Danny D. wrote:
John Paquay wrote, on Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:51:58 -0400:

My knee jerk reaction to the original posting in this thread was not
"What's wrong with these kids?", but rather, "What's wrong with this
teacher?"
She's brand new to teaching, but, it turns out that classroom management
is a standard problem in these multi-ethnic San Jose schools.

One teacher uses a bathroom plunger, as his bathroom pass.

To me, the whole idea of using some (any) ginormous item as a hall pass
is stupid, demeaning, and completely counterproductive... not to
mention, an exercise in futility. What does this really accomplish?
What it (attempts to) accomplish is the reduce undue interruptions of
the classroom environment.

We all know that the kids can go to the bathroom plenty of other times,
but, all kids will take advantage of a "free pass" out of jail, if
even for only 10 minutes (which they can synchronize with other friends,
if they're clever).

What the pass does, first and foremost, is it discourages such intents.
Also, it allows the teacher to continue teaching, uninterrupted, as
the students just get up, grab the pass, and return, unannounced.

It also is very clear to everyone, what the purpose of the kid is,
whether grabbing the pass or walking the hallways. It's also not
something they can leave hidden in the hallway while they surreptitiously
run a'muck about the hallways or outdoors to catch a smoke or whatever.

Likewise, it prevents multiple kids (from the same classroom anyway)
leaving the room at any one time.

Furthermore, it's obvious to all whether the bathroom pass is in use or
not. It's like the red sign on an airplane bathroom door showing it's in
use, rather than what we have to do at a McDonalds, which is to jiggle
the doorknob repeatedly to find out if someone is in there.

And, being so large (on purpose), the kids, who almost certainly don't
like it, can't lose it easily.

At the very least, it's objectionable to carry (as you noted), which
would further discourage the unnecessary potty breaks.

Rest assured, this teacher has at least one kid a day out of her 200,
walk out on the class without excuse. She has kids banging on the table,
and calling her a b*ch, and plenty of disciplinary problems, all of which
are common through all the classes, as she told me most of these kids are
being weeded out of the system through their behavior in *all* their
classes.

I also find this behavior strange, as *my* kids have always had comments
on their report cards of "very polite", "always helpful", "pitches in to
volunteer every time I ask", and even once "raises hand to answer
questions too often!".

Heh heh ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ...

The good old days were certainly different, but they weren't necessarily
always that good. Still, if this is how our educators are now treating
our kids, what should we expect from the kids?
I think this teacher, who is brand new, is learning on the job. In
California, they go through 3 semesters of graduate training, to obtain a
preliminary teaching certificate, two semesters of which have on-the-job
training of sorts.

Then, they're thrown to the wolves for 2 more years, until they get their
preliminary teaching certificate cleared. At that point, they also get
tenure (which is kind'a soon, if you ask me), and then they're bona-fide
teachers.

The clearance process, apparently, starts with three weeks of training on
"classroom management", which I found odd when I saw that it's the
*first* thing they re-train the preliminary-credentialed teachers on.

I'm afraid she needs a kind of help that can't be found in a wood shop.
Clearly she is in the wrong profession, and a big chunk of wood is not
going to change that. Foolishness, yes. But it makes me a little sad for
the kids.
Out of 200 kids that she has, she estimated, to me, that about 10% are
the ones using the bathroom pass constantly. The rest sit and listen.

You have to remember these are Algebra classes, where probably only a
small percentage of the kids (maybe 1/3?) actually care to learn it. It's
a required class for the rest, which they hope to never see again during
the rest of their lives.

When is the last time you or I graphed a quadratic equation, for example?
Could each of us solve a binomial equation to save our lives?
You graph a quadratic function, and solve a quadratic equation.
I use the binomial formula almost everyday.
How about the Gamma function? Bring it on! ; )


(Building suspension bridges in the redwoods notwithstanding...
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7532/1...aaeda78c_c.jpg