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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through out my years of school, i would have to say the majority of my teacher were professional. some i think acted more professional than they needed to. but i can honestly say i had one teacher at my community college who some say took a little too overboard.
ReplyDeletehe was our enligsh 101 teacher and he always came in class with holey jeans and a dave mathews bad shirt. (which i love dave). but his attire for being a new add on that year was surprising. but the craziest thing was we watched the HBO series of "the wire". he said that there were many things we could learn from the actions and body language from the show. i did see similarities but most of it was just swear words every sentence with massive killings in every episode. nice tacher and great guy, but he definately lacked professionalism.
well in my years ive had a lot of interesting teachers, most of them were creepers. ive had 3 male teachers and 2 female teachers suspected of talking and possibly doing stuff with students. majority of it has been true. other than that my other teachers know their boundaries and never cross them because they are always well dressed and know how relationships with students should be.
ReplyDeleteKendra: wow right after you mentioned about teachers having a possible relationship with their students, i remembered two instances in my high school. one teacher actually had to have a restraining order put on a student because she had a big crush on him and she even went to his house and wrote notes. the other incident was the rumor or our foods teacher having done sexual favors for our footballl players...
ReplyDelete-Kendra-
ReplyDeleteWow that is a lot of teachers suspected of talking and possibly doing stuff with students! Now were all of these teachers high school teachers? That is scary, how did you react to that? Because I have never had that situation at my schools. The only sexual story I have heard about at my school was a teacher cheating on his wife with an another teacher at my school.
Wow you two! That is very interesting to learn. In my high school I never heard about things like that. We had fights all the time and that is what was going around the school. It is weird to think of that stuff going on in your school. I wonder if something actually did happen.
ReplyDeleteLike I said to Kendra, I have never heard about a teacher having a so call relationship with another student but I have heard about a Assistant Principal having an affair with another teacher but that is about it. I mean I went to a pretty large high school so you never know, maybe stuff did happen but I personally never heard about it. At the same time a large school means plenty of rumors and gossip.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the only unprofessional things that my teachers have done in the past would be dressing down all the time, like holy jeans and T-shirts, cussing, and showing inappropriate movies as in mass killings and/or sexual scenes. Other than that I have many great teachers throughout my school years.
I remember one time I was at the YMCA for cheerleading because that is were my gym is. One day our officer at school came in wearing an "I am McLovin" shirt. It was really fun but he still kept a professional manor as if we were at school. A fight happened to occur that day and my friend and I asked him for details. He didn't spill and in return he asked us if we had any information. He acted as if he wasnt wearing that and was in his uniform. It was still very funny!!
ReplyDeleteI feel that he handled this really well. It was surprising to see him there at the y. I think when you see teachers outside of school they shouldn't be as professional if they were in school but still keep semi professional.
I was trying to think of a good example and the only thing I could think of was when our new 9th grade English teacher joined our school. She had a hormonal imbalance that made her look especially masculine, with thinning hair and a little facial hair. She put out the fires before they started by being direct and forthright, and it kept the kids from talking about her behind her back.
ReplyDeleteBut then I talked with a high school friend about this same teacher just this morning. She had a completely different take on her. This same teacher that I saw as professional, my friend did not have the same opinion. Apparently this teacher had a bit of a crush on my friend. Our teacher showed up at my friend's house one day with a stuffed bear that was dressed in pajamas. The teacher said she saw it and immediately thought of my friend. That's a little creepy, and definitely not professional.
I sense that you guys are really putting some thought into this one. Sometimes unprofessional acts are obvious and make the news. Sometimes they can be so small that you (when you were a student) didn't even notice. But now that you are going to be entering the teaching field I want you to think about how,in your opinion, teachers should behave inside and outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI want you to really dig deep with this one and think about an act or behavior that maybe you would have even considered cool at the time, but now that your perspective has changed maybe you view it differently.
Keep the comments rolling - I am fascinated by your perspectives!
During highschool, I had a teacher that really did make me value highschool. He was very professional in my eyes, though probably not fitting the criteria for what most people define as professional. Up until him, we had teachers tell us things and force us to do things, etc. When I had this teacher, one of the first things that I learned about him was that he teachers in a unconcerned manner. I know that sounds bad at first because we all want caring teachers, but honestly I think the best way for many people to learn is in tough situations. He wasn't the teacher that was always there to catch you when you fell, in fact he knocked you off the horse a few times so you know what its like to hit the ground. We had students sleep in his class and we would laugh and wait for the teacher to notice. When he did he would say something like, "Its there grade and if they aren't concerned I am not either." This may sound cruel, but a lot of students won't know how bad it is hitting the ground and won't have that motivation to not hit the ground until they DO hit the ground. I wasn't a sleeper, I usually paid attention in class and respected the teacher. I am very fortunate to have had this teacher because he made me get mentally prepared for something more important than college, life. This is why I believe he was very professional.
ReplyDeleteJamie, I too believe that teachers should more casual outside of teaching, but should still be a good role model. A teacher being a good role model in class but getting drunk outside of class is not a good role model for example.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a senior in high school i took a class called Personal Finance. It was only a semester course but it was a needed credit to graduate. The way it worked was if you teach fashion design, you must also teach personal finance. So our teacher was only in it for the fashion design. Whenever it came time to teach personal finance she would be grumpy and unwilling to actually "teach" the subject. She would slap busy work in front of our faces and make us work on it until the hour was up and then leave. She would never collect this busy work. So third quarter rolls around and she finds out she is not on the list next year for a job at my school. Having found out this, she just stopped trying to even teach our class. Lets just say fourth quarter was a breeze.
ReplyDeleteKendra- Wow, you have certainly not had the best luck with teachers. That is unfortunate, but now at least you have good examples of what NOT to do.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like forever ago but when i was in kindergarden i used to have really bad stomach problems, so as a result i would get very sick. My teacher hated me for whatever reason, i still don't know why she didn't like me till this day. Anyways, one day i got sick in class kinda gross but i was throwing up , she told me to not bother my parents that i am sick. So when i went home i hid the fact i was sick when my parents realized what i was doing they went to the teacher, and lets say that she never thought at that school again.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I had the same teacher, but for different class related to science. My brother and I would come home every night complaining about the way our teacher dressed and the way she would speak to the class. She dressed as if she was a home, in her sweatpants and flip flops. She was always grammatically incorrect and it was disturbing to listen to her talk. We were students trying to learn new vocabulary words and to listen to our teacher jumble up the word into one big mess was hard to listen to and for that matter learn anything. She was oblivious to the fact that she was messing up every word, it was really difficult to understand the instructions she was giving. Our class was always confused about almost everything.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, my sophmore year, I had a teacher who liked to talk about things like her kidney stones and how they were removed from her body. She also liked to talk about her drunken escapades in front of the class. Obviously these things are completly unprofessional because the kidney stone thing is disgusting and the drinking escapades...well nobody was surprised that she was a drinker but it definetly is not a great classroom discussion especially with high school kids. I also had another teacher that same year that talked about his prescription pain pills "issue." He enjoyed coming to class explaining to us that he was feeling "loopy," because he had taken Percocet right before he had come to class. He did this on numerous occasions. Needless to say the class was pretty much a waste of time because the teacher could not function too well. This was unprofessional because I don't think it's okay to go to work high...Regardless of where you work.
ReplyDeleteDebbie- I thought your story was very interesting. I think it was very professional of her to address her "masculinity" prior to other kids addressing it for her. But the thing about her having a crush on another student...not very professional. Kind of weird.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a freshman in high school my Pe/health teacher was a young, attractive lady. She was recently married and a new teacher to the the school. My junior year of high school was when a young attractive guys PE teacher was hired. It didnt take long for the specualtions to take place that the two were dating and even hooking up. (she was still married at the time.) They had been spending a lot of time together at school. Also people would see them out to dinner, just the two of them together, which did not help the situation. Well as we hoped it was a rumor, turns out it was all true.
ReplyDelete-True story she devorced her husband and now the two are married with a kid. Stay Classy St. Charles :)
Jamie, I would have to agree to an extent. I mean as teachers we never know when we are going to see our students or even our students parents outside of the classroom. This is the job that we chose and sometimes we have to make sacrifices if we want to make a good impression and be respected. I'm not saying that out of the classroom we always have to be dressed "in professional attire" but nothing on the extreme end of the spectrum.
ReplyDeleteBen Dye,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting perspective - I appreciate your viewpoint that is contrary to what you might hear from most teachers. And this is one of the reasons teaching is so challenging...what might motivate one student might demotivate another. You liked and appreciated that he had a "no-nonsene" and apprently uncaring attitude toward his students. Maybe he was exhibiting what I like to call "tough love!"
THE PICTURES WORK! Did you guys notice that?
ReplyDeletePlease go to your profile and upload an image. It is more visible if it is a really close up picture of your face.
Russ,
ReplyDeleteExcellent reflection on your business (fashion) teacher. What are you going to do in your own classroom some day when you were hired to teach High School History and your principal comes to you and says you are going to have to teach one section of Photography? You have absolutely no training in Photography. You are not certified in Photography? How will you approach this situation?
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteIncorrect Grammar - Teachers should know how to speak and communicate clearly. I agree with you 100%. Remember this when your professors submit papers back to you with grammatical corrections. It is not just to be picky, it is to help you speak and write correctly.
I met with my kids' teachers last night for parent/ teacher conferences. My son's teacher was chewing gum! It was hard to concentrate on what she had to say because all I could think about was how that would not fall under our "professional" list of characteristics. And she's a veteran teacher. I'm sure it was to keep her mouth moist with all the talking she was doing all evening, and probably to keep from having to worry about bad breath, but I think she could have tried mints and water instead of GUM.
ReplyDeleteJessie- If I had to guess, your teachers were probably trying to relate to their students with the drinking stories and feeling loopy on pain pills. Maybe they thought some of the students would like them better if they seemed "cool" enough to do those things. Pretty sad, but its a real possibility. No matter the reason behind it, totally unprofessional.
ReplyDeleteRuss- I agree, teachers that do not care about what they are teaching is a waste of everyone's time. I mean why be there if the teacher is never going to teach anything. I had a teacher that always sat in the back of the class and gave us worksheet the entire class period. BORING...no one ever listened or did the work so pretty much it was a easy A class.
ReplyDeleteDebbie - Interesting observation about the gum! Personally I try to never chew gum while I am teaching or in a professional setting.
ReplyDeletemy senior year of highschool i took photoshop my teacher was really cool and professional at the same time but it was only during the time he was giving us intructions and the rest of the time he just kinda hung out with like he was one of the students which was kinda weird.
ReplyDeleteDebbie,
ReplyDeleteHow did you upload your picture? Mine is different because I am the author of the blog and I want to be able to explain it to the students.
Thanks.
Most of my teachers have had a more mentor like relationship with me, which i find to be a correct profesional position for a teacher to have towards his or her students. However, this was easier because of the age gap. On the other hand, there were two teachers that i had who were both still in ther mid/early twenties and whose first year teaching was my first year with them. My Music teacher and the librarian at my school. As my time in highschool continued i became more familiar and freidly with them, but there were certain things that, especially my music teacher would impose to block too much familiarity and friendship until i graduated. Relaxed banter with students when not in class is something that i think would be okay even on the professional plain, but hanging out with students outside school functions or school time is not something that should be encouraged. I realize that this post is highly confusing, i'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteAshley...that's quite interesting, and though it seems somewhat unprofessional, her cheating on her husband and divorcing him for someone else is more of personal business. Then again, she probably shouldn't have done it in plain sight of the students, that sets quite a bad example.
ReplyDeleteBen Q- I was thinking the same thing about Ashley's teachers. Some school districts have some kind of ethical code for their teachers though, so it would probably have not been professional in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI have a family member that teaches grade school and the school district she worked for had ethical conduct codes that were required of teachers to follow. She was going to move in with her fiance before they were actually married to save money on rent and such, and her prinipal had real issues with it. She "gave her the okay" but asked that she didn't mention it to her students.
One of my substitute teachers had a relationship with one of the students at my school. People would always see them out together but never thought anything of it because he was her brothers best friend. The student ended up telling one of his teammates and his teammate thought it was wrong so told his parents.
ReplyDeleteI remember one instance during highschool where two of my teachers were very unprofessional. If a girl was wearing a skirt or any other type of clothing like that they would give her a note that was stapled together and have her take it to the other male teacher. They would tell them to wait for they're reply and bring it back. One girl opened the note on the way to the other teacher and the note said, "Check out her body today" and other phrases like that. Needless to say the girl turned them in and they got into a lot of trouble
ReplyDeleteLeigh-Anne- I think that it is wrong for any teacher to have a relationship with a student. It is unprofessional and also embarrassing however I am the type that if I was the teammate I would not tell because that is none of my business.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is okay to have a good friendly relationship with students in class, I had good relationships with many of my teachers and I believe it creates a better learning environment. You also get to know each other alot better. I believe it is professional and if you did not get to know your teacher it would be a long year. Although hanging out with a teacher outside of the school environment is pushing the boundaries alittle bit.
ReplyDeletei agree but disagree with you Mr Ben Dye.. teachers do need to be great role models inside or outside of the classroom, so getting drunk all the time out in public is not right,but keep in mind, they have lives too. Teachers, like anyone else who enjoys to drink or even club shouldn't have to feel like they have to stay at home if they wanna drink a few.
ReplyDeleteback in high school i had this ceramics teacher, who was married, but would still send dirty texts to girls in class. a few people saw him making out with a student at the gas station. the school finally caught on and made him resign, but he ended up leaving his wife for a senior in high school.. now that is professionalism :)
ReplyDeleteI had a math teacher and basketball coach through out jr. high and he was the head football coach in high school. He knew everything about everyone it seemed. No one could figure out how he found this stuff out, because it mostly would be information about girls. Come to find out he ended up with two of my best friend while he coached us in jr. high and two years in high school. He told them he would haunt them if they told anyone and when we were younger they believed it.
ReplyDeleteAndrew- I agree with you, I was cool with a lot of my teachers. A lot of them were my coaches but besides them we got along well and it did make the year pass quick
I am glad we get to post about this because I got a real juicy story. During my junior year in high school, I had a good friend that developed a fling with one of the teachers. She would always have flirty conversation and attend his games at school. After one of his games, they were talking and ended up deciding that it would be a good idea to go grab some food at sonic together. They ended up making out in my friends car and got seen by another student... the teacher had to be transfered to a different school. She was lucky it wasn't worse. Not Professional.
ReplyDeleteThe last Comment is By Jordan Lemasters! I couldn't get it to say my name!
ReplyDeleteJordan,
ReplyDeleteGreat job posting this week! See me after class on Tuesday and I will show you how to put in your name.
About your juicy story - do you believe that the teacher took advantage of the situation?
One of my high school teachers was the definition of an unprofessional teacher. She dressed worse than I would to school, wearing shorts, flip flops, and very wrinkly clothes. she never looked put together at all. she also was teaching college credit spanish, and I left that class not knowing hardly a word in spanish. she let her students talk her into not working and having a free day. she had no respect from the students because she didnt demand it. this teacher would also have conversation with students regarding drinking drugs and sex. she cursed at us and allowed us to curse in her classroom.
ReplyDeletei also had a teacher who i will never forget. she was not mean or rude but she demanded respect. she knew everything and anything about her subject, and was a very effective teacher. she made her expectations clear and almost everyone lived up to them. she truly cared about her students and would do anything to help them.
ReplyDeleteAlex- wow that is a serious issue. Can't say I ever been in or actually knew of a teacher like that when I was in school. Complete unprofessional. I believe that he probably took advantage of the power that he had.
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher in high school that not only provided the keg for the weekend parties but he also "supervised" them. At the time I thought it was really great. However, now that I look back on it he was the most unprofessional teacher I have come into contact with. Not only were we minors but we here students and players on his team.
ReplyDeleteMy worst teacher throughout all years of school was my 12th grade college algebra teacher. As a teacher she showed no confidence she always seemed very nervous when she taught and would speak very quiet. Her desk was always filled with piles of papers, she was so unorganized that numerous times she would loose students homework and give them zeros. Also we would never get any test or quizes back to see how we did and what we needed to work on. Those are a few of her bad qualities as a teacher but the worst is she never let go of her cell phone. If her phone would ring during class she would always answer even if it wasnt for an emergency issue. Also she would write a math problem on the board, while having her cell phone on the ledge of the chalkboard. When she gave the class a few minites to work the problem out she would text on her phone. This caused a problem with every student in the class because she would never help answer questions we might of haved.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the teacher in her situation first I would of tried and gain confidence by telling myself, " Im the teacher and the authority figure to these students." If you show the class you have confidence the students will begin to show you the respect you deserve. As a teacher you recieve so many papers that you so importantly need to stay organized. She needed to get boxes and folders to put each classes assinments in. And with dealing with the cell phone issue she should of known that it needed to be put away during school hours. As a teacher you are there to teach and help children learn to the best of their ability not on your phone talking and texting your friends.
At my high school there was a hall monitor who lived by one of my friends. There were a few times when some of my friends would be drinking and she would let them come over and hang out with her and some of the other neighbors.
ReplyDeleteEven thought it is not her fault that they are neighbors, I don't think it was very professional of her to allow students to be around her like that. Even just being a hall monitor she is someone that students should have respect for just like any other staff member.
Debbie-
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with chewy gum not to be professional while in a work environment. Personally that would be a know brainer not to do. As a teacher you need to always keep in mind what your doing because alot of attention is put on you.
There was a teacher/coach that I have known throughout all my schooling years. He was the basketball,track,cross-country coach for several years, and a teacher for a lot more. He was very respected and well-mannered quite professional I must say. During my sophomore year, a group of girls (all my friends) and me had gym every morning. We started to notice a freshman always coming in our class and just hanging out and talking to everyone and the teacher. So we started talking about it and paying more attention, and realized everyone else thought there was something going on between the teacher and the freshman as well. Despite the fact that the gym coach was married and his wife worked at the school, they were having problems and thinking about divorce. So there was lots of gossip going around. We all say awkward situations with the both of them and just assumed the worst. The freshman would always come to class and tell us all these stories about her boyfriend and what they did. Come to find out a few months later all the stories had been about our coach. When the freshman found out that him and his wife were gonna try and work things out she told! Needless to say our coach, teacher, and dear friend that did something unprofessional is now in prison. Everyone would always give him crap about her always hanging around him and no-one knew at that time. So he should've realized what was going to happen in the end. This was the most unprofessional thing that could happen in a school, because most of what happened between them went on in our school!
ReplyDeleteTo kayla's comment, I had a teacher who was always so unorganized and lost papers, never gave us graded tests or assignments back. We would usually just do these connect the dots worksheets and this was a geometry class..Everyone always talked about how they learned nothing. And everyone always had a 115% because she would just let us color and do stupid stuff for bonus. That didn't teach us anything or help us realize that we had to do homework. If you didn't do your homework in there it didn't matter cause you could make it all up in bonus assignments if not more. She always gave us chocolate to for some reason, that's one of the main reasons everyone came to her class. It was sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever personally experienced an unprofessional teacher. All of my teachers have been really good examples of how to be a well-respected professional teacher. I respected my teachers at my high school because they did a good job of getting to know you personally and caring about individuals inside and outside of the classroom but I have never experienced or heard of any of them crossing the line between professional and unprofessional. The teacher I respected most was my senior year english teacher, he had good relationships with all of his students and actually cared about our well being but at the same time was always very professional.
ReplyDeleteI once had a very bad teacher who used to open class each day by telling us that he didnt have any desire to be teaching us.
ReplyDeleteAll these stories about teachers and students having sexual relations blows my mind! The only time I've heard about that stuff is on T.V. Something like that would have never have happened at my school and I never realized how common it was in high schools.
ReplyDeletei had a teacher/coach in highschool who was very well respected and liked throughout my hometown community that was suspected and found guilty of sexual interactions with multiple girls in our student population. it caught everyone by total surprise and ruined his and his familys reputation. this is an example of bad and very unprofessional behavior.
ReplyDeleteI also had problems with alot of teachers showing up late and that always annoyed me.
ReplyDeletemy senior year of highschool i had a business teacher first hour who would never show up on time, we would sit outside his room every morning and wait until he arrived. this happened weekly, they fired him this past summer.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBrittany, I could not even imagine a teacher in sweat pants and flip flops! I think I would be far to distracted with how she was dressed to even learn anything in the class! I would have a hard time respecting someone as a teacher when they can't even respect themselves enough to dress appropriately!
ReplyDeleteJamie I totally agree with you. Teachers should have a life to. They shouldn't always act like they are in the classroom. Not saying that they should go out and smoke pot or go get drunk every night. I am just saying that they should have their space.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I had a study hall teacher, who also happened to be the music director/teacher for our band. He had a retionship with a female student that I'll just say was more than friendly. Well eventually word got out and he got the boot half way through my senior year. This was obviously very unprofessional and a poor decision in general because everyone knows there are strict rules on that type of behavior. So not only did he lose his job but his reputation is pretty much shot with anybody that knows about it.
ReplyDeleteChis, I've had some pretty lame teachers that have also seemed to possess no enthusiasm to be in the classroom. Never had one verbally express it on a day to day basis tho. Eiher way, I still can't understand why people like this even attempted to get a degree in education in the first place...
ReplyDeleteIn high school, I had a math teacher who was a really great teacher. She really knew her subject well and knew how to teach it to students so that they could understand it. However, she wore huge baggy, dirty-looking clothing everyday. Although she was great at math, I spent half of my time wondering why she chose to wear that particular outfit. I was so distracted that I couldn't really focus on the subject matter. So it really does go to show you that teachers have to dress professionally. It really can effect the student learning process.
ReplyDeleteKyle- I think it is highly inappropriate for teachers not to show up on time. I might understand an occasional occurrence with this happening, but everyday-in high school. What is that teaching the students? Being punctual is definitely a part of professionalism and every teacher should strive to be it.
ReplyDeleteI am not going to lie, im just writing this to see if my picture pops up when i submit something, but great job everybody!
ReplyDelete