Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable?

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Fri, 24 May 2013 01:37:38 GMT

ammonite — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:37:38 GMT

vinegar:
ngl2010:
[quote=\"mummy of three\"]School teachers don’t teach which is why we end up hiring tutors, MOE should do something about it.

I would like to think that this kind of teachers is only minority. But of course there are teachers that can teach and teachers that cannot teach.

some teachers can teach but they can't control the class.

my son's form teacher can teach but she can't control the class,always hear from my son that she shouts until no voice :roll:[/quote]my son's former teacher could not control the class, could not teach and was biased.

But I too would like to think she is the minority. A good teacher is wonderful and makes all the difference in the world. My children have benefited from good teachers, but when we meet a bad one who single out the child, it is necessary to do damage control in a timely fashion.

On a separate note, I appreciate teachers like those recently in the news for Oklahoma Tornado. And in the Sandy Hook shooting.

Teachers ARE important. A good teacher with mettle and right aptitude is invaluable. They can make such a difference to the students in the normal day to day. In extraordinary circumstances, they can mean the difference between life and death. A good teacher generally has a giving nature and a cool head.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 23 May 2013 11:52:56 GMT

vinegar — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:52:56 GMT

some old timer teachers oso refuse to use gadgets.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 23 May 2013 11:51:32 GMT

vinegar — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:51:32 GMT

ngl2010:
mummy of three:
School teachers don’t teach which is why we end up hiring tutors, MOE should do something about it.

I would like to think that this kind of teachers is only minority. But of course there are teachers that can teach and teachers that cannot teach.

some teachers can teach but they can't control the class.

my son's form teacher can teach but she can't control the class,always hear from my son that she shouts until no voice :roll:

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 23 May 2013 10:37:58 GMT

ngl2010 — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:37:58 GMT

mummy of three:
School teachers don’t teach which is why we end up hiring tutors, MOE should do something about it.

I would like to think that this kind of teachers is only minority. But of course there are teachers that can teach and teachers that cannot teach.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 21 May 2013 22:52:48 GMT

janet88 — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:52:48 GMT

junetan76:
yes. They can whine among colleagues, friends but no one can improve the situation unless the school management levels - Principal, VP, HODs, subject heads etc gather together and change the system.

the situation can change if school management of MORE schools get together...or else it will just be another donkey more years of whining.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 21 May 2013 08:01:27 GMT

Rester — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:01:27 GMT

junetan76:
you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it's not happening.

and no. These teachers have taught well over 10 years. They just have to do the impossible mission at times because NOBODY else is willing to do it.

yes. They can whine among colleagues, friends but no one can improve the situation unless the school management levels - Principal, VP, HODs, subject heads etc gather together and change the system.

:goodpost:

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 21 May 2013 01:26:39 GMT

ammonite — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:26:39 GMT

My point is teachers are not obligated to clean the kids up. And yes, principals make a lot of difference.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 21 May 2013 00:18:02 GMT

junetan76 — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:18:02 GMT

you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

and no. These teachers have taught well over 10 years. They just have to do the impossible mission at times because NOBODY else is willing to do it.

yes. They can whine among colleagues, friends but no one can improve the situation unless the school management levels - Principal, VP, HODs, subject heads etc gather together and change the system.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Mon, 20 May 2013 16:51:41 GMT

ammonite — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:51:41 GMT

Teachers can’t write but they can talk. I have friends and relatives in five different primary schools, each having taught between 10-30 years, including HODs. What you have described is 1) a poorly run/organized school with incompetent admin staff or 2) an inexperienced teacher.

I have never heard of a teacher cleaning up a child, not even in K2. I have heard of children who could not clean themselves well and are simply stinky until they got home. Of course they are laughed at by other students for the rest of the day. No one expects a teacher to clean the child up.

I do see both sides. I know the workload, I hear the complaints and how different schools and principals handle them. As a parent I also see where my son’s teacher/school is lacking in teaching and procedures - especially after checking with other parents and teacher-friends.

Teacher job is not easy (but all jobs come with their own challenges!) but they also have a lot of power over the kids in school. When power is abused, the kids just have to take it. My son came home last month looking unusually woozy and disoriented after sports CCA. It was a very hot day and the teacher in charge refused to give them extra water break. Her lousy answer to the students when they asked for water break was that they have to get used to the heat - all this while of course she was sitting in the shade. This was soon after the news of another student dying of heat stroke.

I can’t sing enough praises of my son’s last year’s teacher. Yet I really detest his teacher this year for all her incompetence in teaching and class management, and unprofessional behavior. Like every profession there is the good and the bad and i believe most parents can tell the difference. Unfortunately we cannot choose our children’s teachers the way we can choose their doctors.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Sun, 19 May 2013 23:33:51 GMT

vinegar — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:33:51 GMT

my frd who did her PV, was asked to buy some beauty product fr. the admin staff.She rejected her & she was given unfair treatment while she was serving her PV.

She was given more jobs,longer hours(some of those extra jobs/hours were not recorded).Finally,she completed her PV.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Sun, 19 May 2013 23:30:45 GMT

vinegar — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:30:45 GMT

even the admin staff n assistants r well-equiped n very good in "resource mgmt".

when i picked up my injured son,the admin staff asked her assistant to get his school bag fr. classroom.After 15mins,it was my son’s classmate who brought his school bag to us,not the assistant.

within the school mgmt staff,they themselves oso hv to face lots of office politics.The teacher told me that she has to buy food fr admin staff,in order to get beta support.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Sun, 19 May 2013 23:10:58 GMT

ammonite — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:10:58 GMT

Do you think primary school teachers actually wash backsides?? The children are sent to the office, given extra clothes and told to sort themselves out in the toilet and go back to class themselves. Primary school is not childcare.

Teachers, like some other professions, have to multi task to an extent and have to be very organized. Some people are good at it, some people are just bad at it.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Fri, 17 May 2013 01:16:03 GMT

concern2 — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:16:03 GMT

junetan76:
Actually, the office staffs' or school attendants' support is also very important to assist teachers.

Imagine a Primary One child pee/poop in the classroom.
The teacher will have to stop the lesson immediately and bring the child to change into a set of clean clothes.
WHO takes charge of a whole class of 6/ 7 years old at this time? Next door teacher? Are they free? They might pop by once in a while.
What if .... another child pull away a chair and caused a classmate to fall and injured? Who is to be responsible for this?
Set them to work before leaving the class? Would they \"glue\" their butt to the chair temporary and do the work?

Now, if office staffs or attendants can assist to bring the child to change, then the teacher can continue to teach/ look after the class.

:offtopic:
:siam:

Agree that teachers need support. These days, the schools are better equipped - like can intercom to cleaners or admin for assistance.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 16 May 2013 17:37:57 GMT

junetan76 — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:37:57 GMT

Actually, the office staffs' or school attendants' support is also very important to assist teachers.

Imagine a Primary One child pee/poop in the classroom.
The teacher will have to stop the lesson immediately and bring the child to change into a set of clean clothes.
WHO takes charge of a whole class of 6/ 7 years old at this time? Next door teacher? Are they free? They might pop by once in a while.
What if .... another child pull away a chair and caused a classmate to fall and injured? Who is to be responsible for this?
Set them to work before leaving the class? Would they \"glue\" their butt to the chair temporary and do the work?

Now, if office staffs or attendants can assist to bring the child to change, then the teacher can continue to teach/ look after the class.

:offtopic:
:siam:

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 16 May 2013 03:21:46 GMT

twinkletoes — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:21:46 GMT

yeomaylin, your ds’s teacher’s behaviour is unacceptable. Teachers who punish children verbally and/or physically are crossing the line. During my school days, my teachers threw our homework out of the window if we made too many mistakes. Another one would cane our palm with her wooden ruler. Different teachers, different style of punishment. It went on for years. I was educated but it made me fearful of teachers and to a certain extent, people in authority, for many more years after I left.

If your child is naturally confident, fine, he can rise above it. But remember he is barely 8 years old. I have experience both local and international school environment (we lived overseas for a while) and I can tell you how amazing the international school teachers were. There were some terrors in the class but the teachers were always in control, no threats. Always full of praise and words of encouragement. Discussions were encouraged , even for 7 year olds and every child’s idea was a good idea. My very shy child’s confidence soared during those 2 years. He enjoyed school and loved all his teachers! It’s not the same now, I’m afraid.

We parents need to change our thinking that it is fine for teachers to offer corporal punishment to make children behave. That sounds like a frustrated teacher who cannot cope. All teachers are overworked and I know some children are a pain the ***. But first and foremost, their job is to inspire, teach and together with parents, instill a sense of confidence in each child. Threatening, chiding, pulling a child’s ear is a form of bullying, especially when the child is very young.

If you are not comfortable with the way your child is treated, please speak up. If the child’s teacher has had previous complaints from other parents, this is a red flag in my opinion. I would speak to the principal or HOD.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Thu, 16 May 2013 02:37:17 GMT

concern2 — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:37:17 GMT

concern2:
slmkhoo:
[quote=\"concern2\"]\"Kids don't learn from people they don't like!\" - Rita Pierson

But kids don't only like people who are nice to them! Some kids (eventually) really love the very strict teachers. Of course, that excludes teachers who are unfair or unreasonable, no matter how nice they may be sometimes.

Agree. DS happens to like strict teachers - esp if they know how to deal with the bullies :evil: To him, strict is not equivalent to being likeable or not, but whether the teacher is being 'fair' - like \"why can't the teacher just punish those noise makers, why must punish the whole class and make us all stay back?!\"[/quote]One thing I've gathered is that strict teachers are able to 'control' the class, so that he/she does not \"give chance\" for those who misbehave to disrupt the class and lessons could go on properly.

I notice some teachers are very sharp in picking out the one or two who are misbehaving at an early stage so that the class doesn't go havoc and becomes 'uncontrollable'.

For those who are not as sharp, they eventually lose control of the class (and such a big class too!) and resort to punishing everyone. This becomes a cycle and both teacher and pupils' morale drop, affecting grades (since real teaching/learning get disrupted). Much time would be spent on disciplining the kids that there's lack of time for teaching/learning the subjects.

Kids whose parents can't teach them and those who do not engage in tuition usually suffer most since they rely mostly on classroom time for learning.

Just sharing what I've noticed.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Wed, 15 May 2013 00:25:38 GMT

janet88 — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:25:38 GMT

in primary school, class management is a very tough job.

kids are young and even at upper primary, they are not much better.
it's not easy to be a teacher now, as parents are educated and have expectations. if principal is demanding, poor teachers will suffer even more. for the part that teachers have so much work and non-core teaching stuff, i really salute them... :salute:

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 14 May 2013 17:19:14 GMT

junetan76 — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:19:14 GMT

personally, I think there’s a line that can’t be crossed.

Because if this line is crossed, wrong messages/ learning will be transferred to children.
E.g. being violent - children will think that being violent will enable them to win.

Teachers’ hands are really very, very tight.
They have to set the right discipline.
Without good discipline, lessons cannot be conducted, thus knowledge ot transferred = exams… fail = teacher deemed as incapable of maintaining good discipline/ can’t teach well and everyone gets upset and demoralised for different reasons.

Many teachers I know of… sleep very few hours so as to,
- ------- clear work - I call it - The "Wall of China"
A few examples are:
-setting exam papers/ worksheets - class worksheets, remedial worksheets, enrichment worksheets/ topical test papers etc
- type minutes- departmental meetings/ staff meetings/ level meetings etc
-write reports — appraisals, reports or research for projects, CCA reports, awards reports, remarks for students’ report books etc.
- marking ---- English/ Maths/ Science worksheets/ books etc.
This is only about 20% of a teacher’s job scope.

When I asked the primary one kids "Would you like to be a teacher when you grow up?"
Many of them said, "Yes."

In primary 2, many of them changed their answer to "No".
"Because teachers don’t get to rest." They said.

Many teachers really want to teach and bring out the best in the children under their charge.
BUT… hands are tight… they get complained over every little thing…
- voice too loud
- voice too soft
- teach too fast
- teach too slow
- too much homework
- too little homework
and the list goes on.

I have had my share of facing unreasonable parents.

Thankfully, most parents are very reasonable and supportive.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 14 May 2013 16:10:40 GMT

yeomaylin — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:10:40 GMT

SAHM_TAN:

That's what I'm trying to do with DD1 at a lower level. We read The Little Red Dot together heehee, an article a day LOL

How do we get to buy The Little Red Dot? I thought it is only available to school. Any possibility that we can order it directly from ST? My DS school does not subscribe for The Little Red Dot but I'm very interested to get the copy.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 14 May 2013 13:57:18 GMT

janet88 — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:57:18 GMT

Got it Chief…thanks.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 14 May 2013 13:09:58 GMT

SAHM_TAN — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:09:58 GMT

ChiefKiasu:
janet_lee88:
i am still nagging at him to pick up the newspapers...he only reads 'digital life' :mad: daughter does read oxford tree though.

as for meeting teachers, they are so busy. however, i do email daughter's teachers regularly.
Don't nag or tell him to read the papers. Engage him in a discussion. Ask him what he thinks about the happenings in Singapore or around the world today. Tell him your views.

A quick way is to spend 15mins everyday just reading the editorial page (a quarter of a page) and then discuss about it along 4 main areas:
1) What are the explicit points made by the editor?
2) What are the implicit points or assumptions that the editor is trying to put across (must read between the lines, or see the big picture)
3) Which of these points do you agree with the editor?
4) Which of these points do you disagree with?

Do this consistently for a month and you will find he will start getting an interest in reading the rest of the papers because now he has a better understanding of the issues, thanks to your explanation.

That's what I'm trying to do with DD1 at a lower level. We read The Little Red Dot together heehee, an article a day LOL

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Tue, 14 May 2013 10:45:15 GMT

ChiefKiasu — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:45:15 GMT

janet_lee88:
i am still nagging at him to pick up the newspapers...he only reads 'digital life' :mad: daughter does read oxford tree though.

as for meeting teachers, they are so busy. however, i do email daughter's teachers regularly.

Don't nag or tell him to read the papers. Engage him in a discussion. Ask him what he thinks about the happenings in Singapore or around the world today. Tell him your views.

A quick way is to spend 15mins everyday just reading the editorial page (a quarter of a page) and then discuss about it along 4 main areas:
1) What are the explicit points made by the editor?
2) What are the implicit points or assumptions that the editor is trying to put across (must read between the lines, or see the big picture)
3) Which of these points do you agree with the editor?
4) Which of these points do you disagree with?

Do this consistently for a month and you will find he will start getting an interest in reading the rest of the papers because now he has a better understanding of the issues, thanks to your explanation.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Sun, 12 May 2013 23:32:10 GMT

janet88 — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:32:10 GMT

told him to read FRONT page of ST…that is the least i am expecting from him.

Reply to Is this behaviour of teacher acceptable? on Sun, 12 May 2013 23:29:40 GMT

ngl2010 — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:29:40 GMT

janet_lee88:
i am still nagging at him to pick up the newspapers...he only reads 'digital life' :mad: daughter does read oxford tree though.

as for meeting teachers, they are so busy. however, i do email daughter's teachers regularly.

My son likes to read novels during meals. So, during breakfast I usually placed the previous day's Home section (that is the teacher's recommended ST's section) on the dining table and ask him to flip and read ONE article that he is interested in. If he does not read, he can't read his novels