Teacher who commented on cleavage resigns

OMG!!!! I was like, you knowww, wearing my clothes and trying to blend in.  Then she made me feel stupid.  How embarrazzing.  See it on fb later. My mom says she won't be around to bother other girls like this.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-teacher-resigns-commenting-student-cleavage-article-1.1052653

Teacher reads a passage from "Ender's Game" now on leave

A parent called the book "pornographic."

http://io9.com/5893478/teachers-job-in-jeopardy-for-reading-to-kids-from-enders-game

Police were called....nation on red alert.

NO TOUCH! horseplay or felony crime?

There are real issues at stake here. One of the issues with charges of sexual abuse are built in.  People committing such heinous acts seek privacy for the crime.  If a teacher is accused, chances are they were alone with a student at some point so the charges come down to hearsay.  Not being able to disprove the allegations leaves outsiders wondering/ doubting whatever comes of an investigation.

I do not know whether Mr. Ziskin is guilty or not.  It appeared to a school worker that he had a hand in some boy's pants while seeing him wrestling with some boys during lunch or break.  At this point, seeing physical contact between a teacher and students can set alarms off.  I used to play basketball, touch football, and even wrestled some of my students on occasion. And speaking of physical contact, I had a 4th grade teacher who scratched my back while we were watching movies in class.  I do remember being creeped out about it.  I didn't know what a pedophile was and, frankly, I don't think it describes him.  I think he thought I was a cute kid. I didn't like it but I quickly got over it.  I am not advocating that teachers do this by any stretch of the imagination.  At the same time, I am not happy about the direction things have swung where the bottom line is to play it safe in case someone decides to ruin your life. 

It is easy to say "no touching."  "Do not be in a room with a student alone."  Those are the 2 big ones and they are not hard to follow on a day to day basis.  They make it easier for a district to do cya.  Nevertheless, it is sad that many kids could use a hug and one has to think twice about something so innocent that demonstrates inter-human affection.  Perhaps it's our old Puritan obsession with sex.  We can't look at human contact as anything but driven by libido.  When I lived in Paraguay, I routinely saw girls walking hand in hand.  I got on buses where we were packed like sardines against each other. People's idea of personal space was different. I think I probably inherited my own inclinations from my father and his mother.  They are/were friendly midwesterners who lived in a time where there was more trust between strangers.  My father can't get to the bathroom at a restaurant without stopping to say "hi" to some kid he sees at a nearby table.  Once in awhile, he gets a look of suspicion from someone.  How can I not find that to be a sad example of where trust is at in our society? 

As for what the school worker who observed Mr Ziskin saw.  Is it possible that their perspective was swayed by their own subjective biases?  We all have them.  Take the test from the link below and see how astute your own powers of observation are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo


Mr. Ziskin has served 6 years out of his 15 year sentence.  What is significant is that one of the accusers is now saying he was wrong.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/escondido-ex-teacher-seeks-new-child-molestation-trial/article_9819eb2a-c36e-5afa-937b-98ba83edbfe3.html

Teacher mentor, Bill Rogers, gets it

Bill Rogers, a teacher and mentor in Australia, is saavy enough to see that issues with students aren't necessarily solved through "better classroom management."  I hardly had any behavior issues the first year I taught in a bilingual classroom in inner city San Jose.  The worst year I ever had was my final year of teaching in a small town in California.  My neophyte principal would call me into his office over some manufactured complaint by a student.  I would explain they were doing this...because they could.  It was a power trip that involved their peers.  Generally, my experience had been that  boys were rowdier and more apt to stray from the class focus.  But the last year gave personal meaning to the term "mean girls."  They were sneaky, manipulative and spiteful.  There are times when I meet a nice kid and recall that I actually did like them when I started teaching.

Roger says:


The particularly disturbing issue of teacher bullying is also addressed. Some students (in our schools) use calculated, intentional, purposeful behaviours to intimidate, manipulate and "control" group behaviour towards some teachers. This is bullying. It is always wrong. No teacher should have to put up with the psychological harassment of some students in some of our schools, (most bullying is psychological).
Senior staff need to be alert to, and aware of, such behaviours in their schools and support colleagues who experience such behaviour. Teachers who may be more vulnerable to the power-seeking behaviour of some students should never be subsequently blamed under labels of "poor discipline" or "poor teaching". Bullying (of any kind) is always wrong and must be confronted in an appropriately restorative way. This issue is also addressed (at some length) in the book.

Here is the full article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/mar/12/managing-teacher-stress?newsfeed=true 

Teacher puts student in CAGE! Now waitressing

Is it possible to look at things like this in context?  It was a  dramatic joke.  Why do teachers resort to humor like this?  They spend a great deal of time attempting to control that segment of the class that reverts to shenanigans out of boredom.  You know: the kids that don't want to be there.  It is easy to sit there with a straight and somber face and question what thinking leads to this.  Ironically, it is the anal retentive,linear thinking, humorless teacher who never takes a risk that ends up keeping their job and makes school a hell for the ones that can't sit still.

http://www.koat.com/r/30549914/detail.html

Teacher accused of slapping back of boys head during lockdown

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1216221.ece

I can see out gunned soldiers in a foxhole with the opposing army advancing and one of the guys can't shut up...someone gives him a pop on the head and ends up being court martialed.  If there is any time you are not to play around, it is when a school is in lockdown.  The kid could end up getting his classmates killed as well.

Teachers harassed by students

Some unfortunate teachers can be the target of "mob" behavior by several cooperating students. When one student is requested to modify a behavior, others defend their own at the expense of the teacher's need to move on. A lack of effective consequences from home or school administration that might stop negative behavior can generate a downward-spiraling cycle that may lead to a teacher's physical and mental health being damaged as severely as if the teacher were a student being harassed or bullied by peers. 



http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_19975363?source=most_viewed


The last year I taught was a myriad of tag team disruption.  1- student 1 disrupts  2- teacher responds
3- student 2 disrupts in "sticking up" for student 1  or 1- student disrupts 2- teacher responds 3- student continues disruption 4- teacher responds with negative consequence 5- student disrupts in reaction to teacher request  6- student's parent calls to complain teacher was harassing or ogling student.  I still recall a former principal, yolanda falkenberg, who was "ok" with students physically getting up and leaving a new teacher's classroom because "their needs weren't being met."  The hypocrisy and cowardice of such behavior is appalling to me.  Of course once they sense that the teacher has no real control, everything falls apart and then the administration blames it on the teacher.

slave games

First an unthinking math teacher wrote a math homework sheet that involved problems with how many times a slave was beaten per day.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/teacher-who-assigned-math-homework-with-slavery-questions-resigns/
 He resigned.  Was it insensitive? Yes.  Should it end his career?  That's debatable.  But in all likelihood, it did.

Now there are reports that teacher's participated in a playground game involving escaped slaves (played by black kids).  The jury is out but, according to the school's investigation, this was something perpetrated by the students themselves.

slave games

witch hunt movie

http://www.witchhuntmovie.com/trailer.html

Male teachers- Accusations

fear of accusations in Canada
Article says 1 in 7 male teachers has been falsely accused but I suspect that number has changed of late.

and in the United States

What .....me worry?

what good teachers worry about

I used to say "They might kill me, but they are going to have to do it with a sharp knife."

Every few years they would send in some overpaid playground manager that I called my principal to evaluate me.  These people generally had taught a few years in an elementary school and now they had me in the palm of the their hand...sort of.  I thought of some of these administrators as dull knives. They would have been better suited for the customer service department at Macy's.  Most of them seemed full of ambition and somewhat devoid of academic expertise.

Well...I guess the dull blade got me in the end.  The tetanus was too much for me.

If you have been targeted, and are competent, the easiest way for them to purge you is to get some student accusations.  They have trouble showing incompetence so they take the expedient route.

Dept of Ed. on false accusations

The strange thing is that only a few times were the accusations completely fabricated.  Usually, it was someone taking something I did and twisting it when it fit their agenda.  Hmmmm....your grade is low.  Why is this?  Hmmmm well the teacher did x, y or z 2 months ago.

I have allegedly: slammed a head into the wall, poked a kid with my finger, kicked a child in the leg, hit a child with a chair, squeezed a girl by her shoulder, purposely short changed students on their grades, told a student to shut up, berated a student in front of their peers, got in the "face" of a student, told a parent I would no longer harass their child and then did so, came on sexually by calling a student "sweet heart" and licking my lips, sang love songs, baited children to come into my room alone, kept a girl in at lunch and did not respond to her panic attack,  showed video of myself naked, ogled girls' chests, attempted to film girls' chests....the list could go on.  I admit I have a temper when pushed too far.  I was worried that my tendencies might one day push me too far after being baited the way I have been (remember the tiger that got lose in the san fran zoo?).  By the time I got to my final year, I rarely raised my voice despite the behavior of the students.  I noticed that as my self control became greater, that the tactic students used switched from physical abuse to being some sort of sexual predator.  I am a heterosexual male but I am happy to say that I have absolutely no interest in 13 or 14 year old girls.  When you add that these were insipid, narcissists I can only say that I would not have ever found them interesting....not at 47 and not at 13.  I suppose that on first take one might see the anger in my talk, but at its core there is a great sadness.  I am sad for myself and for this society that seems to have lost its way.

False accusations

If you are accused of sexual misconduct or physical abuse involving students and it is determined that the allegations were knowingly false when they were made, the DOE must remove all references to the allegations from your DOE personnel file, restore any lost pay with interest and permanently reassign the student from your class absent compelling and extraordinary circumstances.
The agreement makes clear that the disciplinary process should never be used to retaliate against whistle-blowers or for any other illegal reason. It goes on to state that all employees who make a knowingly false allegation shall be subject to discipline.

Do College Students Lie on Evaluations? Some of them do.

student evaluations

It seems if education is the only commodity where the consumer asks for less considering what they've paid, then one could make a case that they don't really ask for less.  They have, rather, changed the paradigm and are not after the education but the GRADE.  This is the elephant in the living room.  For a majority of students, unfortunately, the idea is to run the gauntlet and jump through the hoops to get a grade, and learning something along the way is incidental.  Professors who don't read into this run the risk of becoming unpopular and jeopardizing their future.  Welcome to the shopping mall of grades.  The same student that lies to their self  in terms of their reason for attending college is probably apt to twist things where necessary because the teacher did not respond in kind.

I should have known something was wrong...

I should have known something was wrong with the district I worked in the very first year I was there.  I taught Spanish to about 10 kids and one had a mother who had taught or had a teaching credential.  I guess that made her an expert on all things educational.  The paradigm I was used to was old fashioned, I suppose.  It didn't infantalize teenagers.  If you asked for something and got it, you certainly didn't complain about it.  But that's what I witnessed one day.  The girl asked if she could eat something because she hadn't had breakfast.  So I allowed her to eat a granola bar.  "Ooooh.  I could get you in trouble.  You're not supposed to let us eat in here.  It says so in the class rules."
              Manipulative little monster.  At the end of the year I arranged for us to try using a scuba tank in a pool for the fun of it.  The little monster was on crutches at the time so she wouldn't be going any way. Nevertheless, mommy called into complain about the activity.  This wasn't the last time I would watch some mean spirited jerk ruin it for everyone else.
             Years later, a particularly hyperactive, disruptive little boy told me "You can't handle me," over the phone. 
              What gave him the idea I was supposed to "handle" (tolerate?) his poor behavior?  So that's why I got an education?  If I had bothered to become a dentist but found it hard to get squirmy kids to open their mouths, would it be more important to get them to open up then what I did afterwards?  If the answer is "yes," then count me out.  Yet somehow, managing large groups of empowered, entitled kids is what teaching is about these days.  I'm not saying I won't or wouldn't try.  But as the system breaks down you realize what you signed up for and what you are doing are very different. 

I suppose I'm a bit of a libertarian on this one.  I wish kids that did not want to be there had a stall they could clean out instead of wrecking my classroom.  If you are a Mother Theresa who equates meaningless self sacrifice with teaching, so be it.  I think anytime you attempt to move forward on some enterprise without the consent of people who are stuck in it, you are not going to get much out of it.  Furthermore, you could say "hey that's your job to motivate."  Fine.  I will do it up to a point but I thought my primary mission was to teach, not be a salesman. If they choose to text message their friends instead of learning about history, who am I to tell them otherwise. The fact of the matter is that I have very little power over their decisions.  THEY are the ones who decide how they will behave.  Maybe we can get Michelle Rhee in there since she puts students first.