Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Week 4 - Professionalism in teaching
Now that you have read chapter 2 about the professionalization of teaching and we discussed a few of the issues in class, I would like for you to reflect upon your 13+ years of schooling and the examples your teachers have set for you. You need to think of a time, experience, or memory of a teacher doing or saying something that exemplified that he/she was truly a well-respected professional. OR you can write about a time, experience, or memory of a teacher doing or saying something that was not professional. Do not use names when you are talking about this teacher. It can be a simple issue like "One of my high school teachers always wore shorts to school." Or it can be a complex issue such as "One of the high school teachers used to go to student parties on the weekend and drink alcohol in front of the students." After you state the issue, type a few sentences about why you thought it was professional or unprofessional and how it affected your learning. Please be sensitive to the fact that this topic is very subjective. Something you might think is unprofessional another person might think is not a big deal. Let's be aware of people's differing opinions. We need to make sure we keep this post PROFESSIONAL:-)
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In high school I had a teacher who would hang out with students on the weekend. For example, she would go to get coffee or lunch or something like that with a few students. I think that's fine to do once the student has graduated. I do not think a teacher should hang out with a student outside of school while they are still teaching that student in their class. I think it is very important that teachers have a connection with their students and can get along well, but they shouldn't be best friends. I feel like that could affect how the teacher then speaks to, grades, etc. that particular student which is not fair to other students in the class.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Junior College I had a teacher/coach who went past his boundries when it came to teaching and coaching. There was one weekend after a big win, and a hard week of class, that a bunch of the guys on the team were out partying, having a few drinks and having a good time. This teacher had heard about this party through the grape vine and showed up at the party. He was at the party drinking, having a good time and tried to fit in with the students. Most of the students were uncomfortable and decided to leave. Once most of the students left this teacher brought out a bad of pot and wanted these students to smoke with him. This took all the students by surprise and really made them feel uncomfortable. I think it is important for a good teacher to have good relationships with his or her students. But to me this relationship stays inside the classroom, or ball field. Once you take it outside of the classroom, you have crossed the line. To me any teacher that does this totally disregards all the rules and schooling they had to go through to get to this point. A good teacher is supposed to be a romodel for his or her students. When you are out partying you go against teacher conduct and shouldn't be allowed to teach.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I totally agree with what you said about teachers hanging out with their students outside of the class even if it is harmless. I think this way because ever since I have started taking my education classes, the point has been stressed about doing your business inside the classroom. A teachers job is to teach inside the classroom, that is basically their office. Once you go outside of your office in this profession, no matter what you are doing, you are flirting with harming your reputation. Even if you do nothig wrong, lets face it rumors start easy.
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher one time that told another student she reminded him of his wife. It was not a very appropriate statement, but this teacher took it a step further and would talk about this girl's personal life in class, asking her who she was dating and harassing her for not dating a boy on his soccer team. This teacher tried to be very personal with all his students which was not bad but some of the comments he made were not very appropriate and made the other student, or students, uncomfortable. It is not wrong for a teacher to become a person that students can go to for help, but in all situations, teachers need to be aware of where the line is drawn.
ReplyDeleteAndrew-I completely agree with your opinion, but I would argue that teachers should also be approachable if the student has problems at home. I knew a teacher who confronted a student for doing badly in school and asked what the problem was. It turned out that a family member of the student had died and felt uncomfortable speaking to her teachers about this causing her to become depressed and not do as well in school. However, the teacher you are talking about definitely crossed the line, and it surprises me that no student spoke up about this because it is pretty extreme behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in my Freshman year of Highschool, I had joined a club that was small and not fully reconized by the school, but the teacher stayed after so that the other people in said club could have a place to play Magic and other table top games. That showed that he was there for the students who stayed after and was able to let the kids have a place to be after school.
ReplyDeleteAndrew- You're statement does make alot of sense. While what Ally says is also true, that Coach should have been questioned as to what he was doing there in the state he was in. There is no excuse for the behavior.
ReplyDeleteAlly, I agree with what you said about Andrew's comment. While it was wrong of what the teacher did and a teacher should try to stay focused on what's going on in the classroom, it is also important that the students feel comfortable talking to their teachers about problems they may be having, like you said. It is my goal as a teacher to be approachable and make the students feel comfortable, but still be professional at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI had an English teacher my senior year in high school who I felt was a very professional teacher. Due to the fact that she ran her class as an honors college prep class. She taught us alot about not just college English coursework but tools that are vital for young adults and adults in life for when we get on our own. She required to update our resumes often and many of the assignments I completed in her class I completed in my english comp I and english comp II classes here at Lindenwood. She treated us and gave us young adult expectations and didnt take any crap.
ReplyDeleteAlly I agree with you those things you stated your teacher did were very inappropriate and unprofessional.
ReplyDeleteTraneika, i had a teacher in high school just like the one you described. i also felt that she prepared me for the future and i always liked how she treated her students like adults. her class was very similar to many of my classes here at LU.
ReplyDeleteI had a foreign language teacher in high school that was very unprofessional in the classroom. She was always too concerned with her students personal life and she was very nosey. My boyfriend and I had her class together and she would always make comments about us being a couple during class and she always wanted to know if we were going out on the weekend or not.She also had issues with staying on topic and I really started to dread going to her class. I think that teachers should be involved in their students personal life to a certain extent and this teacher definetly crossed the lines of comfortable conversation from the start. Also, I think there should be a healthy balane between teaching your subject matter and talking about things going on in other aspects of life and she wasnt able to establish this in her classroom, she would just get distracted and off topic too much.
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteThis is challenging as a teacher. Some students want you to know every little detail about them. Some don't want you in their business. When you are a teacher how are you going to distinguish between the two?
As you can see the picture thing is working now.
ReplyDeletePlease upload a close-up face shot of yourself in your blogger profile. Once you update your profile it should show your face. It will make this blog so much more fun if everyone will do this.
I had a teacher in high school that I really respected until I saw another side of him. He began calling students names like: stupid, retard, spoiled brats, etc. He didn't do it in a joking way, it was when he was angry. He once told a student (with self esteem issues to begin with) that in her mothers case there was an excuse for abortion. I couldn't believe this! And the teacher was so stubborn, if you tried to reason with him or explain anything at all, he would begin to personally attack you or do his best to humiliate you in front of everyone. I lost every ounce of respect for this teacher. I thought it was absolutely rediculous and very unprofessional. I understand teachers get angry, but in this profession you can't always say exactly what you'd like, especially in the way my teacher did. Teachers should not name call. After losing respect for my teacher it made hard to want to listen to what he had to say and see him interact respectfully with adults. The rest of the year with his behavior was pretty difficult.
ReplyDeleteAndrew I really agree with you said on the whole role model thing. It would be hard to see someone you've partied with as an authority figure afterwards. I can't believe that story. That would be super uncomfortable!!! That is crazy and definatley crossing the line in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher in high school that used to yell and make fun of this one freshman because he wasn't reading fast enough in class and he had a hard time reading aloud. This boy struggled in most of his classes because he had a hard time reading and compreheding the reading. to me that is not what a teacher should do the teacher should be there to help the student in anyway possible. This teacher being unwilling to help her student and making fun of him shows me that she is not professional and she isn't fit to be a teacher.
ReplyDeletesarah, I had a teacher in high school like the one you described and his hanging out with students after school and outside of school caused him to get fired because rumors started being spread about him and that was too big of a risk for our school to take. i just think you have to be careful about things like that.
ReplyDeleteKylie,
ReplyDeleteYour teacher should have been fired. I wonder if the administration knew what he was saying in class? His behavior was not just unprofessional, but unacceptable.
In grade school, I had a teacher who acted professional while in the classroom, and you wouldn't guess by watching her in class, but one day she left her list of students open on her desk and a girl in my class saw it. She saw that next to her name, the teacher had written the comment "Anorexic?" She had made comments like this next to most of the kids' names. She wrote things like "fatty," "retard," and "worthless" next to the names. I don't know if this is technically unprofessional, because her notebook is her personal property, but I think she was wrong for judging her students in such a negative way.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people here seem to say that the teacher should have no relationship with the students outside of the classroom, but I disagree. I think that Josh's teacher did a great job. He was involved with students outside of class, and he gave them the opportunity to hang out and have good, clean fun with the students. Of course, it is wrong to party with the students, but having a healthy relationship with the students outside of the classroom can be a good thing, if the teacher acts appropriately.
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher in Junior High (where I grew up, this is what it is called) that took a special interest in all of her students. She challenged us and in a way FORCED us to get to know what was going on in the news through games in class and a manditory subscription to Newsweek (with help from the school board). Through a course of events, my partner and I won 1st place in a local National History Day contest, got to go to state where we won 3rd, and from there went to Nationals in Washington DC. She had us petition local companies with presentations to ask them to sponsor us (when we came home, we followed up with these companies). The trip ended up being no cost to us. She took us on a guided tour of our nations capitol and we met our state governor, and senators while we were there along with many other big name people. She introduced us to many things we never would have seen or done. This was Junior High, but she made sure the whole class new, this was the stepping stone to understanding our future. We needed to know what was going on and how to make our way in the world. We were treated with respect. I learned more from her class then I have from any other class. She has done the same in future classes since. For those who didn't go on the trip, she had them learning and keeping up with our progress. It was an awsome experience. We kept in touch for quite a few years. I would visit her class, we would send letters to each other. It was nice.
ReplyDeleteKylie,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your comment. Your teacher was very unprofessional. Yes, everyone has their bad days, but some can be emotionally scaring. My daughter had the same experience when she was in second grade. Despite all my efforts of working with administrators it went on for too long. She is in 6th grade now and is still recovering from the self-esteem blow she took. I also agree with Mrs.Bishop's comment.
I had this computer teacher in my senior year in high school who was really unprofessional in my opinion. First day of class he basically complained the whole 40 minutes of class about how retarded we were and how the last teacher had, in his opinion, taught us nothing right, which by the way made us really angry since the last teacher had actually been really good. The whole year was just hearing him talk about how marvelous and intelligent he was and how we were, according to him, such spoiled kids. He gave out grades according to how much he liked or disliked you and everyone noticed. Some kids in my class started pretending to be his friend in class and then talk bad about him behind his back. Going to that class was what I hated most that year.
ReplyDeleteI had a music theory teacher a couple of years ago who, in my mind, was very professional. He arrived to class early and always greeted the students with a smile. He asked us about our lives to see how we were doing... he was not being nosy, per say, but he showed that he cared for us and wanted us to know we mattered to him. He never put us down or made fun of us, and he always made sure we knew that "there is no stupid question". He wanted us to succeed, and by being professional, he demonstrated what it takes to achieve the highest goals in our lives. I believe that relations with students in the classroom are ESSENTIAL. The students need to know that you care about their lives and their success.
ReplyDelete@ Michael - I think that maybe it was not technically unprofessional for her to have written comments about her students in her personal journal. HOWEVER, it was very unprofessional for her to leave the journal open. She should have taken great care to keep that to herself. But now that I think about it, I can't help but wonder if the teacher was judging her students daily and, therefore, was not necessarily focused on her job as much as she should have been. She might have been distracted in her teaching by her habit of seeing the negative aspects of her students. And THAT IS unprofessional!
ReplyDeleteone of my teachers for high school was in her mid 30's she was the dance coach and an rnglish teacher. she would wear shirts that showed her stomach and also talk in class like she was a student for an english teacher she talked with a lot of slang and tried to be best friends with students and also make other ones feel stupid at times. i felt like she wasn't even my teacher she was so unprofessional... but students thought she was cool lol
ReplyDeletei see that alot of people are saying how teachers wrote or said things to or about students. mean things like retard and stupid... I feel like no teacher should ever talk like this even worse say it to students. teachers should help students and make them confident in learning. as a student i know getting yelled at or shut down i wouldn't go to that person for help. and thats what teachers are for!
ReplyDeleteI had a spanish teacher my freshman year of high school who in my opinion was very unprofessional. He was very in to running so instead of going to lunch he would go running. When we would come to class after lunch he'd be wearing extremely short running shirts and long polo shirts and tennis shoes and was all sweaty. Everybody thought that it was disgusting. During class he would talk about going on vacation with his family and then go on about all the attractive college girls he saw on the beach. Towards the end of the year I asked him a question about homework. He started yelling at me in front of the entire class complaining about the missing assignments i had. I went to my principal about it and she had to talk to him. A couple days later he pulled me aside and apologized about the way he acted. But i was so happy to get out of his class by the end of the year. Because of the way he acted I hated going to his class. I started slacking and stopped caring about the homework.
ReplyDeleteI went to high school at McCluer North, and after I graduated I heard that some of the teachers resigned for accusations of sexual harrashment. A friend of mine was staying with one of our former teachers. I didn't know that because my friend referred to her by her first name, so I went over to hang out with her. As we were leaving I saw current students walking into her house. At the end of the school year, she became one of the teacher's that resigned. It is completely unacceptable to hang out with students, this is an example of how a teacher could be unprofessional.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I agree with you that sometimes it can be ok for teachers to be a bit involved with students outside of class...the problem is that when teachers do spend out-of-class time with students sometimes they jsut don't knwo where to draw the line. If it is something like josh's example of a teacher being available for students it's completely ok, but when it gets to teachers believing they can be your new best friends..that's when it gets unprofessional.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most professional teachers I know was my sophomore year Lit teacher. She was very good at maintaining the balance between joking and having fun and being a teacher. Her class taught me more than any of my other high school literature classes combined about how to write correctly and how to interpret and understand literature. At the same time she took a personal interest in each student's success. If there was something wrong, she would let you know, and she would never humiliate you in front of the whole class. Fortunately for us she had an excellent sense of humor while still maintaining high expectations of both our conduct and our grades. Unfortunately, she no longer teaches at my high school. She left after my junior year.
ReplyDeleteJosh, I think it's awesome that your teacher took an interest in the students like that. It's always nice to see a teacher take time out of their lives to support something that students enjoy, be it academic or otherwise. I don't know a lot of teachers who would be willing to do something like that. Then again, my high school administration might not have allowed a club like that. They themselves were quite unprofessional when dealing with students.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the 7th grade I felt that one of my teachers was unprofessional. He was very addicted to smoking and during the break period between each class he would go out to his car and smoke. At the school I attended you were not allowed to smoke anywhere on the property, so he would drive across the street to the convenient store and smoke and then come back to the property and back to class. I felt that this was unprofessional because he would often be late to class. It also made it difficult for students to ask him questions about the homework or ask question about the test that we may be taking that day. Another reason that I believe that this was unprofessional; and this is entirely my personal opinion; is because he smelled bad. I grew up in a house where no one smoked and I never liked talking to this teacher because smoke was a smell that I wasn’t used to.
ReplyDeleteKylie Atteberry I can’t believe you had a teacher like this. A teacher should never act like that. A teacher is supposed to be someone you can trust and go to with your problems. They should never make you feel worse about yourself. I understand that everyone gets angry but as a teacher you should be able to control your emotions.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the comments I noticed that it seems easier for people to write about unprofessional teachers than professional ones. I wonder why this is. Is it just easier to remember the wrong doings then the teachers that did nothing wrong? This really made me think about all the teachers that I had and wonder if I’m just being too critical, or is it just really hard to be seen as a professional, good, effective teacher.
ReplyDeleteI was in a class where the teacher was allways looking/talking with girls students in a different way than the way that he did it with boys students. I don't know if that it is ok or not... at least I never saw that professor doing something wrong, but I think that I will feel a little bit unconfortable if i know that my daughter is in the class with that teacher.
ReplyDeleteabout kyile topic...
ReplyDeletehow can students accept that? why students did not react? i think that a big part of be a teacher is to teach our students to get the respect that they deserve... we are not just teaching an specific subject, we also have to help our students to face real problems in life... one of those problems that they will face is people trying to step on them... and that is unnaceptable. students should learn to defend themselves. we are not just math teachers, we are part of their life, we are part of their education. we are forming people and students.
I went to a really small high school and had the same science teacher all four years. He was a really nice guy and was always concerned with what was going on in his student's lives, but he was a very unprofessional teacher. During his class, we would just sit around and talk, do homework from other classes, get on the computer, or even play cards. We probably opened the book an average of 3 times a month in his class. So even though he was one of the nicest people you would ever meet, he was a terrible teacher. His case proves a teacher doesn't have to be mean or ignorant to be unprofessional. I also had a history teacher in high school who felt it necessary to force his political views on his students. He even went so far as to say "Anyone who voted for Obama is a dumb a**." After that I liked him even less and hated every moment I had to be in his class. I think all teachers should keep their political views out of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Sarah's comment. I think teachers should be concerned about the well-being of their students and should have a connection with them, but they shouldn't take that outside of the classroom. Kylie- Wow, that is ridiculous! That teacher definitely should have been fired. When someone is put in a position of authority such as a teacher, they should act like a mature adult and keep their negative opinion to themself. Lauren- I also noticed that most of the stories we're sharing are about negative experiences. I think bad teachers stick in students minds just as much or more than good teachers. Hopefully our class can learn how not to act from these stories!
ReplyDeleteSophomore year in high school i had a teacher who was clearly a feminist. She wouldn't giver her male students the time of day because she didn't respect any of their opinions. She would always use a lot of foul language that no one in the class appreciated.
ReplyDeleteEmily, i also had a teacher in high school that would express is political views openly and try to impose them on all of his students. However, it didn't bother me much because i generally agreed with what he had to say.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, one of my teachers would smoke before, during, and after school.
ReplyDeleteVictor, I also had a teacher who was the same way. All of the girls in my class were seated in the front rows, while the boys were in the back.
ReplyDeleteI had several teachers in high school that would hang out with the students. We had a teacher go to a party with a bunch of high schoolers and got in trouble and was fired as soon as anyone found out about it. On the other side, our teacher slash football coach took the team out to eat before one of the games. This is different i feel because it is helping the students bond and get to know each other.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my shooling I don't recall a time when a teacher acted unprofessionally, maybe a little crazy but still professional. There was a time, however, that I recall when a teacher put professionalism before her own safety. It was actually a bus driver I had in middle school who was very professional when a fight broke out on our way to school. She was about five feet tall an the two largest guys in my school were on the same bus and never ever got along! The bus driver, when she noticed the fight, stopped the bus in the middle of the road called for police assistance and jumped in the middle of the two young men. I was shocked and amazed at her bravery and at the professionalism she sustained even after one of the young men accidentally punched her in the face! She finally got their attention and separated them, but she demonstrated outstanding professionalism that morning and nobody ever thought, "Oh, shes just a little bus driver again!"
ReplyDeleteI think that the bus driver was very professional because aside from the fact that she was half the size of either of these two guys she still did what she was supposed to and tried to separate these two. And even after she was punched in the face by one of the boys, she stayed professional and only tried keeping them separate! She was a bad ass if I might say!
ReplyDeletei agree that was a very professional thing of the bus driver to do i had a similar situation happen at my high school.
ReplyDeleteI have had very many teachers that I was close with. I always enjoyed talking with my teachers and sharing conversation. However, when I would talk to a teacher I would know not to cross the line saying inappropriate things and so would the teacher. That’s when I think a student/teacher relationships cross the line when they talk and share inappropriate business. All someone would get out of that is trouble. I think it is very UN professional to do that.
ReplyDeletematt atley i agree with you .. you have good points
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher in high school that had stopped a fight in the cafeteria between two boys. These guys had always had problems with one another and had no problem telling you why they hated eachother. Anyway, so he split them up and they both were suspended and arrested and at the time were on the border of being expelled. Well when my friends and I went to the mall to see a movie, we were walking the mall and heard a fight begin near the food court and us being teenagers ran to it. My teacher just so happened to be there to break it up AGAIN! It ws crazy. These boys got arrested and expelled. The next week people kept trying to bring it up to him about what happened and he said very nicely that it was none of their business. The friends of the boys' were all saying things about the teacher, some of these people would even do it during class where he could hear them. He finally turned to the class and said, "Listen, I know some of you are mad about what happened. If you have an issue with it or with me we can talk about it after school or you can talk to your counselor and see if you can get transfered to another class, but right now in this class you will be quiet and learn or I will send you to the principal so you can chat about it... I'm sure he'd love to hear your thoughts..." and that was the end of it. I think he could've handled it horribly but he just took it in stride and was calm about it at all times. I think those who had misconseptions about him because they were friends of the boys who were in trouble ended up having respect for him in the end. I know I sure did.
ReplyDeleteThere was this other teacher in middle school who would wear things completely inappropriate. She was in her 60's and she would wear the most low-cut, high seamed thing she could find. Along with that she would wear garters with her stockings... that you could see. She looked ridiculous. Finally we got a new principal and they told her she either needed to get a different attire for school or she needed to find a new school to work at. Unfortunately this was said in front of our class, which for the teacher was not so cool. She came in the next week with a new outfit and then at the end of the year retired. The reason she wasn't professional... she looked like a tramp teaching 8th grade. Happy ending for her though, she now works as a classic model for classic cars. :)