One of my favorite teachers...

[johnr]

Teaching has to be about, to me anyway, the hardest, and maybe worst way to make a living. Then again probably the most rewarding when you wrap that career up, and see some of the good you created.

I know I could not be left in a room full of smart mouthed kids and keep it together.
Pretty important to now that prior to the teachers degree.

 

[zoops]

Lots of good points in this discussion. I have no knowledge of the WF situation. No doubt it can be difficult to handle 100+ students without sometimes losing your cool, but certainly there are lines that you can't cross and there are ways to deal with misbehavior and laziness without being overly demeaning. That can certainly be difficult. I have found that talking to kids individually and making it clear to them that they are out of line, etc. is so much more effective than chewing their ass in front of everyone. Kind of imagine if your boss blasted your work in front of all your coworkers vs. doing it in private.
It does seem as though we have developed more of a "gotcha" mentality and even kids are aware when they can get an adult in trouble. Even though I think they're usually joking, I often hear kids say things like "I'm gonna get him/her fired" - can't say I ever remember saying or even hearing that growing up and I'm barely 30. Having communication at their disposal 24/7 I think exacerbates things because every little conflict they have gets communicated to someone. Some conflicts would probably have been forgotten by the end of the day in the days before cell phones but turn into big deals because a hundred people know the instant it happens. There is no doubt parents are more "helicopters" than in the past, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

 

[svnmag]

I watch this a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw

 

[Bowhunter_24]

Ha I laughed. Was getting suspect but glad I hung on until the end

 

[svnmag]

"Suspect"?...

 

[Bowhunter_24]

"Suspect"?...

#gay

 

[Traxion]

In my opinion there is a line between being tough, fair, and reasonable to a child versus being mean and demeaning. I've spent time in the profession and it's probably the most challenging job I've ever done. Kids are much different than what we were and can't be challenged the way we were in school. They want to be cute, funny, smart asses and do whatever THEY want to do. They've been raised in a ME based society. Accountability and responsibility isn't a huge priority to these students. And, the school should be the reinforcement of these concepts rather than the teacher. Many parents today don't teach these huge skills to their children and expect the school to do it for them. Education faces a huge challenge between the way students think and how parents are preparing our students. No matter what, a teacher has to be fair and challenging while still developing relationships with students. Anyone who thinks that is easy needs to step into the classroom for a few days.

 

[svnmag]

Well I'm glad you didn't turn gay!