Just had to share

[jill]

My close friend just finished student teaching in a city school and was telling me on her last day she overheard many teachers complaining about how ADHD kids need medication and that parents need to give it to them 7 days per week etc. in the lunch room. They were complaining about kids and parents and my friend knowing my experiences did say something to them that along with meds behavior mod works well and did tell them it is a Parents Choice. Well she was glad she is done and was ostracized on her last day. At least we know some teachers opinions. My friend is now a certified Special Education Teacher.


My friend also shared with me teachers have it easy now a days all their lesson plans are done for them basically and teachers only need to review them and the plans come with the how to teach the kids the material so teachers can be mindless. She has also subbed in a few schools as well.

[katiekat]

When I worked as a one-on-one I saw and heard plenty of things from the teachers. I thought they had it pretty easy myself.The funniest thing I thought was when they had their observation from the principal. Instead of it being a surprise, they were told well in advance when they would be observed. So then they would scramble around making up some fake lesson plan for when the principal was in the classroom. I also heard several of them bribe the kids with-"if you be good when Mr. Principal is here we'll have a pizza party next week." Or some other reward for the kids. They acted SO fake that day. It was comical.
Yes, there were some good ones at the school I worked at so I don't mean all teachers. Pretty much it was the younger ones who were the biggest slackers and taught the kids nothing. They were more concerned with being popular with the cool kids.

[jj]

I guess I have to defend the teachers a little bit here because if your boss is going to evaluate you/watch you/visit your room, I don't think there is a person on earth who isn't going to ask the kids to behave and watch carefully how they work with the kids. That's just human nature.

What ticks me off is that those teachers were saying the ADHD kids should be medicated 24/7. Grrrrr!

I bet your friend, Jill, makes a wonderful Special Education Teacher.

[jill]

thanks JJ I agree too. My friend even reported to the Principal about one of the teachers she was working with got a little rough with some of the kids and then after smacking their arms on the table and using her weight to hold them down would she would immediately hug the child and give them candy. My friend said this happened more than once this makes me sick who is taking care of our children.

[jj]

Makes me sick too. I had some pretty rotten teachers when I was a kid so my heart goes out to those kids who happen to have crummy teachers. FYI: I did have a few o.k. teachers so they weren't all bad.

[dimples74]

GEt this------ At Noah's school, the teacher can not touch at child except to hold a little hand when needed or to pat them on the shoulder or head to say good job. They can not even hug a child. If a child hugs them, they have to do the head pat or shoulder arm thing....Luckily, Noah's teachers break the rules!!!!!!

[anon4now]

dimples,

I used to work at a daycare that had those rules. I wasn't aware of them when I started and was fired....but....I thought it was ridiculous. There was one kid that didn't want his parents to leave. His parents would hand him over to me and I would hold him until their car pulled away. Then I would ask him what activity he wanted to do, and he would continue on with his day. The parents always mentioned how easy it was to leave in the mornings I was there. Another kid (I suspect ADHD but I was young then) would sit in my lap when I read the class a book. Otherwise he would be touching the other kids or running around the class room. And when we went outside I would only push the swings for the kids that asked (there was a little girl that wouldn't talk, so she didn't get pushed) then one day to my surprise, she squeaked a little "push me please" and I practically tripped over my feet trying to get to her to push her. The teacher was so mad at me. She said they all get 2 pushes and that's it. No more! There was also a basketball hoop that some of the kids couldn't get the ball in. So I picked them up so they could slam dunk it. Nope, couldn't do that either. It was ridiculous. Well, the principal called me in, said I was a better baby-sitter than a teacher. I didn't even know those were the rules. Shoot, I can help them wipe their butts in the bathroom, but I can't give them a hug. My goodness.

Anyways, I understand why the rules are there. I would hate for the worse to happen. It just ruins it for the good people out there that just want to raise children to be their best.

Anon

[dimples74]

A similar situation happened to me at a MMO I worked at, but I quit before I got fired! Two little boys were holding hands going down the hall. Rather than going around the church, the facilitors would take 20 2-4 year olds down 2 flights of stairs! They weren't holding hands when they were going down the stairs, but one of them tripped and caused several to fall down also. Who got the blame? Me. Please. The first intuition of most 3 year olds is to grab a rail when climbing stairs anyway....... I was not even near these children. I was in the back of the pack! It was a poor excuse for a childcare facility anyway....no loss.

[lillian]

"My friend also shared with me teachers have it easy now a days all their lesson plans are done for them basically and teachers only need to review them and the plans come with the how to teach the kids the material so teachers can be mindless."

Actually, this has started as a result of state testing. The states have curriculum guides, and the teachers have to follow them. This has resulted in "scripted" teaching, where all teachers have to teach the same thing, follow the same curriculum, highlight the same points. Teacher texts come with lesson plans, and some schools insist that teachers follow these because the texts are aligned to the state curriculum. At other schools, the lead teacher is responsible for making sure lesson plans follow state curriculum guidelines, and the lead teacher decides what is going to be taught and when, while the other teachers follow. Luckily, there are still some schools that allow for teacher creativity, where a teacher can decide how to teach to the curriculum and can make his/her own lesson plans, which are approved by the principal/lead teacher, but these schools are becoming rarer and rarer. An interesting note, however, is that IEP's and 504's insist on creativity. A teacher has to be able to adapt his/her lesson plans to meet the 504's and IEP's, and in many schools across the country, this is the only time teachers are allowed much creativity in the classroom today. That's why I loved having classes where half my students had 504's and IEP's. They allowed me to be infinitely creative. As I recently told my aunt, who taught for over twenty years, worked as a principal for ten years, and now supervises new teachers, that I don't understand why, in this day and age of scripted teaching, young teachers dread IEP's and 504's. If I had to follow teaching scripts to the letter, I would have been so bored I would have died!

[jill]

I do defend teachers even if the state gives them what to do for they are dealing with lots of kids from all different backgrounds and disabilities that part alone is tougher. So far I loved all of Annette's teachers except her 1 st grade teacher.