This is the OP. Word from my child, who is now in 8th grade, is that this teacher has returned. Seventh grade parents, talk to your children and find out what is going on in their World Studies classes. Be proactive and make your concerns known. Go to back to school night and observe the teacher. Call the principal. Call MCPS headquarters and talk to Eric Minus, who is the superintendent in charge of Pyle. You can find his email on the mcps web site. Find out what the plans are for dealing with this teacher. Good luck.

And for anyone who needs/wants to take the route I did last year -- call around to the neighboring middle schools and talk to the heads of the World Studies departments. See if any of their teachers are interested in tutoring. It's not perfect, but you can do an end run around the lousy instruction and help your child learn the curriculum.

Did this teacher return this year?

The poor woman obviously has a serious medical issue. I'm sure she would rather concentrate on her health than have to deal with the daily stress of teaching. It is a shame that our school system does not offer better options for ill employees. Students would benefit from having a teacher who isn't forced to come in while impaired.

The rumor mill has it she is going on extended leave again.

I assume she is not fired--that's not how the process works. She can be put on par but that takes a year. Then if there is no improvement you can be fired. The question for the school would be whether they managed to put her on par and start the process. This year's students are out of luck, I imagine, barring an egregious, fireable offense. But are any parents still calling the school?

This is the OP. My child brought home the same rumor. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

PP here - my DD says she has been fired. I don't have any verification of this, but this is the scuttlebutt at school.

This is OP. She's still there. Maybe marginally better, or maybe the kids have just acclimated to the incompetence.

I have not been dogging the administration, because I know the gears grind slowly. I have hired a once a week tutor in world studies to cover material the teacher is not covering.

I think she's still there?

I hate to stir the pot, but did anything ever happen with this or is she still bringing down the pyle history department?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a new teacher when DD was in 6th. But he mostly taught 7th. Apparently he was kinda crazy and even threw pencils at the kids. My DD did not like him but never gave me an example that I thought was incompetent. But the 7th grade parents banded together and he was fired by the end of the year. Our principal seems to be pretty responsive. Maybe this was just a unique situation because he was new?

I've know colleagues to throw hardback BOOKS at kids and not get fired so I'm shocked he was fired for throwing pencils.

There's a process. If the teacher left at the end of the year, there are a few possibilities: he moved to another school; he was actually a long-term sub for the entire year (sometimes happens with unfilled positions) and could have actually been "fired"; he was notified that due to poor performance, he would be put on PAR for the next year and he decided to resign; if he was a first-year MCPS teacher, he would already be on PAR, and was notified (through out the year) that he wasn't meeting standards, and his contract was not renewed. If it's teh last one, the guy was either REALLY incompetent and ignored the support of his consulting teacher, or had an incompetent consulting teacher who didn't guide him when he made mistakes.

When I was in 9th grade math class, my friend sitting next to me dropped his pencil and I picked it up and gave it back to him. He didn't realize he had dropped it and asked why I was giving it to him. We had a 10-second back-and-forth whisper about it. The teacher came over, picked up my friend's binder, and hurled it across the room against the wall, then yelled at us to stop talking. My friend's binder was broken and his papers were all over the classroom. After class ended, he had to scramble to collect all of his stuff while the teacher barked that he wouldn't be writing him a note if he was late for his next class (I stayed for a minute to help him). It didn't matter because my friend went straight to the office, and the assistant principal eventually called me and a few other classmates in one at a time to ask about what happened. The teacher ended up calling my friend at home and giving a very strange apology, but he went "on leave" the next week and never returned to that school. He had always been somewhat hot-headed, so I always wondered if there had been other incidents that we never heard about.

In any case, this was almost 20 years ago, but I still remember it vividly, and the teacher is actually still teaching in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but I teach for MCPS and my school is having difficulty hiring to fill an opening currently occupied by a LTS. LTS is now several months pregnant. She did the big reveal to admin on 1/4 and they have been freaking out daily. I suspect there is a County-wide issue either financially or a shortage of applicants.

I know that our MCPS school has seemed to really struggle to find competent LT and ST subs. I was on a field trip with a ST sub one day and am unsure she even spoke English. When I came to the classroom before the trip, she was sitting at a child's desk just watching the group, and I thought she was another parent for the field trip. I remember thinking how nice it was that one of the immigrant parents was coming on the trip. Nope, she was my child's sub for the day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a new teacher when DD was in 6th. But he mostly taught 7th. Apparently he was kinda crazy and even threw pencils at the kids. My DD did not like him but never gave me an example that I thought was incompetent. But the 7th grade parents banded together and he was fired by the end of the year. Our principal seems to be pretty responsive. Maybe this was just a unique situation because he was new?

I've know colleagues to throw hardback BOOKS at kids and not get fired so I'm shocked he was fired for throwing pencils.

I'm not sure if that was the only incident. I was not in the group of parents that were on a rampage to get him out. But it is a fact the he was fired after one year because he even told my DD's class that. Which the fact that he told the kids maybe shows he was a little off balance. Yes, this was MCPS. But maybe there is some first year probation status that was used. Like I said, my daughter didn't really like him but I have no basis to confirm that he was incompetent. But apparently someone did....

Anonymous wrote:We had a new teacher when DD was in 6th. But he mostly taught 7th. Apparently he was kinda crazy and even threw pencils at the kids. My DD did not like him but never gave me an example that I thought was incompetent. But the 7th grade parents banded together and he was fired by the end of the year. Our principal seems to be pretty responsive. Maybe this was just a unique situation because he was new?

I've know colleagues to throw hardback BOOKS at kids and not get fired so I'm shocked he was fired for throwing pencils.

That can't be MCPS unless that teacher had an offense that he could be fired for--otherwise there is a process.