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Dec. 3rd, 2009 07:19 pm
General Update and a rant.
Elli is recuperating from her most recent eye surgery; all looks well.
Tegan is being Tegan: a mix of wonder, delight, and occasional dips into aggravation--in other words, she's two.
Me? I'm ok. Waiting to hear about Grad School, waiting to see if I'll be able to afford it if accepted, doing my best to counteract the stupid crap my student teacher gets taught in his teaching program while simultaneously reinforcing the good he gets.
Which leads me to an aside--my in-laws think I'm a good teacher because I fly in the face of some standard Education beliefs--but they really, in my opinion, and basing this on the conversations I've had with them, don't actually understand WHY I am against some ideas, nor do they even know why they agree with me. It seems that any time I mention doing something the opposite of what the "Education Industry Stance" is, they think that makes me a good teacher.
This infuriates me, because they don't know a good teacher from their asses, most of the time--not at the high school level. They just don't like the "Teacher's Union," because of their political stance more than anything, so they automatically loathe most teachers. Just because I don't agree that starting every class with a verse is a good idea doesn't mean I'm a good teacher--I could still suck donkey balls, and guess what? The awful, awful teacher who was fired last year? He ignored many of the same things I do. Didn't make him a good teacher.
Drives me batshit. While I don't agree with all the things education boffins tell us, there is good research behind a lot of the things my father-in-law hates--and he won't admit that in some cases.
This is somewhat related to my feelings towards well-meaning friends who just assume I'm good because they know me. Unless you've watched me teach, you don't actually know how good I am at it. Even the evidence the school uses is suspect; some of my students would score at the top levels even if all I did in class was stand at the front of the room and tell knock-knock jokes. And some would still rank at the bottom if I was the best teacher on the planet. (Contrary to most teacher movies--and I love them as much as the next guy--not all students can be brought up to grade level by a good teacher who cares. It may not be PC to say it, but some kids are just dumb. Or incredibly unprepared for the rigor of high school, which may not make them dumb, but it's the same result in the end. And no matter how much I care, some kids won't try.)
Anyway. Rant over.
Tegan is being Tegan: a mix of wonder, delight, and occasional dips into aggravation--in other words, she's two.
Me? I'm ok. Waiting to hear about Grad School, waiting to see if I'll be able to afford it if accepted, doing my best to counteract the stupid crap my student teacher gets taught in his teaching program while simultaneously reinforcing the good he gets.
Which leads me to an aside--my in-laws think I'm a good teacher because I fly in the face of some standard Education beliefs--but they really, in my opinion, and basing this on the conversations I've had with them, don't actually understand WHY I am against some ideas, nor do they even know why they agree with me. It seems that any time I mention doing something the opposite of what the "Education Industry Stance" is, they think that makes me a good teacher.
This infuriates me, because they don't know a good teacher from their asses, most of the time--not at the high school level. They just don't like the "Teacher's Union," because of their political stance more than anything, so they automatically loathe most teachers. Just because I don't agree that starting every class with a verse is a good idea doesn't mean I'm a good teacher--I could still suck donkey balls, and guess what? The awful, awful teacher who was fired last year? He ignored many of the same things I do. Didn't make him a good teacher.
Drives me batshit. While I don't agree with all the things education boffins tell us, there is good research behind a lot of the things my father-in-law hates--and he won't admit that in some cases.
This is somewhat related to my feelings towards well-meaning friends who just assume I'm good because they know me. Unless you've watched me teach, you don't actually know how good I am at it. Even the evidence the school uses is suspect; some of my students would score at the top levels even if all I did in class was stand at the front of the room and tell knock-knock jokes. And some would still rank at the bottom if I was the best teacher on the planet. (Contrary to most teacher movies--and I love them as much as the next guy--not all students can be brought up to grade level by a good teacher who cares. It may not be PC to say it, but some kids are just dumb. Or incredibly unprepared for the rigor of high school, which may not make them dumb, but it's the same result in the end. And no matter how much I care, some kids won't try.)
Anyway. Rant over.