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Note she was blogging while she was at work, then went home and finished. Note the comments by students as well. They certainly don't think highly of her at all.
Thanks for the blog link. The students seemed to really dislike her (even before her post).
To be honest, I thought the first half of her blog wasn't that terrible when she was describing how she used to put a lot of time in her comments until her kids got worse and worse. The types of comments she then listed were pretty insulting though.
We know almost nothing about the circumstances. Was she fired for the characterizations of the kids, or the profanities? Did she identify herself openly in the blog? Are her students lazy whiners? How can we cast an opinion about this without knowing those particulars?
If she identified herself as Miss Soandso of Stuckina Middle school, and used inappropriate language in a publicly accessible blog about her students, then, yes, the matter should be addressed by the school. On the other hand, if she just wrote a blog as an anonymous teacher making general remarks about students using her own as anecdotal examples, she has a perfect right to express such an opinion in the internet environment. It would also make a difference, whether she intended her blog to be read only by colleagues and other pedagogists, or whether the blog is intended to be read by her own school community.
For example, if one of you is a teacher, and you comment on this thread in a manner at odds with your school's policy or philosophy, should you be subject to sanctions?
Edit: I was posting this just as the text of the blog was linked. Now having read it, I would defend the teacher for expressing the opinions, they are to the point and stated with impact, and reflect matters that need to be addressed, and were intended to be read only by members of the teaching profession. She should have been more careful to keep her opinions anonymous, and as such, risked the reputation of her school.
Rather than shoot from the hip, it should be the responsibility of her employers to do a damage assessment and seek remedies wherever they find fault. Including the environment in which a teacher becomes so frustrated and angry.
This teacher has written 89 blogs in this site. None of them are available to us, however relevant they may be to our analysis, so we still know nothing about the history of her blogging, or the attitude that has developed over this two-year period of time.
If I were a parent of one of her students, I would not be screaming for her head. I'd be asking my child "Put yourself in her place---why do you think she gets so angry?"
She wants schools to be better than they are, and is trying constructively to think of ways that schools can be made better. I can't fault her for caring. Couched in different language, and placed in a different venue, the same comments would have come off as praiseworthy.
It is very disconcerting to me how we expect out teachers to put in 40,000 classroom hours, without ever once displaying a human emotion.
My Lord, I have had high school teachers who called the class a bunch of whiners to their faces when we complained about all the homework. How can this possibly be construed as an actionable offense?
Teachers who try the hardest may be among the most frustrated.
I think employers have the bulk of the power and there should be legal protections afforded employees who are brave enough to express their true opinions, particularly during their own time.
Congress recently canned a whistle-blower bill. If we are not allowed to discuss what is wrong within our corporations or civic organizations, how will be be able to fix it?
We should all be adult enough to be able to evaluate the source of derogatory comments on media such as Facebook to determine whether there may be truth behind rants and comments.
No one should ever be reprimanded for expressing their opinions, especially during their own time - including lunchtime.
Although she excercised poor judgement, my sympathy is with the teacher..
One more reason why I don't have, and never will have, a Facebook account. I feel like I'm too old for that nonsense..
It wasn't facebook that she used. You may indeed be too old for that nonsense, but facebook is only a problem for people who don't understand how to use it properly.
I have my facebook account (which is private) and I have a fan page for my students to interact with me. It works great. It is almost impossible to live in our current society w/o a facebook page. There is so much information that is only distributed through that site. If my students miss a day or forget a deadline, my fan page is where they find what they need.
the teacher should just do her job and go through the curriculum and stop whining.
The problem with *getting through the curriculum* is that often the kids do NOT learn what they are supposed to learn. Then the district or school wants to blame the teacher since the students cannot show they learned anything on tests.
The object of teaching is not to *get through* things, but to actually teach. The object of learning is not to *get though* things, but to actually learn.
One of the reasons that we have changed the curriculum today is that students are refusing to learn what the schools want to teach them. The reasons for that are many, but a main one is that kids don't feel like learning especially in school is safe.
The problem with *getting through the curriculum* is that often the kids do NOT learn what they are supposed to learn. Then the district or school wants to blame the teacher since the students cannot show they learned anything on tests.
i see that as the students problem, not the teachers. i want teachers to go through the curriculum and thats it. teachers cant take the place of parents. if the kids fail, thats their problem.
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