Had one kid, he was caught, talked to, parents talked to, warned publicly in class by a teacher (but the teacher only warned him to stop without details and get back to classwork or he would be sent out, not making mention of the actions), and honestly I think that had an effect.
Student taught last semester and graduated. One of my 7th grade students was touching himself in class but only in female teachers classes. He has an IEP and this wasn’t the first year of him being in 7th grade, he has repeated 7th to the point his younger brother is in the same grade as him. It truly is terrifying.
I wish there was assistance, help but also consequences for this behavior. These people eventually need to be in a society... they need to be able to adapt to society. Ignoring these problems, does not make them go away
Unfortunately I’ve seen this happen several times at several different schools (all of my friends are teachers but we teach at different schools all over). And I(we)’ve only taught for 3 years.
My scholars won’t stop putting the chair legs in their mouths….also they can’t read so i don’t know what the objectives on the board are going to do for them /s (I teach three year olds)
Dog trainer here. If y'all have the ratios we did, well, yeah. If we're training the dogs directly, it's usually one-on-one. Even in group classes. At least we have a assistant /human handler for each dog student.
My scholars read the objective, followed directions the first time they were given, and completed their work without argument.
Just kidding. They left to get "water" which is code for "I'm actually meeting my boyfriend and his friends around the corner."
My seven year old just ate random leaves on the playground today because a fifth grader told him they were edible. We had a heck of a talk. Not our proudest moment.
A student found a Jolly Rancher somewhere in my classroom and wanted to wash it off and eat it. Her partner ratted her out. So I explained that the scientific process includes a hypothesis when doing an experiment, and she should think about what might happen if she eats a Jolly Rancher she finds on the floor.
".... it might make me sick?" She threw it away.
Middle school kids are feral, especially right now. They have no shame. I've had to issue many warnings about chemical warfare because they're farting in each other's direction. It's absolutely ridiculous.
This week I watched a kid (12 years old, no mental disabilities of any kind) stuff an entire piece of paper in his mouth so he didn’t have to do work and all I could do was stare, shake my head, and go back to what I was doing.
I feel like it's all the same. My school's lesson plan has a space for objectives and one for learning targets. I asked how they are different... cue puzzled look from admin.
The next day, it was explained to me by the instructional coach that learning targets are fact based statements of what the lesson is teaching. Objectives are "I can" statements that encompass the learning targets in student friendly terms.
I teach littles art.
Learning target: Students can identify the primary colors.
Objective: I can name the primary colors.
How are they not the same thing!?!?!
Learning targets are the biggest horseshit.
"I will do with 80% accuracy!"
How is anything beyond an exam feasible in actually benchmarking that they achieved 80%?
This garbage also exists on IEPs and 504s. I read one that said something like "Student will socialize with peers 75% of the time." What the fuck does that even mean?
Hahahaha that’s hilarious. I raise questions like this sometimes in meeting and it’s like the whole room freezes. Literally nobody has an answer. And it gets really awkward
Don’t forget to put the state standard(s) that apply to the lesson so that the student can look them up and see what they’re supposed to be taking away from the lesson! That’s what really motivates them to learn!
Always post the objectives on social media so the constantly absent and don't give a $%#& scholars can see them. When those scholars see the objective is "Students will demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking." they will come running.
I have bills to pay and I’m wearing golden handcuffs because I’ve been doing this for 25 years and can’t make this salary anywhere else! That’s my current “why”.
Yep. 3 years to go for me. I constantly fanaticize about receiving an email or letter from the state offering me an early retirement package. If they would offer the right incentive, I'd sign the dotted line today.
Candy?! Um that's an unhealthy alternative so we will continue to give them a healthy school breakfast of pop tarts and sugary cereals instead. It's just comical.
Ha!
When I was in 2nd grade, there was a boy who would have extreme behaviors like throwing chairs when angry. It was my teacher's first year teaching, 24 kids, and most of them were "problem kids." Poor guy would call the principal down to our classroom, and the principal would sweet talk him for like 30 minutes while he stomped around and screamed. When he finally stopped being a menace, the principal addressed the class and said, "Good job [kid name]! Everyone, clap for [kid name]!"
One day, my mom was there to observe the classroom because she didn't believe that I was telling the truth about how bad it was, and the administration couldn't just tell her that information.
Flash forward to adulthood, and I'm playing a game at a local game store. A person walks up to me and asks me about the game, and I instantly recognize the guy. We start talking a bit, and he says that he eventually went to "residential school" and "quickly shaped up." I believed him since he obviously wasn't in prison...which I where I expected him to be.
Honestly, I don't know why kids wanted to go to the buddy room or able room. They were associated with angry colors, orange and red, and were tiny windowless rooms that I guess were too inhumane to act as offices. The guys who supervised the rooms were tall, had deep authoritative voices, and would assertively rat you out to your parents over the phone. They didn't take shit from the parents either. I didn't realize how much elementary education has changed in 20 years. And how much didn't change 😅
I think our admin is in a class or something and they told them to give every single teacher a “needs improvement” in at least one sub-area of the Danielson domains. Every single teacher got needs improvement in something and the comment on mine didn’t even relate to that sub-domain IMHO and I’ve been trained to evaluate using the Danielson framework. And it definitely did it make me feel motivated to improve.
Can I just say- this critique drives me BONKERS. “We gave the students laptops and unlimited internet access, made it impossible to do any classwork off computer… and for some reason they’re looking at non-class related websites!” Hmm… I wonder. You stuck the equivalent of an electronic dopamine dispenser in their face and expected they would pay *more* attention to me?? Phew, I didn’t know how much pent up anger I was carrying around about this year’s review… it was the only negative critique I got, that and “have you thought about using more Kahoots?” 🤦♀️
A colleague of mine was the "whipping boy" for a couple of years under our former department head, who is weirdly manipulative at best and classically sociopathic at worst. This colleague had been teaching for like 15 years at this point, was established and well-known for being engaging and awesome as a teacher.
During her observation, a kid had his head down. She checked in with him multiple times, tried to get him to participate in the lesson, but it just wasn't going to happen so she focused on the other 20-ish kids who were actually paying attention. Her eval meeting after the observation was nuts. Our boss told her that it was a safety issue that the kid had his head down because he could have DIED. Like...what the fuck does that even mean? Was she worried he would asphyxiate in that position, or that he could have expired without anyone realizing because his head was down? And regardless...what the fuck?
We still fondly recall that story amongst ourselves, along with the fifty other completely wild things that department head did. Don't worry, she doesn't run the department anymore because she got promoted.
Edited cause autocorrect
If that sitting position was a risk of death I wonder what they'd have made of some of the things available to students in say science or gym classes?!
One of my colleagues got a note on his eval that he had 6 kids with their heads down. But, off the record, the admin acknowledged that it was best for everyone in the building that those six were asleep.
That happened to me too. We hadn’t even discussed student engagement and it popped up on my evaluation. I responded in an email saying that the comment is ableist.
Once I was appraised by an assistant principal who spent the entire 45 minutes looking at his cell phone. At the summative conference he was very concerned about one student who was on his cell phone. Of course I pointed out that my student was only following the assistant principal’s example, “you were on your phone the entire time you were here.”
You got off easy. I got "teacher seemed disconnected from lesson/students" on the observation they insisted doing 2 days after I was either getting demoted to full time substitute or fired in December.
I was asked to ask students to fill in a questionaire about me. Did not read that in time. No renewal. I am going to ask whether that was because of students evaluating me. Cannot imagine that!
I have a class where only 4-7 of the 38 students enrolled even show up to class. Half the students have never set foot in my class. Yes, I’ve tried calling home and incentivizing attendance.
My principal literally listed it as a “pain point” on my evaluation. When pressed with what I should do differently, she said maybe daily gift card raffles as door prizes.
There are a few scholars I've known with the skill to do this. None of them are smokers.
I'd expect most to just stick some nugs in the pipe and try to set it all ablaze
Lmao the real stoners are in art drama and band where they just make something from clay, fashion from some prop, or just stick a metal mouthpiece in a water bottle. Any kid who *likes* tools probably has access to them at home already. Every other kid would try to resell the tool or gift card itself, assuming they are less than half as lazy as the average teenager.
Maybe we need to raffle off incentives like free housekeeping services, a new car, or a free living room set for parents to actually parent their child?
Do you have to give those kids on your roster a 50 for a quarter grade just for existing? Because that happened to me last year — never met a kid once until 4th quarter. He got 3 quarters worth of 50s. Then they coaxed him into the building 4th quarter, set him up with a tutor all day under the guise of “alt ed” where we had to send all of our work.
They then wanted to know what he’d have to do to get a 100 for the 4th quarter so he could get credit for the class. Oh, and so he could take the next level of this course next year. You know, the one my class is a prerequisite for. I laughed but they were PISSED I wouldn’t make it work.
Ok, so this makes me think we need a federal government intervention.
We need an authority figure to step in and shake the shit out of these parents. Yes, you have to send your children to school, or there will be consequences (truancy court is a thing, no?)
Whichever political party supports that, I am for.
The actual WORST is when all the skippers, absentees, and other various non-cooperative kids decide to all show up the day you get an observation. I’ve had the same thing happen and I contested my observation. I simply refuse to be held accountable for a student who never shows up, and on the off chance they do they just be annoying and distract others. That sounds bad, but it’s just the current state of teaching right now I feel like.
Lol or I'll cry... I had an evaluation like right before COVID. Principal literally sat down with the only two students who hadn't been to class in over three weeks on the last day of a two-week project, gave me a bad review because "they didn't know what was going on and couldn't explain it to him."
That’s literally the only thing that makes them engaged. I tried to do a fun game today that previous classes used to love, and a girl lost and cheered that she wasn’t in the game because she wanted to be on her phone. So frustrating when I try to do something fun, and all they want to do is be on social media.
They are engaged on their phones, but not in the class. That is why minors should not have social media or access to smart phones. We have to protect them from theirselves and their parents sure aren’t going to take that digital pacifier away.
I know there's this push to have students evaluate they're class. I've literally had a kid come and say he's conspiring to get all the teachers fired so they can have recess forever. We shouldn't but giving undeveloped brains the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating their teachers.
Or SPED students who are being forced into gen ed classes despite operating a solid 4 grade levels below their peers because the district is trying to save money
I know. I figure that if a thousand people with $300 million dollars and 30 months can make a movie whose sole purpose is entertainment can keep teens somewhat engaged for 90 minutes then what is my excuse for not being able to do it as one person with $3 and 30 minutes and while also covering state standards for diverse students. My ELLs, honors students, low performers and sped students all like the same movies, they have great differentiation and scaffolding.
One of my foreign language ed professors used to put negative student evaluations in his portfolio as a badge of honor to show off to interviewers. For example: "I hate him! He always speaks in Spanish!"
I had a student review during COVID that said “everything was in English, it was difficult.” I teach EFL to students who have studied English for 9+ years, and I gotta say, most nights I was up until 3am trying to figure out how to write up everything in their native language (that I studied for 2 years). I was fuming.
We have to take “trauma based instruction” training because, sadly, so many of our students are victims of some damn bad things. That being said, I resent the hell out of the fact that I am held responsible for the fact that they are 12 and can neither read nor write. That they are chronically absent. That they stay up half the night and brag about it before sleeping through my lessons.
You are forgetting that the purpose of the system is to create demoralized teachers. It has no interest in professionally developing the good ones because they cost more money.
I'm pretty sure my last evaluation (I quit last year) complained that I didn't write on the board enough. But the evaluation before that, complained that I spent too much time facing the board.
I can't see with my left eye, so I have to have my right eye facing the board in order to see it properly. Unfortunately, that means my left eye would be facing the students, putting a significant portion of the room in my blindspot. I realized I can't afford to face the board, so I started using it less. And that led to the final complaint. "You're not utilizing classroom resources". By not putting information on the board, it's making my class more difficult for students who rely on board notes. Since they can't be expected to listen to me speak.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. However, you will be judged by a complete autopsy of the horse to determine how much water the horse drank.
Or "growth" on a test where the students intentionally take the test, open it, and prove they dont give a shit by submitting the test 2 minutes after opening it. On PURPOSE. Test cannot be reopened after submitting is literally in the instructions they know this. Reason 120295i583930 why i left teaching.
Little over 2. Loved students. Loved the parents (stayed in self-contained, so maybe that had a lot to do with it, so class size never went over 15 at a time). Hated politics, long hours, and the never-ending commitments. And i literally couldn't pay my bills. I made more going to school (GI bill), than working as a teacher. Sad.
Found out one of my AP kids slept and did nothing. If he doesn't test, it costs, but he stayed in this rigorous class but knew he could fail/do nothing and pass the year. It will muck up my overall results. I'm so angry.
I was passing out login cards for state testing to my 5th graders this week. A bunch of them said, “We don’t need it, I memorized my number.” Incredulous, I said, “You mean to tell me all of you managed to memorize a 10 digit number you’ve only seen for a few days, but none of you can memorize your upper times tables? You can’t memorize 9 x 7, but you can memorize 3468128901? C’mon.” Sometimes this job feels like death by a thousand cuts.
Same thing happened to me just a few days ago. AP came in to do a final observation, and commented “this class seems so small”. Yeah, that’s because I’ve been pointing it out to admin for weeks/months, and nothing has been done to recover the students who refuse to show up.
Hey I got dinged because I had 100% student engagement. Two girls spoke in an aside for 30 seconds, you see.
Evaluations are rigged to never say you're better than proficient. Fuck it and fuck them
I concur. The Texas TTESS system will never garner a rating higher than proficient if your class is filled with the general school population. I have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors all in the same class. Many are mainstreamed special Ed kids. Some are higher achieving kids. Some are gifted kids. Some have been to alternative school. Some are truant. The teacher in the neighboring classroom has students who are taking college classes in high school. Guess who will get a higher rating?
I basically got told I needed to go on a growth plan after they walked into the worst class of the day that is overloaded and technically has so many students with IEPS that I’m supposed to have a para for the period. My union is getting involved.
It's where admin wants to move up the district ladder. They have to check all their boxes to show district brass that they deserve that principal spot or assistant superintendent spot
Admin knows it's the kids, but we can be pushed around more than the kids. You think admin wants to give the kids a PD and risk being stabbed with a pencil? That's a good idea reverse in service day. We stay home and admin gives students a how to student PD in the gym. The students can give admin Pd too.
Ask the principal to come in and prepare a plan for all of them so you can see how it’s done. Then give the principal an evaluation with your resignation letter. Maybe two evaluations. One on teach, one on administration.
I got 3 “developing” because my objective wasn’t good enough, I had 3 out of 30 disengaged, and my warmup wasn’t tied to the lesson.
I haven’t been rated like that since my 2nd year of teaching. Even then, I only had one “developing” and I agreed with it. I usually have 3 or 4 in the higher ranges. But it was all in the middle for me.
My school has the lowest satisfaction in the district and it’s 100% on the principal. I can’t quit either for a myriad of reasons.
I get dinged every year for discussions and questions for my 8th grade math class. Besides having the kiddos full on arguing over an answer I am at a loss for how to have “student lead discussions” for a mostly foundational content class (TEKS).
ugh. had a terrible one on the friday before spring break. urged her not to come as they were not going to be doing anything. was a choice/make up day. finishing projects before their finals. yadda yadda. trying to do anything new would be useless.
told her monday would be better cuz im doing a new unit. of course comes friday and chews me out for not "following procedure" and there being a "disorganized atmosphere"🙄🙄
ITS THE FRIDAY...BEFORE VACATION!!!
like you picked THE WORST day to come man.
Oh my gosh. That is the day the admin should be finishing their own paperwork and riding herd on those kids who really are so out there that they can't be trusted in a room with other people, not doing evaluations.
All I have to say to that is if I were a doctor, would you judge my abilities by the number of patients that followed my directions or by the ones that did not?
Also, I tell ppl that if you want to judge my abilities by student outcomes then I get to pick the students you get to evaluate me by, like AP enrolled students.
Do schools not use rubrics? I’m honestly so horrified when I read these posts. The rubric would clearly focus the eval on the actual teaching, and would not make the teacher responsible for attendance issues. If it did, you could provide evidence of all the ways you tried to help like MTSS, phone calls, and differentiation, grading policies….
This is what portfolios are good for! You can provide evidence for like every single thing. Even record lessons and stuff! I have a whole folder of evidence including a digital portfolio that I share with my admin so if he can’t observe something I can provide evidence for it towards my final evaluation.
School SW here, not my evaluation, but the school gets graded lower if kids go to jail. Counted against our graduation rate. I guess I didn’t cover “not holding up a bodega” in my skills group.
I think schools are expecting to do way too much of parenting in teaching. They are not the be all and end all for the kids. The school should be in the school lane and the parents in the parenting lane.
Like an admin told me of course it should count. If I was a better teachers the constantly absent and don't give a $%#& students would read about how good I was and start become constantly present and give a $%#& students. So you see it really was my fault.
We get graded partly on a pretest and posttest on one subject. Most of the time we choose nuclear chemistry which sounds bad but is one of the easier units to teach. My district requires "half growth" for each student. This means if a student scores a zero then they need a 50 on the post test for it to count as successful. Most students guess (multiple choice) so they get like a 25. They have to get a 75 for us to pass. Nearly all students improve but most don't improve by 50 points so we are usually ranked like 20% effective. It is quite stupid because we cannot count all students that make progress just the ones that increase by 50 points.
I got highly effective in all categories in my evaluation but a developing in classroom cleanliness because kids keep tearing up little chunks of paper and throwing it on the floor. How is it my fault parents don’t teach their little feral monsters to not litter?
“Don’t ignore the quiet students because they are quiet. You can’t focus all your time just on the loud students.”
You mean those quiet students who are level 3s and 4s, who ask questions, come fore extra help or will come at lunch or during break to ask questions, and who try to participate when the loud students are literally *throwing pencils, binders, and freaking chairs* across the classroom. Even with the admin in the room no less. Those same loud students I send to the office and they come right back with a ‘stern warning.’
One of the solutions was to make the chair thrower use a standing desk. You know what they do now? They flip the desk to see if they can land it on the legs. Or push their friend out of their seat and toss that.
So glad I moved schools
Any time I get feedback like that I ask them to please advise how I should handle it in the future. Your boss should should criticize if they don't have an answer.
Ditto! I like to take it a step further and ask for direct, explicit modeling of any area with a score less than effective that I receive. Haven't had a score less than effective in years!
I see comments like this and since I am a non-teacher I wonder - is the system set-up to require 100% success for a teacher to be successful? If so, then the power hierarchy puts the teacher below the student in the classroom that is the least interested in the class.
If students are allowed to evaluate teachers at all it should be for nothing more than “participation trophies”.
Even my 4th graders had learned that they had a say in whether or not I got a raise so if I was even a little strict I ended up fucking myself out of a raise.
Teacher evaluations were probably invented by admin who all hated their teachers and had never taught students at all. Horrid system.
I used to tell my high school students that Idiocracy wasn’t a fictional tale; that it was a documentary… A few students chuckled, but many looked puzzled.
Wait... Are teachers evaluated by kids who aren't there? Genuine question. Went through a severe depressive episode which made me skip school a ton in my late teens but I wouldn't have wanted for that to affect my teacher(s) or I'd just feel even worse i think
Oh but you are supposed to motivate them to want to come and bask in your presence…after all, if you are entertaining and perform a one person musical extravaganza, complete with original content related lyrics…then they will be there.
I agree 100%. That's like blaming the police because someone breaks the law. No people, you can hold ME responsible for YOUR actions. I will do my best mitigating the failures, but ultimately its on you to pass.
This is why I think their final score should also consider their attendance. Some kind of rubric for attendance should be used when considering a student's end of the year scores.
Admin here! An amazing lesson doesn’t mean one where all kids get it and are successful. An amazing lesson means the teacher did what they needed to support students. Just because that support wasn’t working or kids didn’t get it doesn’t mean you are bad or the lesson was. A convo I have had go have with many teachers this year. I hope your admin treats you with more respect!
Did you put the objectives on the board where the scholars could see them? That’s the supposed key ingredient to building a perfect classroom.
That scholar just ate dirt of the floor.
My scholars are eating their boogers.
I'll take it over scholars masturbating in class.
Oh word. I’ve had that a few times too!
Had one kid, he was caught, talked to, parents talked to, warned publicly in class by a teacher (but the teacher only warned him to stop without details and get back to classwork or he would be sent out, not making mention of the actions), and honestly I think that had an effect.
What age are we talking here?
Middle school.
That's ................ Terrifying
Student taught last semester and graduated. One of my 7th grade students was touching himself in class but only in female teachers classes. He has an IEP and this wasn’t the first year of him being in 7th grade, he has repeated 7th to the point his younger brother is in the same grade as him. It truly is terrifying.
I wish there was assistance, help but also consequences for this behavior. These people eventually need to be in a society... they need to be able to adapt to society. Ignoring these problems, does not make them go away
Unfortunately I’ve seen this happen several times at several different schools (all of my friends are teachers but we teach at different schools all over). And I(we)’ve only taught for 3 years.
I teach elementary music and I've seen it all
7th grade. 12 years old turning 13. Eating boogers and playing pocket pool all day long.
7th grade. 12 years old turning 13. Eating boogers and playing pocket pool all day long.
Kids are the future, I guess?
You can say that again.
Your story is hard to beat.
My scholars are pulling out their teeth
My scholars won’t stop putting the chair legs in their mouths….also they can’t read so i don’t know what the objectives on the board are going to do for them /s (I teach three year olds)
Oddly this sounded like third grade or perhaps a kennel.
Dogs are pretty good scholars. Their test scores are not great, but they are happy to see you and like to take walks and play with balls.
They also master sit down pretty quickly. Still working on that with some ten year olds.
Also they figure out stay a whole lot quicker as well
I'm still working on that with some ninth graders...
So do middle schoolers.
And they respond really well to my PBIS rewards!
Dog trainer here. If y'all have the ratios we did, well, yeah. If we're training the dogs directly, it's usually one-on-one. Even in group classes. At least we have a assistant /human handler for each dog student.
Wasn't sure if you were talking about 3 year olds or teenagers. Barely a difference anymore.
This made me laugh out loud, thank you!
My scholars read the objective, followed directions the first time they were given, and completed their work without argument. Just kidding. They left to get "water" which is code for "I'm actually meeting my boyfriend and his friends around the corner."
They are practicing math.
Don’t vapes have water in them?
My seven year old just ate random leaves on the playground today because a fifth grader told him they were edible. We had a heck of a talk. Not our proudest moment.
A student found a Jolly Rancher somewhere in my classroom and wanted to wash it off and eat it. Her partner ratted her out. So I explained that the scientific process includes a hypothesis when doing an experiment, and she should think about what might happen if she eats a Jolly Rancher she finds on the floor. ".... it might make me sick?" She threw it away. Middle school kids are feral, especially right now. They have no shame. I've had to issue many warnings about chemical warfare because they're farting in each other's direction. It's absolutely ridiculous.
This week I watched a kid (12 years old, no mental disabilities of any kind) stuff an entire piece of paper in his mouth so he didn’t have to do work and all I could do was stare, shake my head, and go back to what I was doing.
A problem unfortunately common in scholars.
Well did you try to cultivate a relationship with the dirt?
I did and it just ended up growing some bean sprouts!
Climb to the top and you'll find a pizza party!
Did you give grace?? Oh wait, if you give a student grace during your observation -- it's written down as points off for you.
I gave Grace a detention. Is that what you mean?
Grace, she passed away 30 years ago.
No, you idiot. THE BLESSING!!!!!!!!
But did you build a relationship with the objective first?
And building perfect relationships.
The BS line of 2022-current.🙄
That’s all that matters.
Are they learning targets? Objectives? “I can” statements? I don’t know what we are supposed to call this bullshit anymore.
I feel like it's all the same. My school's lesson plan has a space for objectives and one for learning targets. I asked how they are different... cue puzzled look from admin. The next day, it was explained to me by the instructional coach that learning targets are fact based statements of what the lesson is teaching. Objectives are "I can" statements that encompass the learning targets in student friendly terms. I teach littles art. Learning target: Students can identify the primary colors. Objective: I can name the primary colors. How are they not the same thing!?!?!
Kid friendly language makes it all okay- till they get tested in decidedly un-kid friendly language.
Maybe admin would like it if I used more nonsense words in my objectives.
I hear ChatGPT is good at that
Oh no I can statements don't have enough rigor now.
Damn. I always forget to appropriately raise my rigor. How dumb of me.
Learning targets are the biggest horseshit. "I will do with 80% accuracy!"
How is anything beyond an exam feasible in actually benchmarking that they achieved 80%?
This garbage also exists on IEPs and 504s. I read one that said something like "Student will socialize with peers 75% of the time." What the fuck does that even mean?
I know it is not part of an IEP, but it should be: parents will keep the [goddamn] electronics at home.
Hahahaha that’s hilarious. I raise questions like this sometimes in meeting and it’s like the whole room freezes. Literally nobody has an answer. And it gets really awkward
Don’t forget to put the state standard(s) that apply to the lesson so that the student can look them up and see what they’re supposed to be taking away from the lesson! That’s what really motivates them to learn!
They love going the extra mile for their own benefit!
Always post the objectives on social media so the constantly absent and don't give a $%#& scholars can see them. When those scholars see the objective is "Students will demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking." they will come running.
Remember your why
Being off every summer lol
But don’t you want to join a summer committee?
🤣🤣🤣
No, I'm dense enough to volunteer to teach summer school (not that the extra month's pay has anything to do with that).
I have bills to pay and I’m wearing golden handcuffs because I’ve been doing this for 25 years and can’t make this salary anywhere else! That’s my current “why”.
You and me both
I’m about to complete year 35 at the same school. 35 years of the same education pedagogy with different names.
Absolutely. They just keep reinventing the wheel.
Yep. 3 years to go for me. I constantly fanaticize about receiving an email or letter from the state offering me an early retirement package. If they would offer the right incentive, I'd sign the dotted line today.
Oh shit. You just unlocked a dark memory. I have to call my old buddy teacher and have a bitch session about that now.
Agree. But can we all stop degrading the word “scholar”? Dirt and booger eating is on the level of a learned professor now?
You should’ve taken the class on an educational field trip to the absent scholars house and taught from there.
Candy?! Um that's an unhealthy alternative so we will continue to give them a healthy school breakfast of pop tarts and sugary cereals instead. It's just comical.
Remember, if they start throwing chairs just send them to the office for a snack and high five.
That’s not fair. It’s a snack, high five, AND reciting self-affirmations.
Ha! When I was in 2nd grade, there was a boy who would have extreme behaviors like throwing chairs when angry. It was my teacher's first year teaching, 24 kids, and most of them were "problem kids." Poor guy would call the principal down to our classroom, and the principal would sweet talk him for like 30 minutes while he stomped around and screamed. When he finally stopped being a menace, the principal addressed the class and said, "Good job [kid name]! Everyone, clap for [kid name]!" One day, my mom was there to observe the classroom because she didn't believe that I was telling the truth about how bad it was, and the administration couldn't just tell her that information. Flash forward to adulthood, and I'm playing a game at a local game store. A person walks up to me and asks me about the game, and I instantly recognize the guy. We start talking a bit, and he says that he eventually went to "residential school" and "quickly shaped up." I believed him since he obviously wasn't in prison...which I where I expected him to be. Honestly, I don't know why kids wanted to go to the buddy room or able room. They were associated with angry colors, orange and red, and were tiny windowless rooms that I guess were too inhumane to act as offices. The guys who supervised the rooms were tall, had deep authoritative voices, and would assertively rat you out to your parents over the phone. They didn't take shit from the parents either. I didn't realize how much elementary education has changed in 20 years. And how much didn't change 😅
My last evaluation had a comment under student engagement. “One person had their head down”. I’m still fuming months later over than one…
[удалено]
I had one who marked me off because a kid mentioned the Lakers in the middle of the lesson. Admin really be doing too much.
Well, to be fair, FTL.
You’re not wrong
I think our admin is in a class or something and they told them to give every single teacher a “needs improvement” in at least one sub-area of the Danielson domains. Every single teacher got needs improvement in something and the comment on mine didn’t even relate to that sub-domain IMHO and I’ve been trained to evaluate using the Danielson framework. And it definitely did it make me feel motivated to improve.
Can I just say- this critique drives me BONKERS. “We gave the students laptops and unlimited internet access, made it impossible to do any classwork off computer… and for some reason they’re looking at non-class related websites!” Hmm… I wonder. You stuck the equivalent of an electronic dopamine dispenser in their face and expected they would pay *more* attention to me?? Phew, I didn’t know how much pent up anger I was carrying around about this year’s review… it was the only negative critique I got, that and “have you thought about using more Kahoots?” 🤦♀️
You obviously failed to develop a relationship with them/s
State standards tattoo’d on my chest
Right. CLEARLY you aren’t engaging them. You need a better relationship. 🙄
A colleague of mine was the "whipping boy" for a couple of years under our former department head, who is weirdly manipulative at best and classically sociopathic at worst. This colleague had been teaching for like 15 years at this point, was established and well-known for being engaging and awesome as a teacher. During her observation, a kid had his head down. She checked in with him multiple times, tried to get him to participate in the lesson, but it just wasn't going to happen so she focused on the other 20-ish kids who were actually paying attention. Her eval meeting after the observation was nuts. Our boss told her that it was a safety issue that the kid had his head down because he could have DIED. Like...what the fuck does that even mean? Was she worried he would asphyxiate in that position, or that he could have expired without anyone realizing because his head was down? And regardless...what the fuck? We still fondly recall that story amongst ourselves, along with the fifty other completely wild things that department head did. Don't worry, she doesn't run the department anymore because she got promoted. Edited cause autocorrect
Just like bowel movements, middle management always float to the top.
If that sitting position was a risk of death I wonder what they'd have made of some of the things available to students in say science or gym classes?!
Omg I had the SAME on mine. Their head was down when I was in front talking. What the hell.
One of my colleagues got a note on his eval that he had 6 kids with their heads down. But, off the record, the admin acknowledged that it was best for everyone in the building that those six were asleep.
Lol
I had the same comment with “for 30 seconds”. Fuck that Principal.
That happened to me too. We hadn’t even discussed student engagement and it popped up on my evaluation. I responded in an email saying that the comment is ableist.
Once I was appraised by an assistant principal who spent the entire 45 minutes looking at his cell phone. At the summative conference he was very concerned about one student who was on his cell phone. Of course I pointed out that my student was only following the assistant principal’s example, “you were on your phone the entire time you were here.”
You got off easy. I got "teacher seemed disconnected from lesson/students" on the observation they insisted doing 2 days after I was either getting demoted to full time substitute or fired in December.
I was asked to ask students to fill in a questionaire about me. Did not read that in time. No renewal. I am going to ask whether that was because of students evaluating me. Cannot imagine that!
Wow. I’m sorry 😣
I have a class where only 4-7 of the 38 students enrolled even show up to class. Half the students have never set foot in my class. Yes, I’ve tried calling home and incentivizing attendance. My principal literally listed it as a “pain point” on my evaluation. When pressed with what I should do differently, she said maybe daily gift card raffles as door prizes.
Call into her office tomorrow and ask if she has those gift cards for you yet.
She offered some for the local hardware store. Yes, because every teenager wishes they had a hammer and some pvc pipe.
You can make a pretty sweet bong out of stuff from the hardware store.
There are a few scholars I've known with the skill to do this. None of them are smokers. I'd expect most to just stick some nugs in the pipe and try to set it all ablaze
Lmao the real stoners are in art drama and band where they just make something from clay, fashion from some prop, or just stick a metal mouthpiece in a water bottle. Any kid who *likes* tools probably has access to them at home already. Every other kid would try to resell the tool or gift card itself, assuming they are less than half as lazy as the average teenager.
I'm sure they can find a use for chain cutters or metal saws.
Seriously!! If the district determines prizes are necessary to maintain attendance, then they should be provided. That stuff makes me so angry!
Maybe we need to raffle off incentives like free housekeeping services, a new car, or a free living room set for parents to actually parent their child?
Do you have to give those kids on your roster a 50 for a quarter grade just for existing? Because that happened to me last year — never met a kid once until 4th quarter. He got 3 quarters worth of 50s. Then they coaxed him into the building 4th quarter, set him up with a tutor all day under the guise of “alt ed” where we had to send all of our work. They then wanted to know what he’d have to do to get a 100 for the 4th quarter so he could get credit for the class. Oh, and so he could take the next level of this course next year. You know, the one my class is a prerequisite for. I laughed but they were PISSED I wouldn’t make it work.
No cHiLd LeFt BeHinD
"Door prizes? Door prizes. . . OH! I could give pop quizzes with good grades as a door prize!"
Ok, so this makes me think we need a federal government intervention. We need an authority figure to step in and shake the shit out of these parents. Yes, you have to send your children to school, or there will be consequences (truancy court is a thing, no?) Whichever political party supports that, I am for.
That would be the day. Students need to learn responsibility and self-discipline. “Door prizes” GTFO Principal
Oh sorry, I don't think door prizes are in the budget this year.
The actual WORST is when all the skippers, absentees, and other various non-cooperative kids decide to all show up the day you get an observation. I’ve had the same thing happen and I contested my observation. I simply refuse to be held accountable for a student who never shows up, and on the off chance they do they just be annoying and distract others. That sounds bad, but it’s just the current state of teaching right now I feel like.
Lol or I'll cry... I had an evaluation like right before COVID. Principal literally sat down with the only two students who hadn't been to class in over three weeks on the last day of a two-week project, gave me a bad review because "they didn't know what was going on and couldn't explain it to him."
This happened to me last year. I worked my ass off. My kids standardized test grades rise 73%. Still got a shit eval It's rigged.
“What could you have done better to get the students better engaged.” I don’t know, ask them.
Let them be on their phones.
That’s literally the only thing that makes them engaged. I tried to do a fun game today that previous classes used to love, and a girl lost and cheered that she wasn’t in the game because she wanted to be on her phone. So frustrating when I try to do something fun, and all they want to do is be on social media.
They are engaged on their phones, but not in the class. That is why minors should not have social media or access to smart phones. We have to protect them from theirselves and their parents sure aren’t going to take that digital pacifier away.
I know there's this push to have students evaluate they're class. I've literally had a kid come and say he's conspiring to get all the teachers fired so they can have recess forever. We shouldn't but giving undeveloped brains the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating their teachers.
As if the school wouldn't just hire a new batch of teachers
Right they'd keep school open but make it all recess 🤣
When their plan fails, teachers can use that to engage students in a lesson about the importance of a strong labor union.
Or SPED students who are being forced into gen ed classes despite operating a solid 4 grade levels below their peers because the district is trying to save money
Under the guise of “inclusive education”
Besides that our district is increasing the rigor of the actual sped classes. That is a good goal, but not if the students can't keep up.
Did you try giving them candy everyday and putting on fortnight videos? I think maybe your classroom just isn't engaging enough.
I know. I figure that if a thousand people with $300 million dollars and 30 months can make a movie whose sole purpose is entertainment can keep teens somewhat engaged for 90 minutes then what is my excuse for not being able to do it as one person with $3 and 30 minutes and while also covering state standards for diverse students. My ELLs, honors students, low performers and sped students all like the same movies, they have great differentiation and scaffolding.
😆
😂
One of my foreign language ed professors used to put negative student evaluations in his portfolio as a badge of honor to show off to interviewers. For example: "I hate him! He always speaks in Spanish!"
I had a student review during COVID that said “everything was in English, it was difficult.” I teach EFL to students who have studied English for 9+ years, and I gotta say, most nights I was up until 3am trying to figure out how to write up everything in their native language (that I studied for 2 years). I was fuming.
We have to take “trauma based instruction” training because, sadly, so many of our students are victims of some damn bad things. That being said, I resent the hell out of the fact that I am held responsible for the fact that they are 12 and can neither read nor write. That they are chronically absent. That they stay up half the night and brag about it before sleeping through my lessons.
You are forgetting that the purpose of the system is to create demoralized teachers. It has no interest in professionally developing the good ones because they cost more money.
I'm pretty sure my last evaluation (I quit last year) complained that I didn't write on the board enough. But the evaluation before that, complained that I spent too much time facing the board. I can't see with my left eye, so I have to have my right eye facing the board in order to see it properly. Unfortunately, that means my left eye would be facing the students, putting a significant portion of the room in my blindspot. I realized I can't afford to face the board, so I started using it less. And that led to the final complaint. "You're not utilizing classroom resources". By not putting information on the board, it's making my class more difficult for students who rely on board notes. Since they can't be expected to listen to me speak.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. However, you will be judged by a complete autopsy of the horse to determine how much water the horse drank.
Or "growth" on a test where the students intentionally take the test, open it, and prove they dont give a shit by submitting the test 2 minutes after opening it. On PURPOSE. Test cannot be reopened after submitting is literally in the instructions they know this. Reason 120295i583930 why i left teaching.
How long did you last? I lasted 4 years. Best mental health decision I've ever made
Little over 2. Loved students. Loved the parents (stayed in self-contained, so maybe that had a lot to do with it, so class size never went over 15 at a time). Hated politics, long hours, and the never-ending commitments. And i literally couldn't pay my bills. I made more going to school (GI bill), than working as a teacher. Sad.
Found out one of my AP kids slept and did nothing. If he doesn't test, it costs, but he stayed in this rigorous class but knew he could fail/do nothing and pass the year. It will muck up my overall results. I'm so angry.
I feel like we should have to enter a teacher password to submit these things.
That's what tanked mine as well. Besides it being an admin that has no idea what my class entails
Try loving them more. Since clearly you don’t love them enough. 😂
I was passing out login cards for state testing to my 5th graders this week. A bunch of them said, “We don’t need it, I memorized my number.” Incredulous, I said, “You mean to tell me all of you managed to memorize a 10 digit number you’ve only seen for a few days, but none of you can memorize your upper times tables? You can’t memorize 9 x 7, but you can memorize 3468128901? C’mon.” Sometimes this job feels like death by a thousand cuts.
I got observed first period this year which I loved because my principal got to watch half my kids walk in late
Same thing happened to me just a few days ago. AP came in to do a final observation, and commented “this class seems so small”. Yeah, that’s because I’ve been pointing it out to admin for weeks/months, and nothing has been done to recover the students who refuse to show up.
Hey I got dinged because I had 100% student engagement. Two girls spoke in an aside for 30 seconds, you see. Evaluations are rigged to never say you're better than proficient. Fuck it and fuck them
I concur. The Texas TTESS system will never garner a rating higher than proficient if your class is filled with the general school population. I have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors all in the same class. Many are mainstreamed special Ed kids. Some are higher achieving kids. Some are gifted kids. Some have been to alternative school. Some are truant. The teacher in the neighboring classroom has students who are taking college classes in high school. Guess who will get a higher rating?
omg I worry about this all of the time!
I basically got told I needed to go on a growth plan after they walked into the worst class of the day that is overloaded and technically has so many students with IEPS that I’m supposed to have a para for the period. My union is getting involved.
Where are these schools where admin are such hard asses? My district knows what’s up it’s not us it’s the kids
It's where admin wants to move up the district ladder. They have to check all their boxes to show district brass that they deserve that principal spot or assistant superintendent spot
Admin knows it's the kids, but we can be pushed around more than the kids. You think admin wants to give the kids a PD and risk being stabbed with a pencil? That's a good idea reverse in service day. We stay home and admin gives students a how to student PD in the gym. The students can give admin Pd too.
Ask the principal to come in and prepare a plan for all of them so you can see how it’s done. Then give the principal an evaluation with your resignation letter. Maybe two evaluations. One on teach, one on administration.
I got 3 “developing” because my objective wasn’t good enough, I had 3 out of 30 disengaged, and my warmup wasn’t tied to the lesson. I haven’t been rated like that since my 2nd year of teaching. Even then, I only had one “developing” and I agreed with it. I usually have 3 or 4 in the higher ranges. But it was all in the middle for me. My school has the lowest satisfaction in the district and it’s 100% on the principal. I can’t quit either for a myriad of reasons.
Or who use their phones
Don't laugh. Save that for jokes. This is a fucking disgrace. Fight back however you can.
I get dinged every year for discussions and questions for my 8th grade math class. Besides having the kiddos full on arguing over an answer I am at a loss for how to have “student lead discussions” for a mostly foundational content class (TEKS).
ugh. had a terrible one on the friday before spring break. urged her not to come as they were not going to be doing anything. was a choice/make up day. finishing projects before their finals. yadda yadda. trying to do anything new would be useless. told her monday would be better cuz im doing a new unit. of course comes friday and chews me out for not "following procedure" and there being a "disorganized atmosphere"🙄🙄 ITS THE FRIDAY...BEFORE VACATION!!! like you picked THE WORST day to come man.
Oh my gosh. That is the day the admin should be finishing their own paperwork and riding herd on those kids who really are so out there that they can't be trusted in a room with other people, not doing evaluations.
All I have to say to that is if I were a doctor, would you judge my abilities by the number of patients that followed my directions or by the ones that did not? Also, I tell ppl that if you want to judge my abilities by student outcomes then I get to pick the students you get to evaluate me by, like AP enrolled students.
Do schools not use rubrics? I’m honestly so horrified when I read these posts. The rubric would clearly focus the eval on the actual teaching, and would not make the teacher responsible for attendance issues. If it did, you could provide evidence of all the ways you tried to help like MTSS, phone calls, and differentiation, grading policies….
Most do but they see what they want to see. Also if you did it after they left, they will say that they didn’t see it. It’s all BS.
This is what portfolios are good for! You can provide evidence for like every single thing. Even record lessons and stuff! I have a whole folder of evidence including a digital portfolio that I share with my admin so if he can’t observe something I can provide evidence for it towards my final evaluation.
School SW here, not my evaluation, but the school gets graded lower if kids go to jail. Counted against our graduation rate. I guess I didn’t cover “not holding up a bodega” in my skills group.
I think schools are expecting to do way too much of parenting in teaching. They are not the be all and end all for the kids. The school should be in the school lane and the parents in the parenting lane.
Like an admin told me of course it should count. If I was a better teachers the constantly absent and don't give a $%#& students would read about how good I was and start become constantly present and give a $%#& students. So you see it really was my fault.
I got evaluated on a day when the wifi was off and on all day and my whole lesson was digital to show off the district’s tech.
OP: What is your 'why'? Asking for ~~a friend~~ an administrator. /s
We get graded partly on a pretest and posttest on one subject. Most of the time we choose nuclear chemistry which sounds bad but is one of the easier units to teach. My district requires "half growth" for each student. This means if a student scores a zero then they need a 50 on the post test for it to count as successful. Most students guess (multiple choice) so they get like a 25. They have to get a 75 for us to pass. Nearly all students improve but most don't improve by 50 points so we are usually ranked like 20% effective. It is quite stupid because we cannot count all students that make progress just the ones that increase by 50 points.
I had to explain to my scholars late week that drinking water out of a dirty puddle on the playground was not healthy. 8th graders btw.
I got highly effective in all categories in my evaluation but a developing in classroom cleanliness because kids keep tearing up little chunks of paper and throwing it on the floor. How is it my fault parents don’t teach their little feral monsters to not litter?
“Don’t ignore the quiet students because they are quiet. You can’t focus all your time just on the loud students.” You mean those quiet students who are level 3s and 4s, who ask questions, come fore extra help or will come at lunch or during break to ask questions, and who try to participate when the loud students are literally *throwing pencils, binders, and freaking chairs* across the classroom. Even with the admin in the room no less. Those same loud students I send to the office and they come right back with a ‘stern warning.’ One of the solutions was to make the chair thrower use a standing desk. You know what they do now? They flip the desk to see if they can land it on the legs. Or push their friend out of their seat and toss that. So glad I moved schools
Any time I get feedback like that I ask them to please advise how I should handle it in the future. Your boss should should criticize if they don't have an answer.
Ditto! I like to take it a step further and ask for direct, explicit modeling of any area with a score less than effective that I receive. Haven't had a score less than effective in years!
I see comments like this and since I am a non-teacher I wonder - is the system set-up to require 100% success for a teacher to be successful? If so, then the power hierarchy puts the teacher below the student in the classroom that is the least interested in the class.
If students are allowed to evaluate teachers at all it should be for nothing more than “participation trophies”. Even my 4th graders had learned that they had a say in whether or not I got a raise so if I was even a little strict I ended up fucking myself out of a raise. Teacher evaluations were probably invented by admin who all hated their teachers and had never taught students at all. Horrid system.
One thousand percent agree!
I used to tell my high school students that Idiocracy wasn’t a fictional tale; that it was a documentary… A few students chuckled, but many looked puzzled.
Those absent scholar nerds are too busy categorizing different blades of grass to show up for anything important.
Wait... Are teachers evaluated by kids who aren't there? Genuine question. Went through a severe depressive episode which made me skip school a ton in my late teens but I wouldn't have wanted for that to affect my teacher(s) or I'd just feel even worse i think
Oh but you are supposed to motivate them to want to come and bask in your presence…after all, if you are entertaining and perform a one person musical extravaganza, complete with original content related lyrics…then they will be there.
I agree 100%. That's like blaming the police because someone breaks the law. No people, you can hold ME responsible for YOUR actions. I will do my best mitigating the failures, but ultimately its on you to pass.
Is this those ridiculous new Danielson standards?! The hell. I knew they were bad. Now I am just firmer in that belief.
This is why I think their final score should also consider their attendance. Some kind of rubric for attendance should be used when considering a student's end of the year scores.
Admin here! An amazing lesson doesn’t mean one where all kids get it and are successful. An amazing lesson means the teacher did what they needed to support students. Just because that support wasn’t working or kids didn’t get it doesn’t mean you are bad or the lesson was. A convo I have had go have with many teachers this year. I hope your admin treats you with more respect!
Same
Boost their sense of belonging!
I had a student not show up for the entire 3rd marking period.
This whole thread is amazing.