Below is the URL to a news article describing how the local NAACP is taking our school superintendent to task for the many F-graded schools in our county this year. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062904/met_15976867.shtml You know, being an ex-teacher in this district feels like being the first guy off the Titanic and getting a lifeboa
Per the news item referenced below, 11 of my county's schools have received a grade of "F" for the year! The two schools where I used to work (which are referenced in my blog entries below) now have grades of "F" and "D", respectively. But *I* was the one with the problem, right? http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/061504/met_FCAT.shtml<!-- Ju-Anc
More great news from our school district. Here's a local news article about how *two* students have "won" the local spelling bee after the judging got out of hand. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021904/met_14857870.shtml
Here's another local op-ed column about the student who got beaten on the school bus. This columnist proposes having attendants on school buses, an option that wouldn't have even been considered necessary when we were kids. However, she does at least make the interesting point that many students, far from being intimidated by the cameras, would be glad to "act out" for them--which the beating incident has already proven. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021604/new_14814974.
Over ten years of teaching, I've heard dozens of excuses for misbehavior from students who think they're uttering such phrases for the first time. Here are a few "golden oldie" favorites, followed by my translations of them. "He hit me first!" (Because somebody transgressed against me, it's fine for me to retaliate in kind, rather than come to you first as I know I should have done.) "He started it! Why aren't you punishing him, too?" (I know I'm getting punished for not mindin
JoeUser Forums
Except for your last two sentences, I quite agree with what you have to say. You might want to check out my own blog on a similar school-related issue, at: http://disgruntledteacher.joeuser.com
Below is a URL for an op-ed column that a local columnist wrote about the school-beating story. While the column is good, it only touches on the tip of the iceberg. We have major problems in our local school system that extend far beyond what happens on the buses. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021504/opl_14815166.shtml
Good question. Either way, I don't think the camera intimidated the bullies very much.
Here are two more school-related issues from today's local paper. First is the fact that students who receive 5 or more discipline referrals have their names given to the local SRO (school resource officer, or police officer), and a panel is concerned about the offenders' civil rights--not the teachers', as usual. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021404/met_14819248.shtml Second is a follow-up about the student I've been talking about, who was beaten up on
Here's a follow-up news article about the student who got beaten up on a bus. The administrators are handling it pretty clinically, eh?--as if it was some think-tank incident to be examined. Do you think they'd be this blase if *their* kid was riding that bus? http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021304/met_14808637.shtml
Sorry, here's the exact address for that news article: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021204/met_14796998.shtml
In answer to your many valid questions: * I resigned from teaching in 1989 and got a job at a bank--a job which, unfortunately, gave me no advancement and little raise in pay. So I got back into teaching in 1997 and, as I said, actually enjoyed it for a couple of years, before the roof fell in. * Unfortunately, at the time of my debacle in August, I was not a member of the local teacher's union, and the union doesn't take on any teacher's issues if he/she is not already a membe
I just turned in my paperwork to take a year's leave of absence from teaching. However, I'm sure I'll keep on writing about the injustices of our school system. Why, here's a fresh example! A kid from our county was beaten up on a school bus, with the bullies getting little or no punishment. As Dave Barry says, I'm not making this up. If you read this on Thurs., Feb. 12, you can find the story in our local newspaper's website, at: http://www.jacksonville.com
Last time, you'll remember, I left off with my having swallowed a bottle of pills in an attempt to forget about my negative teaching evaluation. Here's more of the story. God was with me that day, it seems. I was driving to my therapist's office after I had swallowed the pills, and the next thing I remembered was waking up in a hospital room. As it turned out, I had basically pulled my car over to the side of the road, knocking over only a wooden post in the grass. A cop came along, saw
I have ten years of teaching experience in the public school system. I initially taught for a few years in the 1980's. Then I dropped out of teaching until I got back into the system in 1997, to teach English at a middle school. My first two years back in the system were really wonderful. The school facility was in lousy shape, but I didn't mind that at all because I got to teach the way I wanted, and I felt I was making a difference. Then in 1999, three major things happened.
Are you a public school teacher who actually finds it unusual that: * kids who are decades younger than you are allowed to cuss you out, leave your room at will, or generally disrupt your class with no dire consequences? * you don't have enough fingers or toes to count the number of students' parents who have told you, "Do what you have to, I can't do anything with him/her"? * administrators routinely let students' defiant behavior slide by and then try to blame *you*