Teachers are NOT the enemy!
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Anonymous
Yes, I've read this assertion quite often on DCUM. And I'm sure it's true, depending on how you define "truly", "advanced", "gifted", "never", "bored", "always", "find", "something", and "do". |
Anonymous
That's such BS. First of all, i think all kids are special. Rregardless of iq. Second, lots of gifted (by iq definition) kids arw bored in school. I was one, and my kid is too. Doesn't mean we acted up, we didn't. Yes, we find things to do, but it's boring being told you have to do really boring stuff you could do in your sleep. How exactly do you make a super easy worksheet interesting? She does entertain herself during times when she gets to choose what she does. Plus, a lot of gifted kids are pretty sensitive, and are bothered by the meanness that happens in an unmanaged classroom. No question i was gifted (testing, grades, advanced ivy degree are pretty good proof), and i was for sure bored in most classes until college. Not a brag -- i think giftedness is far from the most valuable or important quality a person can have. But don't kid yourself that gifted kids aren't bored in a typical classroom. |
Anonymous
My child is a student at a close in school. You sound like some of the teachers I encounter. You hurt and not help. **I push for my child to be in advanced sections because the basic curriculum as presented is so easy that when provided a workbook from the store that is her same grade level, the workbook has harder problems. These are your generic workbooks one can find at the Barnes and Noble and are slated as "practice". I would rather my child be presented with advanced work and do ok than easy work and sail through. Life can't always be easy and teaching kids to work up to a better grade shouldn't be seen as wrong. **I push for my child to be in advanced sections because as the classroom teacher you are abysmal at controlling classroom behavior and the advanced sections have students that are more academic focused, are in a smaller group, provide more true instruction and behavior issues are minimized as the teacher has less behavior issues to deal with overall. **TPT is actually a very good site for finding materials that present subject matter in different ways that can appeal to different students. It also highlights teachers work from around the country. why are you opposed to peer learning? I am professional and I take advantage of opportunities to learn from peers in other orgs about different methods, programs that work, etc. |
Anonymous
| Shorter PP: Teachers ARE the enemy! |
Anonymous
Stop gas lighting and parents would not feel the need to gloat. Schools need to act like a team, pushing back is not teamwork. |
Anonymous
It's not just an assertion on DCUM. This is what a GT teacher will tell you, too. |
Anonymous
No, actually, this is not what a qualified GT teacher will tell you. In MCPS, this is not even what the department of "accelerated and enriched instruction" which runs the gifted programs will say; AEI are the creators/administrators of gifted education in MCPS. By definition, the HGCs are for kids "who can't be served in their home school". This is approximately 50 kids per 2 clusters; but everyone knows there are more qualified students than seats for these programs. Even the educational system admits that some students are so advanced that the idea that they will always find something to do in the regular classroom is incorrect. Many parents of gifted children have learned that saying the word "bored" is a hot button for teachers. After all, if the kid is bored, that must mean that the teacher is …. boring. And most teachers will not admit that could be the problem. See this Hoagie's gifted website at this link for more about "boring" and "gifted" kids -- http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/never_say_bored.htm. Or this article from the Davidson Institute -- http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10316.aspx. Even a national teacher's union -- the NEA -- has written on the subject of gifted kids and boredom -- http://neatoday.org/2013/09/18/are-we-failing-gifted-students/ |
Anonymous
NP here. I'll add to your list. ** Parents push to get their kids into the higher groups because they understand that admission to magnets is much harder from the lower groups. And this will impact the child's opportunities for high school and beyond. BUT, much of what you've described sounds like a problem with MoCo and MoCo Families -- not with teachers. MoCo writes the curriculum and prescribes certain activities and the extent of peer learning (which does exist in MoCo, despite what you say). The bad behavior is actually partly a problem with inattentive parents who don't discipline their kids. I'm a WOHM myself and this isn't a slam against working parents, just bad parenting in general. I've heard teachers describe horrific behavior that is basically uncontrollable, and I've seen it in my own kid's elementary school, I've talked with the teachers about how to help the rest of the class not be distracted by the time-suck of badly-behaved kids, and I've heard about the parental cluelessness of these badly-behaved kids. I'm not saying there isn't sometimes a teacher problem, but that's not the only piece of the problem. I also have a lot of sympathy for teachers up against parents who think their kids are snowflakes. I say this as the parent of two kids who have gone through several magnets each. |
Anonymous
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Completely agree with 8:29-
Saying you hate it when parents want their kids placed in higher level classes than what they are capable is really an arrogant statement. When you have 30 kids in your classroom, how do you really know the capabilities of each student? I as a parent will move mountains to ensure that my kids are prepared for class. If my kid has an average IQ and works twice as hard as the other kids in the class but at the end of the day also earns an A, what's your beef? I get it that some parents are entitled and want special treatment for their snowflakes in the advanced class. That would irk me too. If I'm not asking for special treatment, what's wrong with giving my DS a chance? Signed- A mom whose kids always earn straight A's but still has to fight like hell with teachers like you to keep in them in the highest levels. |
Anonymous
I am a parent at a close-in public school. We have experienced teachers that called our "DC" "not that bright" and said that DC's problem was "lack of motivation" and not the unchallenging teaching environment. But, I suppose you call that "skewed expectations". (Although, the IQ testing did bear our parental view out and showed that YOUR view was wrong.) We asked for an IEP and "special instruction" to help our gifted child with a learning disability. You said that our child didn't have a learning disability and that our DC just needed to "take more pride and ownership in his work." I suppose you thought we had an "expectation of treatment without a valid reason." After we had our testing updated (at a cost of thousands of dollars), the testing showed that our DC does indeed have a learning disability and needs special instruction and accommodations in a few areas. You, however, refuse to provide it. (I think because you think that you are already a "good teacher" and don't actually know more than one way to teach the material.) We tried to provide suggestions about alternative ways to present material to our DC. Some of it came from publicly available teacher websites, because we wanted you to see that you could actually spend a few minutes online and find these resources yourself. Some of it came from educational websites about "best practices." I suppose you thought we were "constantly trying to alter the way you do things." Yes, we were. That is the point of special instruction -- to alter the way of teaching so that the student can have access to the material. Finally, we gave up and left your school. When neighborhood parents approach us and tell us they miss us and ask why we left, we are honest. We had a very bad year with our last teacher. The teacher and the school couldn't meet the very basic needs of our child, and so we left. When we are honest about *our* experience, we start to hear about the bad experiences that other students had with you. I suppose, if this got back to you, that you thought we were criticizing and down-talking you. Perhaps we were, but we spent months trying to work in a positive way with you, spent thousands of dollars we didn't have to identify our child for the IEP and for tutors to provide instruction you were unwilling or unable to provide. Good word of mouth is earned. (By contrast, when people ask us about the teacher DC had the year before you and the year after you, we sing their praises. They were GREAT teachers -- willing to treat us as partners, willing to alter instruction, and saw our DC as capable.) Now that DC is in a new school, testing shows that he has made more progress in three months than he made in the entire last year with you. He is very happy and loves school again. The last line of your post is very revealing. You say you don't have kids of your own. Teachers don't have to have kids to be good teachers. But, it sure helps. You may know more about education than your student's parents, but isn't it a bit presumptuous of you to assume that you know more about their kids than they do? |
Anonymous
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Dear Teacher,
I am the mom of two kids who are in magnet schools. My kids are in magnet programs thanks to the teachers who showed us the way and encouraged them to work hard. And these were teachers in regular schools, where FARMS and ESOL was at 80%. How are my kids faring in these programs where the rest of the kids have come from schools in the "W" clusters or from other magnet programs. Surprisingly well. Teachers compliment me for raising such good kids, and I am surprised because my kids are ordinary. Teachers have to tolerate badly behaved kids as well as parents. Once I asked a teacher how does she come to work everyday when she has such ill mannered students to work with. And she said "I keep telling myself, its just a job!" I have had my share of complaints with the school system, but usually it is the process, curriculum or policy. It has never been a teacher. I agree, for many things that are frustrating for the parents ...teachers are not the ones causing these issues. - Grateful parent on an anonymous board. |
Anonymous
Bravo, PP. You said really well what many of us have experienced. It's killing me that I can't afford to get my kid out of this environment. |
Anonymous
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to: 8:04
Myth: Gifted Students Don’t Need Help; They’ll Do Fine On Their Own Truth: Would you send a star athlete to train for the Olympics without a coach? Gifted students need guidance from well-trained teachers who challenge and support them in order to fully develop their abilities. Many gifted students may be so far ahead of their same-age peers that they know more than half of the grade-level curriculum before the school year begins. Their resulting boredom and frustration can lead to low achievement, despondency, or unhealthy work habits. The role of the teacher is crucial for spotting and nurturing talents in school. http://www.nagc.org/commonmyths.aspx |
Anonymous
| And even if it were true that gifted kids would do fine on their own (which, per PP, it totally ISN'T) -- how pathetic is it that we aren't even trying to teach them? Why not just send them to the library all day and have them teach themselves? That's what they're doing anyway at school. At least at the library it's quiet and they can concentrate. |
Anonymous
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To my child's teacher,
Yes, you had our email address WRONG for the first five months of school. I had to send you about 4,000 email in late January to finally get you to realize it. You fought me tooth and nail. You also kept telling me, "I wish you had brought this to my attention sooner." WEll, guess what, I couldn't, b/c I didn't know I wasn't even getting ANY EMAILS, b/c you sent them to the wrong EMAIL ADDRESS!! Did you not get a "message not sent" reply or something like that? If so, did you DO something about it? So yeah, I am TICKED that it took me, wondering if I was going crazy, to do a LOT of research, to figure out what the heck was going on, to finally ascertain that, lo and behold, it was you, stupid you, who had had our email address WRONG for the first five months of school. And oh yeah, you have not once apologized. and, if anyone on here is wondering if my tone was the same when I dealt with the teacher, no, it wasn't, it was sickly sweet and not accusatory, very sycophantic, b/c I did not want her to retaliate against my DD in any way. Even though she is the one who made the mistake in the first place! So yeah, DD's K teacher, you ARE my enemy. |