Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Recent Comments:
Nine-day, 62-mile traffic jam in China {Gadling}
Aug 25th 2010 11:14PM NINE DAYS? My best guess as to what I would "do" in that situation: starve to death.
Ted Leo Brings a Different Kind of Madness to Spokane {Spinner}
Mar 21st 2010 12:04AM Er...though I'm trilled to get some Spinner linklove, that link should probably go here: http://coverlaydown.com/2010/03/rip-alex-chilton-1950-2010/
Current LGT a wonderful Danny Schmidt feature. Good stuff, but a bit unexpected.
Why don't you pay for software? {Download Squad}
May 23rd 2007 11:42AM I'm a public school instructional technology specialist supporting a family -- not much $ to give. However, that allows me to give in two ways:
1. Creating an audience IS giving. Since if I find something we REALLY love my job DEMANDS that I end up spreading the love and the word to my coworkers, I figure that I'm contributing in the same way that Cory Doctorow asks us to -- i.e. he gives books away free, because even if only a small minority pay anyway, the more people love it and pass it along free, the more people find the book to begin with...and thus the more people that small majority of payers includes. Love it or hate it, this model of "compensation" is legit, since it does really result in more $ to developers overall...as long as I ALSO teach teachers and students to pay when they can, for that which they love. And I do.
2. That said, when we DO give, we tend to do so to support local business, etc (we just paid 6% extra on a grill to support the only grill seller in our tiny rural town). We only have one small software developer in town (that I know of), but I take him out for a beer and burger every now and then, and always buy when we do. If everyone else did the same thing, developers everywhere would end up benefitting, and small town life would still be economically sustainable. This ain't nothin', either.
Fourth-grader has mouth taped shut by teacher {ParentDish}
Mar 31st 2006 11:49AM "Boyhowdy is wrong. There is no justification for her actions."
Sorry, I'm not taking these words in my mouth any more than I would take tape in my kids'.
I said that there was an important CONTEXT that might suggest that this teacher had few better choices.
I also said that this was a DUMB choice for a teacher to make, and that some sort of suspension of the teacher -- but NOT firing -- was probably warranted.
I stand by that, and by my original post. I just can't stand by misrepresentation.
Fourth-grader has mouth taped shut by teacher {ParentDish}
Mar 30th 2006 11:36AM Not enough info here for me to agree or disagree with those -- even teachers -- that want to throw this teacher out forever.
However, I know NO teachers that "don't know the power they wield and the kind of damage they can weild with their creative punishments." And I've taught for over a decade, in public and private, at all ages, rural and urban.
We know.
We also sometimes lose it.
Brecause, like you and every parent, we're human.
As a middle school teacher and parent myself, I know that there are still some public schools out there which offer NO support from principals or other adults outside the classroom for discipline, and in some cases have told their teachers "deal with it yourself, or else YOU could be fired."
I also know there are some kids who -- for whatever reason, be it adhd or just plain lack of boundary awareness and true sneaky evilness -- refuse to stop pushing. The other kids in the class aren't suddenly adults -- they can't just stay on task because you tell them to ignore someone else. And after a FULL DAY of lost content for every kid in the class, in situations where you can't even send the kid to the hallway, you can truly have no choices.
Consider: principal has said "deal with your kids, and stop sending them to the office." Counselor is out sick. Kid won't shut the hell up, and can't be led back towards the curriculum out of spite or immaturity. Other kids are losing it fast. You aren't legally allowed to send the kid out of the classroom, and you have no "quiet corner." You aren't allowed to leave to get help. You have no other adults in the room. You've exhausted the huge list of standing classroom management techniques that usually work. There's no phone in your classroom, because it's not allowed.
What do YOU do?
Yes, the teacher should be suspended and reprimanded for what was an absolutely dumb moment. I'd LIKE to think there's a better choice, here.
But I can't think of any.
I give thanks every day I don't find myself in these no-choice situations. But I know the day will come.
Unless the teacher is PROUD of what they did, I would suggest that the system can set up scenarios for teachers in which the choices are to do something dumb -- or accept that, this year, no one in your class will learn anything. Firing a teacher in those situations only leaves a hole in an already broken system. Better, I think, to figure out why the teacher felt they had to make this choice, however poorly -- and to make the punishment reflect that context.
