Anonymous
12/24/2014 07:22
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:My students love to point out the missing letter on the board, and I always thank them for catching my errors. I congratulate them on their attention to detail, and I remind them of the important of revising, editing and rewriting. Some can take it too far. I had a parent tell her child, a student of mine, that "earth" should be capitalized, not lowercase as I had written it. Instead of coming to me directly, the student told all of the students sitting around him that I had made a stupid mistake. I pulled the student aside after class and, in a brief private hallway conversation, explained that I was the teacher and he was the student, that I do make mistakes and don't mind being corrected, but that I resented having him instruct my students while I was instructing them, particularly because he gave them bad information. I assigned him a one-page paper on the contexts in which "earth" should be capitalized and the contexts in which "earth" should be lowercase.
I hope he asked Mom for help.
A few weeks later, I wove the Earth-v-earth explanation into a different lesson, hoping the students would understand the distinction without embarrassing my precocious, but likable student.
Only fitting that my post above would contain a typo: importance for important.
Anonymous
12/24/2014 07:18
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
My students love to point out the missing letter on the board, and I always thank them for catching my errors. I congratulate them on their attention to detail, and I remind them of the important of revising, editing and rewriting. Some can take it too far. I had a parent tell her child, a student of mine, that "earth" should be capitalized, not lowercase as I had written it. Instead of coming to me directly, the student told all of the students sitting around him that I had made a stupid mistake. I pulled the student aside after class and, in a brief private hallway conversation, explained that I was the teacher and he was the student, that I do make mistakes and don't mind being corrected, but that I resented having him instruct my students while I was instructing them, particularly because he gave them bad information. I assigned him a one-page paper on the contexts in which "earth" should be capitalized and the contexts in which "earth" should be lowercase.
I hope he asked Mom for help.
A few weeks later, I wove the Earth-v-earth explanation into a different lesson, hoping the students would understand the distinction without embarrassing my precocious, but likable student.
I hope he asked Mom for help.
A few weeks later, I wove the Earth-v-earth explanation into a different lesson, hoping the students would understand the distinction without embarrassing my precocious, but likable student.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 15:04
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
I once took a Spanish class through a community org. There was a woman in the class who was probably below average among the students in our intermediate class.
I was horrified to learn she'd spent her career as a Spanish teacher at DCPS (won't name the school, but it was a junior high)! No idea what the kids were learning in her class, as none of my fellow students were at the level where anyone should have relied on us to teach them a new language.
The people who are disparaging proper grammar and spelling are either jealous of people who learned those things, or confused about your question. There are certainly fields where it's ok to be a bad speller or not use proper grammar, but teaching a language is not one of them. I would work respectfully through the chain of command: have your child express his or her concerns to the teacher, then you do so, then you talk to the principal, then to the cluster superintendent, staying calm and using evidence of the problem as you go.
I was horrified to learn she'd spent her career as a Spanish teacher at DCPS (won't name the school, but it was a junior high)! No idea what the kids were learning in her class, as none of my fellow students were at the level where anyone should have relied on us to teach them a new language.
The people who are disparaging proper grammar and spelling are either jealous of people who learned those things, or confused about your question. There are certainly fields where it's ok to be a bad speller or not use proper grammar, but teaching a language is not one of them. I would work respectfully through the chain of command: have your child express his or her concerns to the teacher, then you do so, then you talk to the principal, then to the cluster superintendent, staying calm and using evidence of the problem as you go.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 14:37
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Remember, it is DCPS management who hiring these teachers with questionable grammar and who is rating them "effective" on the IMPACT evaluations.
Maybe these complaints should go downtown. Let's see how they will be received there.
Maybe these complaints should go downtown. Let's see how they will be received there.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 12:40
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Teachers in our highly-rated FCPS (elementary) routinely make errors in spelling, to say nothing of apostrophe errors. It makes me crazy.
Ignorant and stupid people often focus on the wrong details like spelling and grammar.
I think that calling people who insist on following the rules of the language in order to ensure clear communication "ignorant and stupid" says a lot about PP, and not in a good way.
Correct grammar and spelling make your writing much easier for others to follow. A dear friend of mine is a research scientist and severely dyslexic. Without spelling and grammar check his writing has a lot of mistakes. He ALWAYS has others proofread his work, and he relies on a variety of tools to ensure that what he writes follows the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. He does this to ensure that others understand what he writes (which is often quite complex).
It's like music. My singing is off key and off tempo, but I love to sing in my car. Should I call the people who ask me not to inflict my singing on them "ignorant and stupid?" Should I assume that what I want to express through my off-key caterwauling is more important than their petty conventions of musical tone and tempo? Or would it maybe make more sense to accept that I don't know how to sing and that I should try to learn something about music before I try to share my singing with others?
...And then not try to make a career in singing.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 12:33
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Teachers in our highly-rated FCPS (elementary) routinely make errors in spelling, to say nothing of apostrophe errors. It makes me crazy.
Ignorant and stupid people often focus on the wrong details like spelling and grammar.
I think that calling people who insist on following the rules of the language in order to ensure clear communication "ignorant and stupid" says a lot about PP, and not in a good way.
Correct grammar and spelling make your writing much easier for others to follow. A dear friend of mine is a research scientist and severely dyslexic. Without spelling and grammar check his writing has a lot of mistakes. He ALWAYS has others proofread his work, and he relies on a variety of tools to ensure that what he writes follows the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. He does this to ensure that others understand what he writes (which is often quite complex).
It's like music. My singing is off key and off tempo, but I love to sing in my car. Should I call the people who ask me not to inflict my singing on them "ignorant and stupid?" Should I assume that what I want to express through my off-key caterwauling is more important than their petty conventions of musical tone and tempo? Or would it maybe make more sense to accept that I don't know how to sing and that I should try to learn something about music before I try to share my singing with others?
Anonymous
12/23/2014 11:21
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Teachers in our highly-rated FCPS (elementary) routinely make errors in spelling, to say nothing of apostrophe errors. It makes me crazy.
Ignorant and stupid people often focus on the wrong details like spelling and grammar.
I see: You're one of the people who is clueless about grammar and spelling.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 07:41
Subject: Re:When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
And btw, foreign language does NOT have to be taught by a native speaker.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 07:39
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:I do not understand hating on the teachers. My sister is a severely dyslexic, but very enthusiastic English teacher. When I see threads like this, making fun of errors in teacher communications, I think it is just petty, and again competitive. I guess it's what some people need to feel good about themselves.
If your sister is really dyslexic, which I doubt, since you're probably lying just to sound dramatic, then she should have learned strategies by now to correct her spelling, or she shouldn't be teaching.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 07:31
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Teachers in our highly-rated FCPS (elementary) routinely make errors in spelling, to say nothing of apostrophe errors. It makes me crazy.
Ignorant and stupid people often focus on the wrong details like spelling and grammar.
Eh? Stupid people prefer correct spelling and grammar?
Anonymous
12/23/2014 07:29
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:Teachers in our highly-rated FCPS (elementary) routinely make errors in spelling, to say nothing of apostrophe errors. It makes me crazy.
Ignorant and stupid people often focus on the wrong details like spelling and grammar.
Anonymous
12/23/2014 07:20
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
+1
Anonymous
12/22/2014 21:00
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
Anonymous wrote:pAnonymous wrote:My child would not be in that class anymore.
You sound cray cray
Maybe, but also able to teach better than a teacher who doesn't know their subject if I see errors they don't.
Anonymous
12/22/2014 20:58
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
pAnonymous wrote:My child would not be in that class anymore.
You sound cray cray
Anonymous
12/22/2014 20:55
Subject: When teacher makes mistakes. All the time
My child would not be in that class anymore.