Falsely accused teacher calls for accountability

A Canadian teacher was accused of making a student pick out a banana from the trash and eat it....well, that is true.  But the accuser took liberties with the truth and now the teacher is calling for change. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/20/bc-teacheraccused.html?cmp=rss

Confessions of a "Bad" teacher

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/opinion/sunday/confessions-of-a-bad-teacher.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

An opinion piece by one of those terrible "big salary and pension, hiding behind the union" teachers.  I found it poignant to read that he was in one of those binds where you just can't win.  It is sickening to have administrators hold you responsible for poorly behaved students crammed into a class on top of each other.  The article underscores the prevalent attitude that poor outcomes for students are all within the realm of responsibility for teachers.  Do the students have responsibilities?  The parents?  Maybe it's not surprising that as the culture's fabric becomes torn, and institutions like schools, and the police get left to try and put things back together, that ideas regarding personal responsibility get stretched to the point of absurdity. 

What happens to teachers that have healthy boundaries and say "the student needs to meet me half way or close to it.?"  They get accused of things like "not answering questions in class," or worse.  They become the ones "who didn't care enough," "didn't believe in me," "didn't motivate me,"  "couldn't handle me." If that doesn't work for the students in the hot seat, their teachers get more frivolous or false accusations thrown at them.

Why are university professors afraid to go after cheaters?

In short, within the shopping malls of academia, the customer is always right.  Students have many powers at their disposal to make life difficult for teachers and professors.  There are student evaluations that effect administrative perceptions of said instructor as well as sites such as ratemyprofessor.com .  Then there is the difficulty a teacher might encounter just trying to make an accusation stick.  They also run the risk of retaliation by the student or their parents or friends.  Many teachers will attest that even when they followed the "document, document, document" dictum and had caught a student red handed, they were still thrown under the bus by their own administration when push came to shove.  Unfortunately, even college professors work within this climate of fear and retaliation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-callahan/faculty-need-more-support_b_787714.html
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=712745033007801040#editor/target=post;postID=4413757492504722321

The surreal world of discipline within an American public school Part II

This kid, who had a D or so, was now a TA for some teacher. He could spend the rest of the trimester (about 3 weeks) sitting on his duff, stapling papers, for an A. 
Despite covering my bases,  I was the one being blamed for this debacle.  I had made my classroom rules clear, given warnings, taken abuse from this kid.  I had let the parents know, hoping to head off any escalation in the conflict, and they had continued to go after me.   I had contacted the principal and let her know that I had been on top of this and despite that, this "child" had continued to disrupt the class and misbehave.  Furthermore, he seemed hellbent on creating issues for me.

I emailed the principal that summer and asked what her protocol was for complaints.  Normally, the first person parents should talk to is the teacher.  That's exactly what she told me and I let her know AGAIN; that the parents had gone straight to her and never spoke to me.  When the Summer ended, I sent copies of this jerk's papers to the parents.  These were the papers where he bragged about misbehaving and was unnecessarily critical of me.  It was addressed to the father.  I wrote "If this was my child, I would want to know what was going on."  Approximately a month later, I received an envelope in my classroom from the parents.  The writing was so poor, I presumed that the kid might have written it.  Nope.  Mommy, the reading teacher, was no scholar.  Now she was telling me that I had waited too long to send their child's "work," and that this now constituted harassment of their child.

Let's see.  She was telling me that she would have actually responded to any indication that her angel was misbehaving.  Well.  I assume she knew he was working on the yearbook.  Wouldn't she have wanted to see the pages he contributed to?  Hmmmm......no 8th grade boy's basketball pics.  God.  The hypocrisy of it all. This letter indicated the parents would go to the school district's board meeting to attempt to have me removed as I "didn't belong in a classroom with children." If you care to see this teenager in action, google "mr. jingles goes boom."  It shows this young man blowing up a frog with a fire cracker.  They are real pillars of the community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7hrg1ZmfmI

It was disgusting to me, after all I had been through. I contacted Karen Horwitz, from NAPTA.  She asked if she could use the story for her book, White Chalk Crime.  It's there on page 166 or so.

The surreal world of discipline within an American public school Part I

I knew the kid disliked me.  He told me to get out of his chair one morning after walking into the computer lab while I worked on the school's yearbook.  I asked him to go outside to discuss his rude behavior where he told me his mother "didn't even like me."  I emailed his mother, an elementary school teacher in the district.  I never heard back from her.  This young man was on the 8th grade basketball team and had chosen to get photographs of the team for the yearbook.  Since he had sprained an ankle or something of that nature.  He should have had plenty of opportunity to comply.  But he was disruptive and almost sadistic in flaunting his disdain for me or the rules of the computer lab.  One day he sat there and took apart a keyboard right next to me as if daring me to take action.  His behavior deteriorated even more as the year began to wind down.  I called his father who told me he would "ask one of Michael's classmates whether I was accurate in my assessment or not."

I received an apology letter from him saying he would try and improve his behavior.  I knew it did not jive with his earlier behavior and waited for the next attack.  A week later I heard "M is on the warpath" from a colleague of mine.  His mother was after me. Yep....should have known.  The kid was well behaved for about 3 more days.  I could see these people thought they could do whatever they wanted with impunity by the actions I had seen so far.  The boy had never completed his pictures of the 8th grade boys basketball team. As a matter of fact, he had not submitted a single picture. He had not showed up for detention due to his poor behavior and been given As despite not showing much work. ( He was given credit for work he said he did that he claimed had been lost due to computer difficulties).  By the time we finished the yearbook, I asked students to include everything they had done in a small booklet.  He had nothing to enter but went so far as to blame me for the class when asked what particular projects he had worked on.  He mentioned spending time texting on his cell phone and playing video games online in this resume as well.  He wrote an essay blaming me for issues that arose in the class and was quite vindictive.  I had inherited a computer lab that was basically dysfunctional for 3 months and we still managed to put out an improved yearbook over the previous year's product.

Now he was being held accountable and still behaving poorly.  His grade was a C- or D and moving towards an F very quickly.  I handed out a worksheet students were supposed to work on one day and found that he claimed I had never given him one on collecting this homework.  I knew this was an attempt to bait me.  If a student is paying attention and something like this happened, they would let the teacher know.  This was ridiculous to believe.  I had a talk with him outside and left him out there.  My class moved to the computer lab and instead of following us, he stayed outside of my regular classroom, attempting to do whatever he could to not comply with feigned lack of understanding.  I sent someone to get him and had a heart to heart.  When I walked out of the lab, seeing his face bout 3 week from the opening, I felt his foot under mine as I stepped towards him.  He was now going to play the physical abuse game.  "Get your foot out from under mine." I said.  I told him he had not done his work and had been doing whatever he could to get under my skin.  He told me he wasn't responsible for the basketball pictures because I hadn't "written it down."  When he asked how coud he have taken the pictures when he was in the games, I replied he probably sat on the bench, referring to his injury.  He gave me an F-U and I sent him with a referral.  He never went there.

What do you know?  His mother had scheduled an appointment with the principal that morning. I sent the principal information stating I had never spoken to the mother and had been trying to resolve the issue for some time.  A week later I was asked to show up for a meeting with union rep.  God.....it figured I was in hot water after putting up with this bully.  I brought all the paperwork I had trying to defend my behavior.  It was futile.  The mother claimed I had kicked her kid and when I told the administrators that he baited me the way he had I got a sarcastic "yeah right" from the principal.  The principal told me she wanted to put me in the program improvement which is a euphemism for the teacher exit door.  "You have never even watched me teach I retorted."  She said she was unimpressed with the way kids just threw down their backpacks as they entered the lab, on a day when she covered for me.  I was incensed by the injustice in this.

That summer I found a site called NAPTA (National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse). I bought the book on principal mistreatment of teachers and joined.  Little did I know that this travesty of justice was only the beginning of my nightmare in this snake bit district.

(to be continued)

What planet is RiShawn Biddle from?

http://dropoutnation.net/2011/07/09/best-no-unmotivated-children/

I had to post this because it underscores the sentiment that these children are simply little reservoirs of hope and learning that can come from terribly dysfunctional households and if teachers have subject matter competence, etc. they will learn.  I wish Mr. Biddle would go teach in a high poverty school for a year or two before he makes statements as ludicrous as "there are no unmotivated children."  Why do you think there is such a high teacher burnout rate?  It isn't because they find they don't like teaching.  IT IS BECAUSE THEY DON'T GET TO TEACH ENOUGH AND INSTEAD ARE dealing with disrespectful, unmotivated students who suck their energy and time.  My take is that he plays into the right wing's attempt to dismantle public education as a rep for the black community.

As for parent choice....?  Why not?  The dixon unified school district where I taught makes a great example of what choice would do.  The community's most pressing concern after the budget shortfall of 2008 was for their sports teams- not for academics.  One set of parents came to visit on a back to school night I had.  Out of the approximately 120 students I taught, less than 20 cared enough to check the web site to see how their children were doing in my class.  About 10 to 20 percent of the students did their homework on any given night.  I was available for after school tutoring almost any day.  Only one student ever came on any given year.  The last thing noted is telling.  In any given class I would answer 20 to 40 questions/ requests.  These were usually "Do I have to sit here?  Can I go to the bathroom?  Why do we have to do this?...."  I could count on my fingers the number of actual questions I had that truly related to academics in an entire YEAR. 

So.... parental choice.  It would be better if the ones that want their snowflakes to get As for showing up for the cheap babysitting service just went out and found their own school. Then they could continue to pretend that their kid actually learned something (until they attempted to get into college).  Of course, college is becoming an academic joke as well, at this stage. 

Hey...there's an elephant in the living room

Students often go after teachers that attempt to hold them accountable.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/09/06/school-reform-and-student-motivation.html

The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If the students aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a “good” college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school “reform” is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers. The reality is that, as high schools have become more inclusive (in 1950, 40 percent of 17-year-olds had dropped out) and adolescent culture has strengthened, the authority of teachers and schools has eroded. That applies more to high schools than to elementary schools, which helps explain why early achievement gains evaporate.

Dishonest adults come from dishonest teens

longitudinal dishonesty study 

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.

 

Student Accountability: the real problem with education

http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/student-accountability-the-real-problem-with/

Eventually, any attempt on my part to hold students accountable, put a lump in my throat.
"Oh God....please ...let's not have a parent complaint."

I still recall watching a student with good skills start to sink as she began to socialize more and more.  I gave her a chance to get extra credit by doing some illustrations that depicted the dress of women in medieval society.  I received a few hastily drawn pictures of women wearing gowns.  Hmmmm they were basically the same picture and the details were almost nonexistent.  I handed it back with a 7 on it.  (7 points were a gift).  I told her I was sorry but that was the best I could do considering the quality of what I had in hand.

A few days I was told there were allegations of improper conduct against me.  Huh?  I scanned my memory for slips of the tongue, an incidental moment of contact with a kid,....

This girl's mother had called the school.  She alleged I sang love songs to girls, told dirty jokes, and showed my profile on a dating site.  I was interviewed by the principal who had a meeting with some of these girls regarding my behavior.

I admit I made some lapses in judgement but the insinuation was that I was somehow interested in something sexual with a 13 year old student: something abhorrent to me.  I admitted I played guitar and sang silly songs to liven up the class.  These were not "love songs"  I had sung.  The kids laughed.  How could they take them seriously as love songs.  The joke-  made the mistake of adopting a joke I had heard about a stranded salesman who has to sleep with the farmer's daughter.  It ends with a demonstration of paper clips that land within an inch of each other.  Was it impulsive and stupid on my part to tell it?  Definitely. Was there more stupidity on my part? Yes.  I often ate my lunch in my room and these same girls had come by and were chatting.  I showed them my dating profile because there was a picture of me with a baby meerkat on my shoulder.  I thought they would like it.

Maybe some of you are saying anyone with such poor judgement shouldn't be in a classroom.  I admit that I am extroverted and somewhat impulsive.  Does this make me a pedophile?  No.  I thought of myself as safe from such comparisons.  When had these incidents occurred? Over a month before the accusations were made.  So the spark that ignited this was a low grade on a project that probably took this student 10 minutes.  I can't tell you how terrible the next 3 months were for me.  My principal took my admission to these accusations and twisted them to make my transgressions look worse.  Yes... I sang love songs to girls and told sexual jokes.  Why had I been so stupid...so impulsive?

I can't help but feel that some of it is due to trying to manage a large group of adolescents who often don't want to be there.  I often had to act very quickly to quell some hotspot in the classroom or move the activity to something else when it wasn't going the way I thought it should. Perhaps what I did does disqualify me from being a teacher.  But it is a separate issue from the mean spirited accusations that came my way.  My principal actually reprimanded me for sexual harassment, but that's another story for another time.