by
faffajane
@ 13/03/08 - 20:37:00
I have just attended parent's evening for my 16 year old son.
Bearing in mind it is now March, he is in his vital GCSE year, you would have thought they would have had this earlier, but no today was the day, right on top of when exams begin in some subjects and him feeling under pressure.
What really gets to me though, you have a child, you teach him since September, would it be too much to learn the name of the child you are teaching!!
English Teacher: as we go and sit down in front of him shuffles a lot of papers, smiles at us, shuffles the papers again, looks at Simon, shuffles papers, looks at laptop, shuffles papers, smiles at us then says : "Who are you?"
Simon smiles at him and says "Simon sir"
"Oh yes" he replies, coughs loudly, shuffles papers "i can't remember what it is I need to see you about" Shuffles papers.
"Ah here we are, coursework, yes. Jane Eyre needs to be redone. Can you do it by Monday?"
"er, excuse me" says I, "can I point out that letting children watch a video then ask them to complete coursework on the book is not really teaching is it or very helpful is it?"
"Errr no i see your point but sometimes you have to cheat don't you?"
"No sorry not acceptable" says I.
No reply to this he shuffles papers.
"Excuse me" I say, "Is there any other coursework outstanding?"
"Errrr, no don't think so, I will check it, tell you what errr Stephen come and see me tomorrow and we will go through it, 3 ok with you?"
"Yes" says Simon "oh and my name is Simon sir"
"Quite" he says and holds out his hand, expecting it to be shaken by us, which we didn't. I just said as loud as I could "you were right Simon he has absolutely no idea who you are" which received me a thunderous look.
I did report him to the headteacher when I saw her saying I wasn't impressed with her teaching staff.
........................................................................
Maths Teacher - Simon is having huge problems with this teacher, in fact it has got to the stage where he has managed to wind Simon up to boiling point. It is a wonder he hasn't got high blood pressure. This man has taken over being head of year 11s. He has cancelled all study leave, making sure the students stay in school right up until the last examination has been completed in June. I have a feeling his agenda is to get the praise for the highest scores the school has ever had. He wants to look good. he wants to achieve, move along. He has no regard for the children in year 11, certainly none whatsoever for the children he is teaching maths to.
Simon was off for one week with flu. During this time the coursework for statistics was handed out. He gave them three weeks to complete it, in Simons case two. Simon struggled so much with it that he got to the stage where he wanted to give up, so I got him extra lessons with a friend of mine who now takes him for once a week to teach him maths.
Now Simon is a very bright boy and has always got good grades, but this teacher is doing his head in. he is trying his hardest, he has asked for help on several occasions but it hasn't been forthcoming. This evening the teacher starts spouting on about what Simon still has to do and I can see the signs that Simon has had enough. Fists clenched I know he is going to lose it.
"You still haven't told me what I have to do" he says
"I have been over it three times in class" replies the teacher
"when sir? because when I ask you tell me you are too busy"
"no I have done everything I can"
" but I told you to do (insert several mathematical terms which mean nothing to me at all)"
"when?" says Simon "you never told me anything, you still haven't marked the other coursework or told me whatI still need to do for it"
"I am getting round to it" which is when the teacher notices I am scribbling on a bit of paper. "what you doing?" he asks
"making notes" says I "I may need to refer to them later because as you can see Simon is very upset by your attitude especially when he is trying to hard to do what is required and gets very little help"
Nig at this point takes Simon to one side to get him to calm down - he is getting worked up.
"But I have helped" he says
"WEll as you can see, Simon doesn't think you have. so tell me what he has to do to get an A in his coursework, I will write it down and he will work on it at the weekend"
Fair play he did but my back was up by then, he was beginning to rattle my cage and by the look on hubby's face he wasn't too happy either. Was just about to try and argue Simons case for him when I saw Nig mouth something in my direction, a surefire way of telling me enough let's get out of here.
As Nigel said, arrogant he was, look at me and what I have done but not admitting what he was failing to do.
I really wish he had the head of maths now, I know he would have come far with him teaching rather than the idiot he has. Don't get me wrong there are some very good teachers out there, and I rarely complain about them, but this one just is the pits!
The rest of his teachers, sing his praises and are sad that they will be losing him. He is their grade A student, shame others don't see it that way!
So now, a glass of gin and bitter lemon in one hand and waiting for hubby to bring home dinner, then go and collect my son from school who is on prefect duty, and I can relax for the evening.