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Old 08-04-2012, 03:34 PM
 
Location: The Great White North
414 posts, read 1,016,283 times
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"The students only listen to you and respect you because you're a man."

No, sorry. The students listen to me because I set clear expectations followed with immediate consequences if they're broken. I also micromanage 90% of the details in my lesson, identify problems before they occur, and try and mitigate those issues. But, please, go ahead and keep making excuses for the bedlam that you call lessons.

/rant

That said, there is probably a very small advantage to being a guy, simply because at home "dad" is usually the one that gets scary when mad. However, I've seen enough male teachers that are completely disrespected by their students to believe it doesn't make a tremendous difference. I'm just tired of my effective classroom management, which is a product of hard work and planning, being written off as a product of my gender Any other educators out there relate to this?
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Old 08-04-2012, 03:39 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
44,888 posts, read 59,869,542 times
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It's going to depend. I've found kids that grow up with fathers/stepfathers who have authority, tend to respond better to the "Dad Look". Kids that don't have a male role model have trouble picking up that particular body language.
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Old 08-04-2012, 03:45 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
19,480 posts, read 24,954,964 times
Reputation: 51106
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbqTeacher View Post
"The students only listen to you and respect you because you're a man."

No, sorry. The students listen to me because I set clear expectations followed with immediate consequences if they're broken. I also micromanage 90% of the details in my lesson, identify problems before they occur, and try and mitigate those issues. But, please, go ahead and keep making excuses for the bedlam that you call lessons.

/rant

That said, there is probably a very small advantage to being a guy, simply because at home "dad" is usually the one that gets scary when mad. However, I've seen enough male teachers that are completely disrespected by their students to believe it doesn't make a tremendous difference. I'm just tired of my effective classroom management, which is a product of hard work and planning, being written off as a product of my gender Any other educators out there relate to this?
I'm a retired female teacher, but I understand that comments like that would be quite annoying.

Where I worked most people didn't say that to male teachers, probably because most of the teachers (both male and female) had effective classroom management skills.

Congratulations to you for having great classroom management skills and great lesson plans.
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Old 08-04-2012, 03:53 PM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,395,889 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person View Post
It's going to depend. I've found kids that grow up with fathers/stepfathers who have authority, tend to respond better to the "Dad Look". Kids that don't have a male role model have trouble picking up that particular body language.
My experience is that students listen better to male teachers. I think men are more intimidating than women. I know we listened better to male teachers than female teachers. I can remember thinking they must be really smart but I never thought that of the female teachers I had. Men just seemed like authorities on what they taught. I don't know why. Maybe it's just the dad thing. My dad was the boss of the house.
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Old 08-04-2012, 04:19 PM
 
Location: Suburbia
8,793 posts, read 15,231,892 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AbqTeacher View Post
"The students only listen to you and respect you because you're a man."
I'm a male elementary teacher and I don't recall ever being told this. Our students, for the most part, listen to and respect all of the teachers.
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Old 08-04-2012, 04:56 PM
 
Location: The Great White North
414 posts, read 1,016,283 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person View Post
It's going to depend. I've found kids that grow up with fathers/stepfathers who have authority, tend to respond better to the "Dad Look". Kids that don't have a male role model have trouble picking up that particular body language.
Maybe the intimidation factor isn't as much of a benefit for me because I taught a lot of inner-city kids. A large percentage of them don't have father figures at home, so there's no experience there. Maybe in a more traditional setting it'd be a bigger benefit, but anytime I've taught middle-class surburban kids classroom management just seems like less of an issue.
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Old 08-04-2012, 05:03 PM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,395,889 times
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Originally Posted by tgbwc View Post
I'm a male elementary teacher and I don't recall ever being told this. Our students, for the most part, listen to and respect all of the teachers.
In elementary school, I think it makes less difference. I see a difference in high school though. I see it in my own kids. I know their teachers and they hold the male teachers in higher esteem without real reason to do so other than they're male. Of course, my kids treat all of their teachers with respect because they've been taught to do that.
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Old 08-04-2012, 05:05 PM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,395,889 times
Reputation: 14692
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbqTeacher View Post
Maybe the intimidation factor isn't as much of a benefit for me because I taught a lot of inner-city kids. A large percentage of them don't have father figures at home, so there's no experience there. Maybe in a more traditional setting it'd be a bigger benefit, but anytime I've taught middle-class surburban kids classroom management just seems like less of an issue.
I would agree. It would depend on who they see as an authority figure. If there is no male role model, it's not going to be men. In fact, that might invite antagonistic behaviors if they're angry about their fathers not being around.
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Old 08-04-2012, 05:35 PM
 
4,352 posts, read 4,191,761 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler View Post
I would agree. It would depend on who they see as an authority figure. If there is no male role model, it's not going to be men. In fact, that might invite antagonistic behaviors if they're angry about their fathers not being around.
We see a lot of that at our school. The boys are often much more respectful of the women teachers, and they constantly test the men. This is one reason for the high suspension rate. The boys get angry at a teacher or administrator and curse them or want to fight them. It's a real knee-jerk reaction that doesn't seem to happen as much with women teachers.
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Old 08-04-2012, 07:30 PM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,395,889 times
Reputation: 14692
Quote:
Originally Posted by lhpartridge View Post
We see a lot of that at our school. The boys are often much more respectful of the women teachers, and they constantly test the men. This is one reason for the high suspension rate. The boys get angry at a teacher or administrator and curse them or want to fight them. It's a real knee-jerk reaction that doesn't seem to happen as much with women teachers.
And people think background doesn't matter...

It's all in what they are used to. My dad ruled the house and demanded we respect mom. So we didn't give teachers any greif. I do have to admit to thinking my male teachers were smarter and better than my female teachers but I doubt that actually was the case. I think it was just my background. We have male priests running the church, dad ran our house and men just seemed to have better jobs than women all around as if they were smarter. I can remember sitting in a female teacher's class and questioning what she was teaching in my head. I don't think I ever did that with my male teachers.
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