So much talking in class

[Anonymous]

Most teachers are not very strict or no nonsense and very very few will work with parents to address the issues. Admin are generally useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most teachers are not very strict or no nonsense and very very few will work with parents to address the issues. Admin are generally useless.

They want to know what's going on in their own school but you may never follow up with parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most teachers are not very strict or no nonsense and very very few will work with parents to address the issues. Admin are generally useless.

They want to know what's going on in their own school but you may never follow up with parents.

*They.
Meaning they want to know the issues you or your kid has heard, seen or experienced (usually they already know what the issues are), but they may never follow up to let you know how they resolved the issue or didn't resolve the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a no nonsense teacher who has been knocked on her butt the last two years by out of control students. They throw things, destroy things, elope from the classroom, spit/hit/punch others/me. They set off a few others in the classroom who aren’t that extreme. It’s been hell. These are students who haven’t experienced limits in their home lives and it shows up at school. They are addicted to screens and will freak out trying to get any screen they see (including my phone when I call for admin support). Thank God for sturdy cell phone cases or mine would’ve been broken by now.

I’m another no-nonsense teacher. The methods I’ve used for decades no longer work.

Students are quite different now. For some, the school year starts with distrust and open defiance. I’m used to earning my students’ respect, but for some it’s almost impossible. And it used to be 1-2 in a class. Now it can be 8-10, which splits your focus and makes follow-through exhaustive.

Another MoCo teacher here and both PP’s are 💯 spot on with their comments. Admin has made it clear they do not want office referrals (this year’s goal is to reduce the number of office referrals for black and brown students so the solution is…not documenting the severe behavior disruptions) so teachers are left trying to manage these out of control behaviors while also teaching. One of my main concerns are the students who witness these out-of-control behaviors from their peers and see that there are clearly no consequences from admin - more and more students attempt to also engage in negative behaviors. Also like PP’s have stated, the number of students outrageous behaviors has at least quadrupled. In the past, I may have had one or two students that were disruptive but this year, the majority of classes at our school have multiple out of control students in each classroom. I’m honestly at a loss trying to figure out how to proceed from here…it’s not fair to the other students. I honestly dread coming to work most days because I am exhausted dealing with these extreme behaviors. The other day, a 4th grade student in my class pulled out their cell phone during instruction and started showing classmates photos on their phone. I asked the student to put the phone away, was told “no, I don’t have to,” I asked again, they refused, I advised the student I would need to hold on to their phone until the end of the day, they stated, “you can’t make me do anything, this is my phone.” I called on the walkie for support from the counselor , the counselor came in and asked for the phone, the student refused again, the counselor left…and that was it! NOTHING was done and the student faced zero consequences! I’ve sent emails, called home - no answer per usual. This is not one of the behavior issues I described earlier, but just one example of how the lack of consequences has empowered students to do whatever they want.

So besides the student being disrespectful, no adult in the building(not teacher, counselor, nor anyone else) confiscated the phone. I wonder why kids believe there are no consequences.

At my school, we are told we absolutely MAY NOT confiscate phones. We used to be able to, but (just like everything else) we lost that authority.

If I confiscate a phone and something happens to it, I’m liable. If I confiscate a phone and the child’s tantrum hurts themselves or others, I’m liable. To prevent these issues, the schools say we can’t touch them.

And I’ve had parents yell at me for suggesting phones should be put away.

Ridiculous. There is an actual Away All Day cell phone pilot going on in MCPS that any school could have joined

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes there is a lot of talking. It represents the wider disintegration of the social order and respect for others.

Elementary teacher here and it’s unbelievable.
It wasn’t like this in 2005 when I started teaching.

Now…there is no respect for me or the classmates, and they talk all day long. No teaching or learning occurs.
It’s bad, honestly, parents need to know how bad it is…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids also tell you that students in their class talk so much? To the point that the class can not complete scheduled class assignments, projects, simulations etc..? How do teachers handle this?

No- my MCPS HS freshman has rarely been unable to finish work because of other students talking. However, some teachers are definitely more strict than others and are able to keep the students chatter to minimum. Also the teachers that require a lot of student participation -fare much better- as most students have to pay attention.

For my DD- those classes include. But are not limited to H Eng, AP Gov, Spanish, H Bio. A lot of work is happening in Math( Alg 2) so not sure if students can chat nonstop.

According to her, a lot of seniors in her class will sit in the back and chat but not too loud and not disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids also tell you that students in their class talk so much? To the point that the class can not complete scheduled class assignments, projects, simulations etc..? How do teachers handle this?

Teacher's are not allowed to discipline students in MCPS because that would be racist. So they let them talk and try to get through what they can.

Not completely true. I am POC and my child goes to a 90 % white MCPS school in an affluent area. guess what- same issues in these school too- majority of kids getting into trouble or getting detention are white students. The school is still not able to control it. So pls stop with the racist card everytime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes there is a lot of talking. It represents the wider disintegration of the social order and respect for others.

Elementary teacher here and it’s unbelievable.
It wasn’t like this in 2005 when I started teaching.

Now…there is no respect for me or the classmates, and they talk all day long. No teaching or learning occurs.
It’s bad, honestly, parents need to know how bad it is…

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

If a cellphone is taken a kid might attack because these kids are trained to know that there are no consequences and they can do no wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most teachers are not very strict or no nonsense and very very few will work with parents to address the issues. Admin are generally useless.

We are not very strict because when we try to establish rules, we get nasty emails from parents. Why didn't I let little Jimmy out to use the bathroom every class period with his friends. Why didn't I allow little Jimmy to turn in his paper? (well there is a class turn in bin, that he didn't know about because he spends all of his time in the bathroom). When we contact home about concerns parents ignore us or sides with their child. I pretty much have stopped calling home because it is just a waste of time. Time that I don't have.

It took us 3 months to get one parent to return phone calls. This one student disrupted 7 classes each and everyday. It had an impact on the classroom culture. We could barely get through a quarter of a lesson because of his behavior. 20+ other students had to deal with his behavior. It had an impact on my mental health. 3 months! How can parents just ignore the school?

[Anonymous]

So we have to pilot a common sense rule of being an average student who pays attention. What happens if students riot and become violent over the rule limiting their addiction source. Do we scrap the pilot and we go back to allowing the kids to disregard everything as we inflate their grades and allow them to pass through by sitting in a chair for a decade on the pool phone, producing no work or evidence of learning, and call them honor students with 4.75 gpas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids also tell you that students in their class talk so much? To the point that the class can not complete scheduled class assignments, projects, simulations etc..? How do teachers handle this?

My DC told me that some teachers only teach for about 15-20 minute, then assign work for students to complete during class. Students end up on their phone or chatting with each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids also tell you that students in their class talk so much? To the point that the class can not complete scheduled class assignments, projects, simulations etc..? How do teachers handle this?

My DC told me that some teachers only teach for about 15-20 minute, then assign work for students to complete during class. Students end up on their phone or chatting with each other.

This is actually a rather accepted strategy. Teachers directly teach, and then provide time for students to complete guided practice. If students have questions, the teacher is there to address it. This also provides teachers with an opportunity to work individually with students, which can’t happen if teachers lecture for the entire period.

If the students are talking or playing on their phones, then they are not using the class time as it is intended.

Perhaps it’s time to hold students more accountable for their own behavior instead of putting 100% of the responsibility on the overworked teacher.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous

This is actually a rather accepted strategy. Teachers directly teach, and then provide time for students to complete guided practice. If students have questions, the teacher is there to address it. This also provides teachers with an opportunity to work individually with students, which can’t happen if teachers lecture for the entire period.

If the students are talking or playing on their phones, then they are not using the class time as it is intended.

Perhaps it’s time to hold students more accountable for their own behavior instead of putting 100% of the responsibility on the overworked teacher.

Yes, exactly. Holding students more accountable for their own behavior would allow teachers to focus more on teaching during valuable class time! Students who want to learn can actually learn more!

But often these students find the in class assignments too easy or finish them quickly, then they idle around. It would be nice if teachers can design materials that cater to students at different levels. That’s a lot of work though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quote=Anonymous

This is actually a rather accepted strategy. Teachers directly teach, and then provide time for students to complete guided practice. If students have questions, the teacher is there to address it. This also provides teachers with an opportunity to work individually with students, which can’t happen if teachers lecture for the entire period.

If the students are talking or playing on their phones, then they are not using the class time as it is intended.

Perhaps it’s time to hold students more accountable for their own behavior instead of putting 100% of the responsibility on the overworked teacher.

Yes, exactly. Holding students more accountable for their own behavior would allow teachers to focus more on teaching during valuable class time! Students who want to learn can actually learn more!

But often these students find the in class assignments too easy or finish them quickly, then they idle around. It would be nice if teachers can design materials that cater to students at different levels. That’s a lot of work though.

And we would be able to do that if we had time. As it is, I spend every evening barely finding time to plan one lesson with modifications for students with IEPs and 504s. I would love to find time to further differentiate lessons by ability and interest, but at 65+ hour weeks already I just don’t have the time.

But if I got time AT work to plan? I can only imagine how tremendous that would be.