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Lesson Plans


Re: Long post: Terrible teaching day!

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
John & Sandra Barrick (astroboy)
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 21:00:37 -0500

Jane Shiflett Manner wrote:
> Just as I walked over to the sinks to tell
> them to clean up and get out the materials for their test the Science
> department chair walked in. She had a 16" x 22" piece of foam core in >her hand. Needless to say, this time was her 90 minute planning >period. She told me her 7-year old had a project to do for school >which he wanted to be a guitar which could be suspended from the >ceiling. She then asked me to
> draw the guitar on the foam core and cut it out. I suggested to her that
> when a teacher assigns a project to a student, even if he is only 7, that
> the student is expected to do the work. I continued that if he wasn't sure
> what a guitar looked like, she could help him find a photograph from which
> to work. Then I offered her an exacto knife for her to help him cut the
> foam core after he had done the drawing. She wrote me the most insulting
> letter (not a note).
> I am right at the verge of burn out.

Jane, Often I have thought of you. Especially your student during
the Maya Lin dialogue
This is Appalling! Especially her position. Would she expect to do
the work for a student in a science fair. This really is going too
far. I just can't bare when I hear how some of you are treated. I
don't know if this is a solution but I would keep the letter perhaps
even copy it and keep it on file. I'd document this stuff> it may
seem little and frivolous to them but really would you go into a
science mid term and expect her to figure out what's wrong with your
volcano not spouting? Just an analogy> but you never know when
something will come back to haunt you and whether you are dealing
with a back stabber or not. If they could understand how
interrupting your class is just as disruptive in teaching a lesson
as theirs would be.

Don't let it get you down> her superiority or not> she knows she was
way out of line. Sometimes when people are arrogant and demanding
it's because they are intimidated by what is confronting them and
never learned a polite way of asking for help!

Sandra
astroboy