times in 3 years!).
I do not like gender stereotyping and I detest sexism, but let our children read the books they want to read. If boys centered books attract a new market of male readers – isn’t that a good thing? If girl centered books features ideas and insights that are almost exclusively meaningful to girls, is that really objectionable?
Why can’t we allow our children the right to decide for themselves whether they want to read a book pitched at their gender without having others ban them from making such a choice? Why can’t we support our writers, publishers and sellers, who are already facing challenges within the ailing industry:
A national campaign to stop children’s books being labelled as “for boys” or “for girls” has won the support of Britain’s largest specialist bookseller Waterstones, as well as children’s laureate Malorie Blackman, poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Philip Pullman and a handful of publishers.
The Let Books Be Books campaign seeks to put pressure on retailers and publishers not to market children’s books that promote “limiting gender stereotypes”.
A petition calling on children’s publishers to “stop labelling books, in the title or on the packaging, as for girls or for boys” because “telling children which stories and activities are ‘for them’ based on their gender closes down whole worlds of interest,” has passed 3,000 signatures.
I tried to dress formally in the beginning stages of my career. I would front up to school in a shirt and tie and black leather shoes, but I just couldn’t keep it up. It felt awkward and uncomfortable and it was starting to effect my teaching.
Yes, I often teach in a pair of black casual pants, polo shirt and runners, but I feel comfortable doing so. I am not one of those teachers who sits at his desk all day and only tends to students who are prepared to trek to the teacher’s desk. I am constantly on my feet and shifting from desk to desk. Those black leather shoes were causing me to sit down too often because of the strain on my feet, and the tie simply got in the kids’ faces when I bent over to read their work.
When I made the change I felt less presentable, but rejuvenated all the same.
Teachers at a secondary school have been criticised in an Ofsted report for dressing too scruffily, the first in Britain to be reprimanded in a drive to raise dress standards in the classroom.
Some teachers at Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London were singled out for wearing clothes that were “too casual” and risked undermining standards, the inspectors said.
After a visit to the comprehensive, which specialises in the arts, they warned that the teachers’ failure to dress smartly could have a negative effect upon pupils’ work.
The school, which does not require pupils to wear a uniform, has been classed as “requiring improvement” and been under extra scrutiny since a full inspection in September.
In a letter to head teacher Jo Armitage, inspector Mark Phillips wrote that he was particularly disappointed by the failure of many staff to dress smartly in order to inspire pupils.
Mr Phillips, whose letter appeared after a follow-up monitoring visit, said: “Students are not required to wear school uniform. Some staff take your lead and dress in a business-like fashion.
“However, in other cases, teachers’ attire is too casual and does not promote high professional standards or expectations.”
Ofsted’s first move to improve dress standards was launched last month.
It plans to overhaul inspections of teacher training to include focussing on teachers’ clothes, conduct in the classroom and ability to control badly behaved pupils. Ofsted said it wants “professional dress and conduct” in the classroom.
The report on Acland Burghley School also criticised the way that students answer back and use bad language.
Ms Armitage has already announced she is standing down in August and governors are currently recruiting for a new head teacher.
I don’t want my students to call me Michael because I believe it is important to remind them that I am their teacher and not their friend. This is important, because if you want your advise to be respected, I think it helps to have a more formal title.
Still, I think it is over the top to suspend a child for 5 days for referring to you by your name outside of school. Sure it was rude, but it amazes me how badly punishments fit the crime nowadays:
A boy has been suspended from classes for five days after he called a teacher by his Christian name outside of school hours.
Sean Roberts, 14, has been banned from Wellington Academy in the mornings and in the afternoons he must attend the school’s ‘department for naughty kids’.
The school in Tidworth, Wiltshire, is sponsored by Wellington College and its executive head is political historian Dr Anthony Seldon. Yesterday, Sean’s mother Julie Roberts, 42, demanded her son be allowed back in class ‘as the punishment is over the top’.
She claimed the Academy was ‘making an example’ of her son.
Hairdresser Mrs Roberts – who has already lost 106 pounds in wages staying at home to look after him – said she was only told about the punishment in an evening phone call from the teacher Head of Department Barry Seymour
‘This happened in the village where we live – it was outside of school. My son was walking home and my son shouted out to him Hi Barry. Barry followed him and challenged him at school the next day and my son said he did it.
‘Then I had a phone call telling me my son was not allowed in school for five days but I have had nothing in writing and no official meeting. The night he called the punishment was due to start the next day.
‘The teacher involved said to me your son shouted my name in a way that made me feel small and undermined. I said to him because I know this guy ‘come on Barry he is a 14 year old kid – you should not be intimidated by a 14 year old. Is that all he said and he said yes.
‘I would have thought if they were sanctioning something so serious then I would have been called in for a meeting and laid out on the table what was going to happen – a structured plan. But I have had nothing – just a phone call from the teacher involved. I have had nothing in writing.
I said it from the beginning and it has turned out to be the case – the schoolgirl that ran off with her teacher to France was not in a healthy relationship. Not only did I maintain that a teacher who is involved in a sexual relationship with their student deserves prison time, but that those that defended it on the grounds that this was “true love” would soon see their theory unravel.
That’s why I am not surprised that the schoolgirl has a. found another partner and b. found another teacher:
The teenage schoolgirl who was abducted to France by her teacher has begun a relationship with another teacher, it has emerged.
The girl sparked an international search in 2012 when, aged 15, she fled to France with Jeremy Forrest, a maths teacher at Bishop Bell school in East Sussex.
Forrest, 31, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for child abduction and five charges of sexual activity with a child at Lewes Crown Court in June.
The teenager, who is now 16 and cannot be named for legal reasons, is now “ridiculously happy” in a relationship with a 20-year old teaching assistant, the Sun on Sunday reported.
Her mother told the newspaper: “He is really nice and we have welcomed him into the family and I am very happy for my daughter. We would now appreciate that they are left alone.”
The man is reportedly a PE assistant who lives in a different town and has no connection with the girl’s school, so there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing. The man also works part-time in security. The girl posted a photograph on the internet of the two together and has exchanged publicly-visible messages with him.
The girl had previously told newspapers she wanted to marry Forrest when he was released from prison. However, she was banned from visiting him in jail because of his child sex conviction.
She also claimed she had instigated the relationship with the maths teacher and that it had been her suggestion to run away together to Bordeaux after their relationship was uncovered.
Please click on the links to read two related posts on the same story:
It is apparent that teachers are struggling to cope with classroom misbehaviour more now than in any other time. This often brings panic influenced, knee-jerk reactions to help pull students in to line.
The award for the wildest and most needlessly over the top reaction to student misbehaviour goes to this headmistress:
In a bizarre case, a strict headmistress of a UK primary school allegedly called police to thwart a students’ plan to not smile and spoil a school photograph.
Ann Hughes, the headmistress of a school in Anglesey, North Wales, found out some children were planning to “spoil” the picture and telephoned police, a professional conduct hearing was told.
It is alleged that an officer was invited into the village primary school to reprimand the pupils unwilling to pose correctly, The Mirror reported.
Hughes faces a catalogue of complaints including repeatedly calling one student “stupid” and favouring children whose first language was Welsh.
The committee of the General Teaching Council for Wales heard yesterday that she failed to investigate the bullying of two pupils, shouted excessively in the classroom and unnecessarily criticised children’s mistakes.
One pupil watched as Hughes tore his examination paper in front of him when he had spelt his middle name wrong, the hearing was told.
The school was engulfed in crisis in May 2011 when five of the six teachers simultaneously called in sick after earlier threatening industrial action following a vote of no confidence in Hughes.
Staff claimed there was a climate of “fear” at the school before the headmistress was suspended in July 2011 and later dismissed. The case is still continuing.
It is very rare that I come out of a day long or 2 day long professional development seminar feeling more adept at teaching than before attending. I commend Valerie Strauss for her criticisms of professional development, because many teachers feel the way she does, but few are game to admit it:
There has been a strong reaction to my recent post titled ”A video that shows why teachers are going out of their minds,” which revealed Chicago teachers being led in a professional development session in which they sound like kindergarteners, repeating words in unison. Some commenters on the post defended the practice but most of the comments attacked it, revealing what is well known in the education world: Most professional development (PD) is lousy.
Though professional development for teachers is critical to their development as professionals, a 2013 report on PD by the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education noted that most teachers aren’t given the kind of professional development that would actually help them, and it called the most prevalent model of PD nothing short of “abysmal.” A summary of the report said:
Most teachers only experience traditional, workshop-based professional development, even though research shows it is ineffective. Over 90 percent of teachers participate in workshop-style training sessions during a school year (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009). This stands in stark contrast to teachers’ minimal exposure to other forms of professional development (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009). Despite its prevalence, the workshop model’s track record for changing teachers’ practice and student achievement is abysmal. Short, one-shot workshops often don’t change teacher practice and have no effect on student achievement (Yoon et al, 2007; Bush, 1984).
A summary of the report also noted that:
The reason traditional professional development is ineffective is that it doesn’t support teachers during the stage of learning with the steepest learning curve: implementation. In the same way that riding a bike is more difficult than learning about riding a bike, employing a teaching strategy in the classroom is more difficult than learning the strategy itself. In several case studies, even experienced teachers struggled with a new instructional technique in the beginning (Ermeling, 2010; Joyce and Showers, 1982). In fact, studies have shown it takes, on average, 20 separate instances of practice before a teacher has mastered a new skill, with that number increasing along with the complexity of the skill (Joyce and Showers, 2002).
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has gone so far as to say that the $2.5 billion in federal funds spent annually on professional development is largely a waste:
At the federal level, we spend $2.5 billion a year on professional development. As I go out [and] talk to great teachers around the country, when I ask them “how much is that money improving their job or development,” they either laugh or they cry. They are not feeling it. So as we fight for additional resources, we also have to be honest about that $2.5 billion investment, and the additional two or three billion dollars that states and districts are spending, to see what is necessary to really help teachers master their craft and hone their skills. I think the honest answer is that, in most places, we are not even close.
I always appreciate it when a school community comes to the defense of a disgraced teacher.
It is important for us to understand that good teachers often make bad mistakes, just like good stockbrokers and company executives do. But bad mistakes in every sphere often leads to a termination of contract, no matter how much that person was regarded or liked.
Here, we have a odd case of a teacher filming herself taunting an autistic child who is stuck in a chair. This would have to be one of the most bizarre ways of getting caught being completely unprofessional:
A PRIMARY school teacher who used her mobile phone to record a 10-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome as he struggled to free himself from a chair may be fired.
Nicole McVey, who teaches the fifth grade at Oaktree Elementary School in Goodrich, Michigan, is heard mocking the youngster, asking him, “Wanna be tasered?”
Even the school principal Michael Ellis gets in on the act, telling the child: “It’s not really an emergency in their book,” after Ms McVey states that maintenance is on the way.
According to the New York Daily News, Ms McVey then emailed the incriminating video to school colleagues — presumably thinking they would find it funny — who forwarded it to school administrators.
Mr Ellis has since resigned and there are now calls for Ms McVey to be sacked. But the teacher still has the support of some parents and the incident has divided the local community.
“You hear of bullying by other students and other kids in class … but I have never had a case with teachers and administrators bullying,” the boy’s family lawyer, Patrick Greenfelder, told the New York Daily News.
Mr Greenfelder also revealed the family may take civil action against the school.
Goodrich School Board Superintendent Scott Bogner told ABC 12 that an investigation into the incident was under way.
Topical Teaching 