Teacher playing a Taylor Swift video

[Anonymous]

This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

[Anonymous]

OP - going back to the original question I may have an issue. I didn't see you give specific grade but if it was 4/5th grade I may not want teachers using pop videos for their content. We are definitely a rated G family through those grades. I also worry about the messaging, esp to girls in many videos. That being said TS is usually OK with lyrics, I don't think I have seen more than 1 or 2 of her videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

Yes. I have a BA in Comparative Literature from Harvard, and I am a teacher because that was my dream career (if I could go back and tell my 20 year old self what I know now about the job and how teachers are regarded, I might have made a different choice). I am tired of reading about how teachers are unintelligent and poorly educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

Yes. I have a BA in Comparative Literature from Harvard, and I am a teacher because that was my dream career (if I could go back and tell my 20 year old self what I know now about the job and how teachers are regarded, I might have made a different choice). I am tired of reading about how teachers are unintelligent and poorly educated.

This!

Most of the teachers with whom I work have BA's or BS's in mathematics, biology, physics, English literature, Spanish literature, engineering, computer science, economics, etc. Then they got their MA, M.Ed, or MFA in education.

I work with many HIGHLY-intelligent individuals. I am not unintelligent myself, but I feel a bit mediocre around many of my colleagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

Yes. I have a BA in Comparative Literature from Harvard, and I am a teacher because that was my dream career (if I could go back and tell my 20 year old self what I know now about the job and how teachers are regarded, I might have made a different choice). I am tired of reading about how teachers are unintelligent and poorly educated.

And called that by people who don’t even have jobs, to boot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t actually matter what you think. My lessons and pedagogy have been published in national publications. I’ve received letters of commendation from my district. You don’t have any insight into what or how we teach, the progress our students make, the lengths we go to to help our students simply by reading posts on a message board, especially about a topic that has devolved this much. If you want to homeschool, do. It’s your prerogative. But maybe humble yourself a bit to realize that if you don’t teach, it is possible that there are aspects of what goes into that that you don’t fully understand. I’ve ridden on airplanes. I don’t presume to tell pilots how to fly planes simply because I’ve been a passenger.

All fair points, until the rubber meets the road. If we are falling behind other countries your lessons and pedagogy published in national publications and commendations don’t amount to anything more than part of the problem. I know that may seem harsh, and we know it can’t be easy teaching, but you have to admit from unions to bad policy it’s all failing badly.

My students have a 100% pass rate in my grade level SOL that I prepped them for. 100%. No matter what you want to believe, people you disagree with can still be good teachers. In fact, some of us are good teachers specifically because we don’t teach the way some people who aren’t in education and don’t work with kids believe we should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

Yes. I have a BA in Comparative Literature from Harvard, and I am a teacher because that was my dream career (if I could go back and tell my 20 year old self what I know now about the job and how teachers are regarded, I might have made a different choice). I am tired of reading about how teachers are unintelligent and poorly educated.

And called that by people who don’t even have jobs, to boot.

Yeah, I imagine being stuck with my own kids, and my spouse being able to see exactly how little I do around the house for the past 8 months would make me want to really stick it to teachers, too 🙄

OP, how was your second day of elementary school? Our did you skip again like a naughty child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is ridiculous. The problems are not the teachers and their training. It is the gov’t forcing a gazillion standards every year and teaching to a test. The difference between the US and other countries is they focus on fewer standards per year. They spend a lot of time on the 3R’s in ES but the kids have the time to master it. If teachers had more autonomy in how and what they taught, you would see grammar and spelling coming back. You would def see more writing. You would actually see health being taught. Are there bad teachers? Yes! But their are bad people in even highly competitive fields.

How can we expect our children to be educated at a higher level than the teachers themselves? College students entering schools of education have SAT scores in the lower half of percentiles. They accept almost anyone. Why are we surprised at our outcomes?

This is completely false. Many teachers did not originally major in education. I did not get my bachelors in education. Many are career changers who had other jobs. I would say at my school the majority of teachers did not originally plan to go into teaching originally and majored in other things. For god sakes Columbia is the highest rated education program in the country. Highly selective schools have education programs. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I consider myself a highly educated individual. Do I wish I could change how education is done in our country? Absolutely. But it isn’t cause of the teachers. It is the government and the red tape that makes it difficult to teach the way we want.

RIGHT. Lucy Calkins came from COLUMBIA. If the top school is that stupid, there is no hope!

[Anonymous]

There are 1206 schools of education in different US colleges and universities. 1206! And none of them have challenging admissions standards. This isn’t to say that there aren’t talented, intelligent teachers out there - because there are. The fact remains that there ARE way, way too many teachers that don’t belong in classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t actually matter what you think. My lessons and pedagogy have been published in national publications. I’ve received letters of commendation from my district. You don’t have any insight into what or how we teach, the progress our students make, the lengths we go to to help our students simply by reading posts on a message board, especially about a topic that has devolved this much. If you want to homeschool, do. It’s your prerogative. But maybe humble yourself a bit to realize that if you don’t teach, it is possible that there are aspects of what goes into that that you don’t fully understand. I’ve ridden on airplanes. I don’t presume to tell pilots how to fly planes simply because I’ve been a passenger.

All fair points, until the rubber meets the road. If we are falling behind other countries your lessons and pedagogy published in national publications and commendations don’t amount to anything more than part of the problem. I know that may seem harsh, and we know it can’t be easy teaching, but you have to admit from unions to bad policy it’s all failing badly.

My students have a 100% pass rate in my grade level SOL that I prepped them for. 100%. No matter what you want to believe, people you disagree with can still be good teachers. In fact, some of us are good teachers specifically because we don’t teach the way some people who aren’t in education and don’t work with kids believe we should.

The US SOLs pale in comparison to those of other developed nations. So your class had a 100% pass rate on an easy test. Yay!

In other countries, becoming a teacher is just as hard as becoming a doctor - and their students are smarter because of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 1206 schools of education in different US colleges and universities. 1206! And none of them have challenging admissions standards. This isn’t to say that there aren’t talented, intelligent teachers out there - because there are. The fact remains that there ARE way, way too many teachers that don’t belong in classrooms.[/quote

Yeah. Harvard has a school of education. Guess it is easy to get in there! You are obtuse. My husband works for the government. He tells me stories all the time of people who don’t belong there and literally do nothing. There are also doctors and lawyers who suck at their jobs. You can look at any industry and find examples of poor performance. This has nothing to do with colleges. This has to do with the system as a whole. Teachers are told what to do and teach. Start complaining to your governor and representatives, instead of bashing teacher intelligence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 1206 schools of education in different US colleges and universities. 1206! And none of them have challenging admissions standards. This isn’t to say that there aren’t talented, intelligent teachers out there - because there are. The fact remains that there ARE way, way too many teachers that don’t belong in classrooms.[/quote

Yeah. Harvard has a school of education. Guess it is easy to get in there! You are obtuse. My husband works for the government. He tells me stories all the time of people who don’t belong there and literally do nothing. There are also doctors and lawyers who suck at their jobs. You can look at any industry and find examples of poor performance. This has nothing to do with colleges. This has to do with the system as a whole. Teachers are told what to do and teach. Start complaining to your governor and representatives, instead of bashing teacher intelligence.

AGAIN, no one is saying that ALL teachers are poorly educated. The fact remains that for every Harvard school of education, there are hundreds of other terrible programs. A 2.5 GPA from a school no one has ever heard of isn’t very impressive.

Are there stupid attorneys out there? Sure. Not all law schools are great, but they are certainly more selective than schools of education. And bar exams are WAY more challenging than the Praxis.