Ask Sooga about being a high school math teacher.. ugh - Page 6

revots33 · #51 08-01-2007, 05:52 PM

Have you ever had one horrible kid in your class who you basically hated dealing with every day, but had to?

Have you ever been teaching and seen a bored/glazed look in the kids' eyes, and if so do you take this personally?

Do teachers look on ratemyteacher.com to see what the kids are saying about them?

RoundGuy · #52 08-01-2007, 05:56 PM

What do you do about kids who are are obviously stoned out of their minds when they come to class?

My teachers just ignored it completely. Uh...well, at least that's what I heard, you know, about those other kids that got stoned.....not me, of course.

MikeNaked · #53 08-01-2007, 05:57 PM

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Do you notice a distinct difference in how you plan for your math classes than how, say, English teachers plan for theirs? I would imagine it's significantly easier to make a "plan" for math, so do you think you have less prep work than other teachers?

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Oh, I'd say so, definitely. I have a lot of respect for English teachers. I try to be creative for most of my lessons, but I always have the textbook as a fallback, which I'm not sure is as viable an option for English teachers.

Plus, English teachers have to read stacks and stacks of papers. Ugh, I cringe just thinking about it.

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Yes, the papers are the worst part about being an English teacher. Imagine reading 160 of these: awesome paper. It is wonderful to see them improve though.

Sooga · #54 08-01-2007, 05:58 PM

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If I'm forced to ask a question to get the ball rolling again, it'd probably be something lame and very OOT-esque like, "Have you ever worked with a teacher accused of sexual misconduct? Details.", or "Give us a story about the worst disciplinary hissy fit a student has ever thrown", "Ever banged the mother of one of your students, or know someone who has?". Actually these are very important and relevent questions, please answer them. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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1) Yes.

2) Nothing really stands out, just the typical 'cursing/pushing desks/storming out the room' routine is about as bad as it ever got. That only happened my first couple years. Since then I've learned that the best way to deal with unruly kids is to take them aside and talk to them in private, and since then I've hardly any major problems.

3) Nope. That would just be... awkward.

Sooga · #55 08-01-2007, 05:59 PM

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Have any of your students ever offered bribes, sexual favors, etc. in exchange for better grades?

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Of course you have goofballs who say "Yo I'LL GIVE YOU 20 DOLLARS FOR AN A!", but no, nothing serious.

Sooga · #56 08-01-2007, 06:04 PM

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Have you ever had one horrible kid in your class who you basically hated dealing with every day, but had to?

Have you ever been teaching and seen a bored/glazed look in the kids' eyes, and if so do you take this personally?

Do teachers look on ratemyteacher.com to see what the kids are saying about them?

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1) Oh absolutely. Usually though these kids also don't put any effort into class, and they're just there to goof off and cause trouble. If nothing I do works with them and they refuse to put any effort in, we can usually at least come to an agreement to just stay out of each others' hairs.

2) Haha, I used to, but then I realized that even now, when I go to teaching seminars and stuff, I have that same look in my eyes. How can I expect any different from a hormonal adolescent?

3) I do from time to time. When I first heard of that site, I thought it'd be heavily biased towards the bad-rating side, since I figured only kids who were really pissed off at a teacher would take the time to give them ratings. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had a lot of positive ratings.

Sooga · #57 08-01-2007, 06:07 PM

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What do you do about kids who are are obviously stoned out of their minds when they come to class?

My teachers just ignored it completely. Uh...well, at least that's what I heard, you know, about those other kids that got stoned.....not me, of course.

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I haven't actually had a student that I knew was stoned/drunk for sure, but if I did, the typical procedure would be to send a note/e-mail/phone call down to the dean's office, and have security take them down. The deans are responsible for determining drunkenness/stonedness, not the teachers.

john voight · #58 08-01-2007, 06:16 PM

Do any of the hot girls look up to you/flirt w/ you?
If yes, is it b/c of your charm? Or b/c you are "there" for them, and they need some adult help.

If you really wanted to bang a girl, could you?
Is it okey to bang your students if they are of legal age? Or would the school likely fire you?

Lastly, on a more serious note:

If dems get elected in 2008, and they hate the No Child Left Behind thingy, and re structure it, do you think it would be easier to become a teacher in Cali?

Also, how "low" is your salary (and are you in a good neighborhood, or do you teach in a place where every household makes 40k a year).

jedi · #59 08-01-2007, 06:18 PM

Thanks for the bump. In the time between this thread starting and now, I made a decision to take a sabbatical from my engineering job to train for an Ironman. In the middle of this, I decided to try to become a teacher. I found that NCLB requirements really suck. It required me to take a CSET exam to prove that I could do math as good as math majors and tested me on stuff that I never learned in school. Apparently, I made the mistake of getting a practical degree, rather than a theoretical one. What pisses me off is that if I had wanted to be a teacher 9 years ago when I first graduated from college, it would have been much easier. But now what the state is telling me is that my 31 year old self, with 9 years of experience in the industry, is not as qualified as my 23 year old self would have been if I had been a math major.

Anyways, I'm back part-time at my engineering job. School starts again in a couple of weeks when I should start student teaching soon.

Questions:
What do you think of the teacher's union?
Do you get a lot of pressure from parents telling you to do things a certain way?

Sooga · #60 08-01-2007, 06:33 PM

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Do any of the hot girls look up to you/flirt w/ you?
If yes, is it b/c of your charm? Or b/c you are "there" for them, and they need some adult help.

If you really wanted to bang a girl, could you?
Is it okey to bang your students if they are of legal age? Or would the school likely fire you?

Lastly, on a more serious note:

If dems get elected in 2008, and they hate the No Child Left Behind thingy, and re structure it, do you think it would be easier to become a teacher in Cali?

Also, how "low" is your salary (and are you in a good neighborhood, or do you teach in a place where every household makes 40k a year).

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Teenage girls will always flirt with teachers, charming or not. You just learn to ignore them... or you can cave in and then end up arrested.

It's definitely not ok to have sex with a student. In fact, I think in most states there are even stiffer penalties beyond just statutory rape, if it occurs between a teacher and a student.

I have no idea what the Democratic changes to the NCLB are going to be. I should look into that.

As government employees, you can look up our salaries. Just go to any district website, go to the human resources or personnel sections, and they'll have the salary charts all listed out, depending on years of experience.