Our youngest grandson/son/ward is still struggling in school. Having only been educated to a 2nd and 3rd grade level by the time he was 13, when he came to live with us, has been near impossible to make up. Even the two years of nearly private teachers in Jr. High, could not make up his being approximately six years behind in education.
He is currently failing history. My oldest grandson had a history teacher who would dress up like a Civil War Soldier and come to class and teach all about why the war was going on and how the battles were fought, and the consequences. Our boy has a teacher who gives his tests on what year the battle took place, how many soldiers enlisted, how many soldiers died; and all this for five to seven battles at a time.
Obviously, our boy does not have a great memory and I’m thinking this teacher isn’t the best either. To be fair, this is the side of the story I am getting from youngest boy and another mother. I do not sit in his classroom.
The discussion always comes up, how many good teachers do you remember? Just ponder that for a minute. How many teachers did you have that you actually felt made you learn to think for yourself and made learning fun?
I remember one. I think she was my fifth grade teacher and, when you read a book, if you were tired of writing reports, you could draw a picture or do a diorama, or anything you could think up to show what you thought was important in the book. She kept a file folder for each child and taught each child. No child was “left behind.”
Mostly I remember teachers like the coach/health teacher who chose one child every year to humiliate in class. Then there was the history class where every day, every class was the same with the first person in the row reading the first paragraph in the history book, and on down the line. I remember several other idiot teachers but why go there. I would rather focus on good teachers here.
Never mind that she is my daughter, read this good teacher’s blog at Cool Moments in Teaching « Braindebris’s Weblog and tell me what you think? Is this not what we would like to see all teacher’s be?
In the meantime, in his freshman year of high school, youngest boy had the biology teacher from hell who was rumored to have passed four children total out of all her classes and “left” the job at the end of the year. I knew the first day I met her, she would be a problem as she had come from a seminar and wanted youngest boy to answer a seminar problem, and he had not been at the seminar. The next year he had another problem teacher who “left” at the end of the year. This year he apparently has a teacher who is trying to teach him to memorize instead of think.
You know, maybe if we start paying our teachers, as if they were important (let’s see, how about we reverse the income of AIG professionals and teachers?) just maybe we could get more good teachers.
When I taught the causes of the revolutionary war to fifth graders, I had them draw a button out of a bag as they entered the room. We divided into Colonists, British, and Loyalists and moved the desks to seperate sides of the room. There was a carpet ocean in the middle and the British controlled the pencil sharpener and the doorway. They decided on “taxes” such as a piece of paper to use the pencil sharpener and a pencil to leave for the restroom. The Colonists were steaming but about an hour into the day, one smart boy, instead of giving a whole piece of paper, tore off the smallest of corners and smugly tossed it at the tax collector. Thus started the revolutionary war. I have less behavior problems than most because my students are busy and engaged. It just requires effort and a margarita on Fridays.
Well I don’t know how much teachers get paid down there, but our teachers are paid pretty well. Starting at $45 K and up to $100 K. And I can still only remember maybe 2 good teachers in all my years of school. And I can only remember 1 good teacher in all my daughters years of school so far. I think too many of them go into it for the long vacations. Really, that’s why a lot of people I went to uni with went into teaching. Then they’re in for a rude awakening when demands are placed on them and they get bitter and angry and take it out on the kids. It’s not an easy job, but one I would think is very rewarding for the right kind of person
Teachers in my corporation start at $32,000. You have to work for almost 10 years to make it to $45,000. (If you have a masters they knock a few years off that.) If I recall correctly, the highest salary possible is in the low $70,000 but that’s with a masters +15 credits and 25 years + seniority.
XUP, you are making it harder and harder for me to stay “south of the border.”
braindebris: I have even looked for a satellite school in the area that might help him more. The first person, “in charge” answered my email and told me the person to contact. The “person to contact” never answered my email.
The new CC person’s email does not work and he did not return my call.
The boy admits that he was not trying hard last year, but all summer he would come up and say, “I’m really going to do it this year.” The first 2 to 3 weeks, he had us helping him and telling us what was going on and such and then, silence. I’m wondering what other problem he may have that he doesn’t want to admit to, since he freely admitted when he wasn’t trying.