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by Ze Povinho
Nov 15, 2015
Good morning.
In past posts I have covered the Regime, as seen by the substitute teachers and the regular teachers. Now it is the turn to show some comments from readers regarding the regime and its effects on education.
The latest news: Kindergarteners behind latest incidents at unruly school You can google this and read the art...See MoreGood morning.
In past posts I have covered the Regime, as seen by the substitute teachers and the regular teachers. Now it is the turn to show some comments from readers regarding the regime and its effects on education.
The latest news: Kindergarteners behind latest incidents at unruly school You can google this and read the article because, as usual, tnet does not let me post links.
Here are the People's comments regarding the state of the regime.
1. G 9 hours ago
Why are people acting so shocked! Kids are not taught respect, responsibility, or consequences for their behavior. Parents blame everyone else for their childrens' behavior. When they don't get their way they throw a tantrum and then you see the parents on TV saying he/she was a good kid. They didn't do anything wrong but the big bad police arrested them. The parents then file million dollar lawsuits because their little buttercups didn't get their way. How dare someone try to stop your angel from robbing, fighting, terrorizing society. We all have to pay the price because a lot of people are to stupid to have kids.
2. whataboutit 6 hours ago 1 10
The disruptive kids used to be disciplined with consequences. Now they are catered to. And no it's not always physically abusive kids, sometimes it's just kids who like to not follow directions. They need 100&37; of the teacher's attention most of the time. If they are mean, bad students, off to the principal and on goes the label of bad seed. If they are decent students and just loud or "excessively energetic" they get student of the year awards and the teachers fall over them to placate them. It's all about how the student makes the teacher look. Well behaved kids who struggle get told to work harder. Misbehaving kids (even if they do it with a smile on their face) who get good grades get the red carpet rolled out at their feet.
3. Kristen 16 hours ago
This is happening because parents do not want their children in special ed anymore. Almost every class now has a student or more that requires an aide to follow them around. These aides are only employed part time. The students know they are not able to perform academically with the rest of the class and they are not fitting in socially and they become frustrated and act out. It diminishes the learning opportunities for the rest of the class and the teachers become exhausted on the energy required by these students, which also creates more behavioral problems within the remaining student population. It is a lose lose situation for the student that should be in a special ed class, the teacher and the entire class.
4. Mentok 1 day ago
It's because there are no consequences waiting for these kids at home. Many parents these days simply refuse to parent. The kids do whatever they well please and, instead of being grounded, punished, or receiving some other consequence, they are rewarded with cell ph ones and Pla ystations. Seriously, unless the parents step up and lay down the law, these kids will continue to be little monsters. Jeez...if I acted like that in school I would have felt the full wrath of dad when I got home. These days, many of these parents could care less... It's pathetic.
5. HT in AK 7 hours ago
This is the new normal people,,,wake up. I taught teaching in 1981, I ended my career teaching preschoolers with behavioral issues-hitting, kicking bitting scratching adults and other children,,these kids are growing up and going through the system. I am now a retiree subbing. I subbed in a school the other day that has three teachers who have said we are done,,and not returning after Chr istmas. This is what your well behaved, good kid is dealing with every day. Wake up America.
6. Su zyQ 1 day ago
Children used to be "parented" by, not only parents, but neighbors and friends who kept a watchful eye and were free to discipline as needed. Now, children are taught that they are the center of the universe. There is a school of thought that parents should never use negative words with a child, i.e., no, not, don't, etc. And this is the result. Unruly kids who don't know how to handle a situation where they are not the center of attention. Same thing happens to our high school graduates and young college students. They think everything should be about them and they should be carried through life without any effort on their part. We've created a couple of generations who think the world owes them. How awful it must be when they are hit with a dose of reality. It's time we brought discipline back into homes and schools. Kids who are disciplined and taught to respect their elders (teachers, parents) become productive citizens and don't expect others to pay their way in life.
7. FAITH 22 hours ago
Insane. Why are teachers needing to implement behavior areas?? That is the parents job.Teachers are there to teach reading, math etc..., not to teach your kid how to behave. I have a solution , if a kid misbehaves 3x call the parent to come pick him/her up. If parent needs to be called 3x a school yr then the kid gets expelled. Maybe that'll teach the parent they need to discipline their kids! BTW, I can speak on this- I have two elementary aged kids. Also, these bad kids are disruptive to the good kids as well. Those parents should complain about the bad kids, too. Maybe that'll make the BOE move their bu tts.
8. Jen 1 day ago
If you think this is bad, go say thanks to a schoolbus driver. I put up with this and worse over 20 years. Coins and batteries thrown at me, puked on, spit at, broke up fights, sworn at daily. The only punishment we were allowed to give out was placing the troublemaker in a front seat with the littlest kids. When one girl kicked her brother in the mouth and knocked out a tooth, she immediately started stealing from and hitting the kindergarteners when she was "punished" by sitting up front. Her dad was there the next day to call me a c*** for punishing his daughter. And I was dealing with this kind of behavior while driving a huge vehicle at 45 mph and 66 kids. Needless to say I took early retirement 2 years ago.
9. Car 1 day ago
These are classes of kindergarden students? It sounds more like the local Animal Care and Control section where the dangerous animals are housed. Maybe some of these kids are just badly brought up and their parents stink at teaching them responsibility and proper conduct. However, it sounds like, after reading different comments on the board as well, that some of these kids are already beyond help in a normal school setting. If a child of five years is already so violent and so disruptive that he is attacking children and teachers repeatedly, he belongs in a high security special school, one that is equivalent to a reform school for kids. Sorry to say this but a kid that bad can’t be in society scaring and harming other people. And homeschooling is not a solution either, because that just hides away the problem temporarily.
10. Gail Baugh 13 hours ago
PARENTS PARENTS PARENTS WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ? OH WHAT DO I MEAN ? DO YOU FIND IT ACCEPTABLE THAT YOUR CHILD IS ACTING LIKE AN ANIMAL IN SCHOOL ? IS THIS HOW YOU ACT AT HOME AND THEREFOR YOUR CHILD IS COPYING YOUR ACTIONS? WELL ADMINISTRATION SEND THE CHILDREN HOME EXPEL THEM ? YOU WOULD IF THEY WERE OLDER. AGE DOES NOT MATTER IF THEY PUT HANDS ON A TEACHER ,SWEAR ,AND THREATEN !!!! EXPEL !!! EXPEL.!!!.LET THEIR PARENTS DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM THEY CAUSED. A CHILD CAME TO OUR DOOR ON HALLOWEEN AND WHEN I ANSWERED HE SAID WELL ITS ABOUT TIME ALL THE KIDS GOT CANDY EXCEPT HIM..HE ASKED ME WHY? I SAID I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HIM TO GET CANDY..TOUGH LOVE CAN REALLY WORK.
11. Joyce 1 day ago
This is one of the reasons our public schools are in so much trouble. Not only do these teachers have zero autonomy in their own classrooms, but the mainstreaming of some of these children is not doing anyone any good except the parents, who get free daycare. I am not talking about all special needs children. But there have long been those who are violent because they know the teachers' hands are tied. Wait until these kids are in high school. I know people who work with these kids and they sometimes fear for their lives with the older ones. Meantime, regular students are left hanging because so much time and so many resources are swallowed up by the unruly.
12. Timothy 8 hours ago
My wife was a special ed paraprofessional assigned to a kindergarten student several years ago. The kid was horrible. He punched his pregnant teacher in the stomach and terrorized his classmates. My wife frequently had to put herself between this kid and thrown desks, etc.
My wife finally quit her job because the principal did nothing to change the situation. The mother herself was mentally ill (she demonstrated this in a very public way just six months after my wife quit). Eventually the child was removed from the school and placed in an institution.
13. Mike 1 day ago
Why would anyone want to be a teacher? My son teaches in a high school. I can't believe some of the stories he tells me about students misbehaving. He says there is nothing they can do without getting in trouble themselves. If they call a parent in for conference because their child is interrupting class all they hear is how good little Johnnie is. I would last about 2 minutes in a classroom before I would jerk a knot in their a and then I would be gone.
14. SjC 1 day ago
It amazes me that this is the behavior of really young students. Obviously they are getting NO training at home. It is the parents responsibility to teach discipline and the achers responsibility to teach. They go hand in hand. Too many parents expect the schools to do everything for their kids, they have to feed them- breakfast, lunch and our schools are now providing a snack for after school, after school programs, if they don't speak English they are expect to provide English as a second language. It is only getting worse. We have lost all family values.
15. DIREINDEED 1 day ago
Kindergarten? This is happening in kindergarten? You have got to be kidding me? What is going on with these school districts? If they can't even get five and six year-olds under control, we're in deeper do o-do o than most of us even thought. The state of Pennsylvania better start building bigger and better prisons because this is where these kids will ultimately wind up and with good reason. Somebody better start checking on what's going on at these kids' homes. Do they even have homes? Is it possible that they are feral?
16. Goodie 1 day ago
A teacher I know was written up because she put an unruly students papers down firmly on the students desk while firmly instructing the unruly student to straighten up. Unfortunately for the teacher the paper touched the students hand and the parents complained and the teacher was written up for the incident. Seems funny how the more the schools follow the instructions of the non-teacher PhDs who don't work hands on; the worse everything is getting. Standardized testing instead of teaching, no discipline until it boils over then expulsions/etc. Lack of institutional control is not the fault of the teachers it is the fault of the policy makers and administrators who write the policy in fear of lawsuits and in the end nobody wins and they end up sued anyway.
17. April 1 day ago
I'm a teacher in a K-2 building. And I will say that children are much more violent than they used to be. Both in words and actions. I've been slapped by one Kindergartener (while I was pregnant), shoved by another, and been by the last that he "would k ill me" multiple times. None of these children were special needs. They were simply at a lack for good parents and a good stable home. They would quote rated R movies and talk about how to mur der someone and how to run from police. This is an epidemic that begins at home and by the time they get to school, we're not allowed to do much about it. Legally, we are very limited with discipline procedures and can only suspend students a certain amount of times each year. It's really making public education very scary - considering the violent acts that have taken place in schools over the last 2 decades.
18. J.B. 11 hours ago
A number of years ago, while waiting to be called into the court for jury duty, two of three of we jurors were talking about how the behavior of children had deteriorated beyond belief. One of the other jurors, a woman, told us that she had been a public school teacher for five years but quit because of the frustrations involved in dealing with horrible students, bad administrators, idiotic policies, having to "teach to the test" (rather than educate), idiotic parents, school boards staffed by career politicians, etc. I'll never forget her last words about the five years she spent as a teacher; she said, "They were the longest and most miserable twenty years of my life."
19. Alice 1 day ago
Welcome to my world. I am a special education teacher with 35 years of classroom experience and have been assaulted a number of times and once had to spend the afternoon and the evening I a local ER. The district superintendent and the school trustees could have cared less. I had a parent bully me this morning because she dropped her son off in the middle of the street and in traffic and I informed the young man who is an 7th grader that that is not safe and don't do it again for his safety. His mother told me she can do anything she ants and where ever she wants and there is nothing I can do about it. My concern is her child's safety and her concern is not for her son's safety.
More later. I am going to bed.
by bruce_jenners_adams_apple
Nov 13, 2015
in Indiana you are limited to 19 days subbing w/o a cert...does anyone know if Indianapolis it is 19 consecutive days or 19 days total/yr? ty!
hi anyone who is familiar with school district of Philadelphia?
by Ze Povinho part I
Oct 10, 2015
Good morning.
Now I bring you some voices from the Dictatorship, so you can see that, while substitute teachers are routinely subject to the treatments that have already been described in detail here, full time teachers are also the victims of the totalitarian regime that passes for school sites. The following is from a site where full tim...See MoreGood morning.
Now I bring you some voices from the Dictatorship, so you can see that, while substitute teachers are routinely subject to the treatments that have already been described in detail here, full time teachers are also the victims of the totalitarian regime that passes for school sites. The following is from a site where full time teachers have commented on an article about teacher bullying; you will see how the totalitarian regime practices enforce total obedience and, and how tenure really does not protect at all. In this kind of regime, everyone turns against each other. Rule by fear is the norm. Just read 1984 and you will get the idea. As a result, a culture of fear is the norm and...as you read this, think about this: if admins can do this to full time unionized teachers, imagine what they can do to nontenured, nonunionized, at-will subs.
Here are the stories. Yes, they have posted their names, too.
1.Susan Nunes • 3 years ago Never socialize with colleagues, ESPECIALLY in a school environment. They will backstab you in order to keep their jobs and often do it under pressure from senior administrators desiring to cover their rear ends. I know this from bitter experience. The last school I worked at the cliques were horrible; the principal was a total incompetent and allowed a poisonous environment to occur. It benefited her because she didn't have to do the dirty work. It's an old supervisory trick.
2.sherry kerley • 3 years ago I am a victim of bullying by a principal. My building had 19 greivances against her last year through Nea and nothing was done that we know of. She is mean and vindictive and stayed on my b u tt until I had 2 strokes and a heart attack during the school year. I have been in recovery for 8 months and will try to go back this fall. Please don't tell us to notify our union reps. they do NOTHING!!!! In fact I am changing my union because of this. This woman almost killed me!!!! But I am coming back with vengence for everyone in my building. My principal is a disease who gets by with anything she likes!!!!And everyone knows this!
3. devotedbutdepressed • a year ago It's not just administration that bullies teachers. Parents do it too. And they do it because they have been given such easy pathways to accuse teachers and don't have to provide any details or evidence. This has happened to me. I have been accused of bullying a student. Through interviews with students who were pulled from my room, with staff who are in my room most of the day, and through comments from other parents who are very happy to have me teach their children, it is apparent that I am not a bully. I've never wanted anything but the best for my students - and I've had a LONG career. I have high expectations (as we are supposed to) and my classroom is not allowed to become a circus. Unfortunately, because I won't allow my students to behave any way they want, one set of parents has decided that's bullying. They were easily able to file a report which is readily available online and were not/are not required to give any details. This has come out of the blue and is not only ruining my health but also my ability to teach. Because of the lack of support I've gotten, I feel I have no other choice than to "present" rather than "teach" the curriculum, allowing students to do only what they want and not pushing any of them to do their best. Just trying to keep a job until I can retire. It's very sad what teaching has become. I would NEVER suggest that someone go into this field!
4. karen devotedbutdepressed • 3 months ago I am in a current situation where I have been bullied since the beginning of school. I am very creative and always do a monthly theme.... my principal hated me when she saw how much I enjoyed doing this.. I also love teaching and she really started picking when she discovered this....to make a long story short... I had to be put on meds to make it through the year....I tried to get the district to move me to special ed. Because I just got my test results But they wouldn't... I m still fighting not to be put back at that school...
5. A Fed up teacher • 3 years ago Yes my last principal was a well known bully within the district (Fremont in California). He took great joy in going after effective teachers every year because he felt intimidated by his lack of teaching experience & only wanted a staff that he felt qualified to evaluate. He even bullied certain students! Sadly, by protecting him, our school board & superintendent created an unsafe environment for both students and teachers. I was given a non rehire when the previous year he had given me a stellar recommendation and even fought for me to come back to his school! Many wonderful teachers are leaving education because of inept, incompetent principals who do not understand what is necessary to run a school and focus on bullying those who are only trying to make schools safe for everyone AND meet the standards!
6. Susan Nunes • 3 years ago I don't think you quite understand what I am saying. Education is NOT the same as other industries or lines of work. Public education is EXTREMELY in c e st uo us, and those applications, if filled out dishonestly, can cause you to have your teaching license suspended, and THAT goes into a nationwide database where every school district in the United States KNOWS you were a liar filling out an application and basically torpedoes ANY chance whatsoever of a teacher ever working in education again.
It is system-wide, OCCUPATIONAL blackballing. There is NOTHING comparable in the private sector, and I have worked in both.
Most businesses will not risk a lawsuit by having their supervisors badmouth employees so they will only provide dates of employment and perhaps salary; however, education gets around that by often forcing teaching applicants to send "confidential" references to previous supervisors, especially that all-important "last principal." There is NO way to know if your principal is defaming you.
All of this is allegedly for the "sake of the kids." However, this is all about making sure teachers who are "problems" are never again allowed to teach.
The only around the blackballing is to spend years and years as a badly paid substitute teacher and hope to get good references that way or work one's way into a full- time position through substituting.
6. PTSD sufferer • 3 years ago I was the victim of severe bullying over the course of 6 years at the hand of my principal (who has since left our district). At the end of her first year, 16 staff members retired, including the bulk of my respected and celebrated department. As time wore on, it became obvious to my colleagues, union, and students that I had a target on my back. I went on disability several times during her tyrannical reign, including 8 months of 1 school year where I was hospitalized for chest pain & confined to my home for several months from anxiety. Every part of my life was fair game for this woman - my teaching, my relationships with both colleagues & students, my health, my weight, my faith, and the drama department that I directed. I was diagnosed with PTSD in 2005 and still suffer the ramifications of her victimization even though she is gone. I have never fully recovered. My teaching is no longer an act of passion, but a job. I gave up drama for quite some time, but am blessed to be able to help out a new director this year. Even though I was a target, it is really the students who suffered & still suffer the most losing an amazing teacher for one just going through the motions.
7. Jason Duchan
It only takes 20 minutes for a student to sabotage a teacher’s life and compromise it in a serious way. Bullying is no less serious whether it is done face-to- face orvia a social networking site. Cases of defamation and malice against teachers from students are happening all over the country. On November 6, 2014, I became the latest victim of cyber bullying, on that day I was abruptly notified that I was under investigation without explanation and removed from my school site.
I found out on November 11, 2014, I there was a fake Facebook page that was created by a former student out for revenge, it contained my photo and disgusting things, stating that it came from me; not only was this defamation and malice, the student committed a crime by impersonating me online with intent to injure my reputation. I was the one first blamed and instead helping me, I treated me without due process and labeled me “guilty before proven innocent”.
School districts are overreacting and they are destroying the reputations of teachers i even when they are cleared, their reputation at their school is ruined. This is happening to teachers, counselors and administrators around the country.
They has to be changes in policies and they need to find a way to protect teachers and have a system in place where teachers can receive due process and prevent this from happening to other teachers, as well as administrators.
8. B.Thompson • 3 years ago Not only is it administrative bullying, there is also a significant amount of bullying being done by parents and students because of texts and emails that only give a small portion of the story. Too many teachers in our building were called in due to parents who complained about the teachers' harsh words or actions that were relayed electronically by the student during class. There was no conversation between the teacher and the student/parent, so it was never resolved except for in a punitive way.
9.Sarah Selech • 3 years ago Our school secretary, who was the principal's personal friend, harassed and literally extorted teachers in our small elementary school. We had a teacher turn-over rate of 25&37; annually. When the secretary behaved in that manner towards me, I addressed it professionally, with documentation and a complaint to the principal and her supervisors. After that, despite years of positive evaluations, the principal began sending negative complaints to the district about me so that my complaint about the secretary would not be taken seriously.
I left that dreadful school and unhelpful district to work in a wonderful district nearby. I have noticed the test scores for my former school dropping dramatically over the years since I have gone. I have heard very similar stories from other teachers in our non-union state. I am glad I work in a good district, that supports teachers. But, many women and men in our state face are treated very badly by their districts. I believe the economic situation currently emboldens districts to completely exploit teachers.
More later. I have to go
by Ze Povinho
Oct 6, 2015
Good evening.
Yesterday I covered a class at one of the upper grade schools and there was an informer aka instructional assistant.
In my opinion, things went very smoothly and there were only very few students who acted up, but it was only about one tenth of the demonic behavior that I had to endure at the old district. In other w...See MoreGood evening.
Yesterday I covered a class at one of the upper grade schools and there was an informer aka instructional assistant.
In my opinion, things went very smoothly and there were only very few students who acted up, but it was only about one tenth of the demonic behavior that I had to endure at the old district. In other words, for me this was a nonissue and I did not deem it necessary to send them out of the room or on referrals since, at least, they did try to sove a few problems on the paper.
As I mentioned in one of the last messages, having endured 15 years of a brutal school district has made me really desensitized to minor issues.
Anyway, I did let the teacher know about these students because the informer was going to tell the teacher anyway and also the other students themselves would (this was only in one secondary school class period). So, for me, these were the only issues because the other classes did wonderfully (again, in my opinion...and we already know that the sub's opinion is largely worth nothing).
I did tell the teacher about this today (about the ones who misbehaved) and I was told that I should have sent them outside of the room to sit by themselves and other things (I won't go into specifics lest this becomes so specific that the site can be ID'd). Suffice to say that what the teacher told me led me to conclude the following:
1) That the teacher was not really interested in following up in the discipline report left by a substitute. I have been told that these students act this way all the time even with the teacher and also fail to do any work. Again, I am not a wizard to correct ingrained bad habits in the space of 50 minutes.
2) That it seems that this teacher is not even remotely aware of the countless perils that await subs if they even attempt to bring some order to students who are not going to listen to the classroom rules. I was told by the informer that these students in question always act this way.
Anyway, I did not sent them out outside of the room because 1)in my many years of being a sub, I have been told to never let students unsupervised or out of sight. In fact, one of the middle school handbooks for subs at one site at the old district specifically stated to never leave students unsupervised. This included having the students go out of the room for 10 minutes, as I have seen some teachers do.
I guess that the teacher who gave me the suggestions also forgot that if I send a student to the office, I am risking many retaliatory actions as a sub. (I guess that these full time teachers never read the sub forums where these issues are mentioned a lot. Again, the issue for me was not something that merited sending them on a referral. I guess that it is easy for full time, tenured, unionized teachers to disregard the fact that tenured teachers can do many, many things with impunity that would get a sub fired on the spot. They can send referral after referral and leave students unattended sitting outside of their line of sight, but woe to the sub who does the same.
Again, Herod's Law in action at the regime. If you don't discipline, you get lectured and banned. If you don't inform, you are also in trouble. If you inform and are honest, you get in trouble. If you let the teacher know about the issues, you get lectured.If you do, you get in trouble. If you don't, you get in trouble.
And this is unfortunate because the other classes did well, and I also explained and helped the students. But, in the regime, all this matters zero. What gets noticed here are the mistakes-no matter how minor.
I guess that the teacher I mentioned has never been treated the way I was treated for a decade and a half because if that were the case and then worked for a "good" district, then the behavior issues I have seen would be almost a nonissue. But as I mentioned before, good behavior at the site probably means behaving like in a military school....and if you think about the descriptions I have made of sites, it is true. Like in a totalitarian regime, the place demands obedience and conformity at all costs.
And yes, it's like walking on a tightrope everyday. No assignment is safe. Nothing is minor. One cannot forget about "minor incidents" because these are precisely the ones that sink subs where I am. There is no possibility of feeling good about a job well done because, weeks later, that assignment you felt good about was the one that caused you to be banned because somehow you forgot to read a certain page from the plan or finish an item- never mind that you explained everything in detail and the kids "like' you and the way you treated them.
Ze
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Teacher Chatboards
concepts I have discussed-later on I will post more. These
come from the A to Z teacher website. Below are some sub
experiences from other subs. Yes, the small stuff can
really come back and destroy your sub career.
1. 02-12-2014 I got blacklisted from my home district
afte...See More