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Originally Posted by bessiedog
Gonna be a bit if a brag here... but I teach both jr and sr high. My kids have always ranked in the top 10-20% of academic achievement exams in the province... thats been ongoing for 14 years now.
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Great! You get paid extra.
I'll have to ask you to stop defending the duds, though. I'm not saying you personally do - I'm saying "you" generically.
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Those of you that are on here wanking about how you can't get quality kids really are stunned...... you can become a teacher's worst nightmare soooo easily its not funny. It takes nothing to get the system to smarten up and ENSURE your kids are being taught the curricullum effectively. MAKE A PHONE CALL OR MOVE YOUR KID...... better yet... spend a day in your kids class videotaping the day.
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Nobody wants to be a "teacher's worst nightmare" - unless they are a dud.
As for the rest, read back and see what happened to me when I dared to remind a teacher that her job was to teach. I suppose you can guess that didn't move me much but it was an attitude that is not uncommon and needs to be rooted out and rejected by everyone involved. That's why I posted it - maybe some parent(s) read it and realize they can speak up when things don't pass the smell test.
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There are some real bad teachers out there, and yes... its not super easy to get them out of there....
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No, it isn't. I tried when I was a teacher. After a few years, it is mission impossible...unless it involves sex or porn or something dramatic. Incompetence will not cut it.
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PARENTS ARE THE SINGLE BIGGEST FACTOR IN DEVELOPING A CHILD. Period.
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I get your point and agree with that generally but it's not true in every case. I had a few students that came from pretty bad homes. They turned out better than they should have and better than they had any right to. I had a hand in that. I know so because it got back to me years later. I expect it will for you, too.
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Teachers can screw up a kid? Gimme a break... we are barely a popcorn fart of influence on children.... we are only a 'big impact' on the kids that LET us.
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Have I told you about my own theories of discipline? One was the Portable Desk Theory. I made it up when the other crap wasn't working with some. You can figure that one out, I am sure.
I remember some of the teachers I had and that was a long time ago. They had an impact - a big one. Cranky Jesuits will do that. So will carpenters with high standards.
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We need to license childbirth....
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Don't get me started.
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Rocky... too bad you bailed from the profession. I hate the red tape... but its no different than trying to get stuff built/done in a housing development run by one of the biggies.... This profession is desparate for good people.... but the best leave... I've seen it time and time again... too much work... too much grief... too little compensation. Tragic!
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It wasn't the money, bud.
The last classroom I was in.....well, let's just say that one day the principal and my entire class thought somebody was going to get decked. The principal stepped between me and somebody in a uniform. It wasn't going to happen, but I guess it's fair to say my sunny disposition got pretty dark. The somebody "reported" me to a Fire Chief for doing a bit of re-arranging in my classroom. It was something I had requested the previous year and needed doing; it still wasn't done so I took a weekend, brought some tools to school and got it done. I told the Fire Chief to go ahead and do his inspection but next time to not interrupt my class. Then I had a few words for the "somebody". He and the somebody left and never came back. To tell you the truth, I forgot the kids were there. You could'a heard a pin drop.
When it comes to things that are important, I've never been very good in the tact department. It's a character defect, I guess.
I was losing whatever tolerance I had for a bone head or a bureaucrat protecting his "turf" by reporting me for doing his job or otherwise getting between me and where my kids needed to go for no good reason other than their own selfishness or laziness or personal ambitions. I knew it was time to get interested in something else. Now I have a business.
I wouldn't last a month as a teacher these days.
(yeah, I had a word or two with a few parents, too, over the years. Somebody had to say something.)
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Teachers are paid just fine.
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That was a breath of fresh air. Thx.
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I'd LOVE merit pay... except this has been tried in the US.... and this is proven to show that teachers will wind up being 'test teaching people' and the system will fudge the marks to get the bonus...
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That's not hard to fix and it's no reason to pay teachers more money every year just because they didn't die. Does an alterative way of doing business have to be 100% perfect to be better? Who told you it won't work - somebody with university tenure or somebody in the ATA? Neither of them really want anything changed in that regard, do they?
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Thanks for your support 
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It doesn't sound to me like much of the valid criticisms of teaching and teachers apply to you. It also sounds to me like you'd have the support of most parents. You'll never get it all so I don't understand the long face.
May I share with you a gem of wisdom that was given to me long ago in different circumstances but I believe has wide application:
"If you don't want to get shot in the azz, don't fly with crows."
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