Ann Coulter on teachers

[bcb]

As a teacher in the Calgary school system, Ann Coulter's column this week was a slap in the face. In fact, I don't know where to begin...

http://www.anncoulter.com/

"[Obama] was suspiciously verbose about saving the jobs of public schoolteachers. Because nothing says "economic stimulus" better than saving the jobs of lethargic incompetents who kick off at 2 p.m. every day and get summers off. Actually, that's not fair: Some teachers spend long hours after school having sex with their students."

[flip]

She's the reason I don't believe there can be a god.

[Weiser Wonder]

She just says stuff like that to piss people off. I stopped taking her seriously years ago.

[Thor]

How does this crazy woman get on TV or put on anything that feeds her delusional extremist views??

[stang]

I would do her...

[jolinar of malkshor]

Idiot

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

Idiot

Your last two posts have been wonderful

[RougeUnderoos]

It's no surprise that she would attack school teachers or education in general.

Without poorly educated (or just plain stupid) people, she doesn't have an audience.

[Sainters7]

Hahaha kick off at 2pm, f*** off. My entire practicum basically consisted of me staying up until 2am working on lesson plans. Does she really think teachers just walk in every day and wing it?

[ma-skis.com]

She's just trying to get a reaction, you read up on the other things she's done like, removing women's right to vote, and making facts up about Canada and it's clear she's just trying to fish for some attention. I doubt that if she wanted to be taken seriously in any type of formal forum she'd say those things.... or it's an indication of what type of writing is getting attention and making money in the states these days.

[ma-skis.com]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Hahaha kick off at 2pm, f*** off. My entire practicum basically consisted of me staying up until 2am working on lesson plans. Does she really think teachers just walk in every day and wing it?

but isnt' it more exciting when you do go in cold...

who knows what the kids will learn from watching color wars or bill nye for the 6th time.

[Azure]

She does it to get a reaction.

Apparently it worked.

[Clarkey]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Hahaha kick off at 2pm, f*** off. My entire practicum basically consisted of me staying up until 2am working on lesson plans. Does she really think teachers just walk in every day and wing it?

Once you've developed the lesson plan are you good to go until you change the grade you are teaching?

[bcb]

Originally Posted by Azure

She does it to get a reaction.

Apparently it worked.

You're right it did. and I know she mostly does it for attention, but it still hurts when I come home after a long day, only to read that garbage.

Make no mistake though, I am pro-free speech, and I totally defend her right to spew hateful, untrue junk.

[bcb]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Once you've developed the lesson plan are you good to go until you change the grade you are teaching?

Generally not, because the timelines change from semester to semester, teachers are constantly trying to modify and improve plans and most importantly, because two groups of kids never learn identically.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by bcb

You're right it did. and I know she mostly does it for attention, but it still hurts when I come home after a long day, only to read that garbage.

Make no mistake though, I am pro-free speech, and I totally defend her right to spew hateful, untrue junk.

Yeah, and what she said is stupid.

Its best to just ignore it though.

[Ice]

Ok, let me preface my response by saying I know there are good teachers out there. However, some friends and I were just discussing a couple of weeks ago how most parents now are unsympathetic to teachers wanting more money. We all have kids at various stages of school and have seen the decline in the quality of teachers. While we've all experienced good teachers, more often than not, our experience with teachers is that they don't care so much about teaching anymore. At least half of the teachers do lock their classrooms and head to their car right as the dismissal bell rings. You can't get a parent conference, you can't get a return phone call or email and its very frustrating. Then, we have teachers who openly admit to taking advantage of the unemployment system. Most school districts allow teachers to choose to get paid either larger paychecks for 9 months of the school year or have their pay spread among 12 months to have year round paychecks. What the teachers do (and this is actually explained in the credential program at the university I attended) is choose the 9 month pay period and then file for unemployment for the summer. So they're getting taxpayer money to the tune of about $3000.00 during the summer, knowing full well they have a job starting the last week of August. Now, imagine if they were given that same money directly to their classroom, that would solve a lot of the financial problems. There are so many problems with teachers, the credential program, the motivation of becoming a teacher and the actual learning in our schools, that its become more and more challenging to be sympathetic to teachers.

Like I said, there are good teachers out there. I planned on being one of them but became disenchanted with the system while in the credential program. But there were a lot of my classmates who wanted to have Christmas vacation, spring break and summers off. And while that might be a nice perk, it really ticked me off when that was given as one of the top two reasons for being a teacher.

Ann Coulter is obviously sensationalizing her opinion because that's what she does, it what gets her heard. Speaking as someone who was aiming for a career as a teacher and kids who have had several teachers from elementary to high school. I can definitely see why the tides have changed.

[bcb]

Originally Posted by Ice

Ok, let me preface my response by saying I know there are good teachers out there. However, some friends and I were just discussing a couple of weeks ago how most parents now are unsympathetic to teachers wanting more money. We all have kids at various stages of school and have seen the decline in the quality of teachers. While we've all experienced good teachers, more often than not, our experience with teachers is that they don't care so much about teaching anymore. At least half of the teachers do lock their classrooms and head to their car right as the dismissal bell rings. You can't get a parent conference, you can't get a return phone call or email and its very frustrating. Then, we have teachers who openly admit to taking advantage of the unemployment system. Most school districts allow teachers to choose to get paid either larger paychecks for 9 months of the school year or have their pay spread among 12 months to have year round paychecks. What the teachers do (and this is actually explained in the credential program at the university I attended) is choose the 9 month pay period and then file for unemployment for the summer. So they're getting taxpayer money to the tune of about $3000.00 during the summer, knowing full well they have a job starting the last week of August. Now, imagine if they were given that same money directly to their classroom, that would solve a lot of the financial problems. There are so many problems with teachers, the credential program, the motivation of becoming a teacher and the actual learning in our schools, that its become more and more challenging to be sympathetic to teachers.

Like I said, there are good teachers out there. I planned on being one of them but became disenchanted with the system while in the credential program. But there were a lot of my classmates who wanted to have Christmas vacation, spring break and summers off. And while that might be a nice perk, it really ticked me off when that was given as one of the top two reasons for being a teacher.

Ann Coulter is obviously sensationalizing her opinion because that's what she does, it what gets her heard. Speaking as someone who was aiming for a career as a teacher and kids who have had several teachers from elementary to high school. I can definitely see why the tides have changed.

You definitely raise some good points; however, I have never heard of any "credential Program". CBE (at least) only pays teachers monthly, spread out over 12 months.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Once you've developed the lesson plan are you good to go until you change the grade you are teaching?

I'm still in college so I dont know yet, there's at least a couple teachers I know of on here who could answer that alot better than myself. Ya I'm sure there is alot of recycling, and if you're lazy I'm sure you could ride out the same ones for quite some time.

Good teachers continuously update them though, and especially for me, who(hopefully) will be teaching Social Studies(where theres been a serious curriculum change where it will now focus more on present day problems(ie. fair trade) more than history), so I'll need to stay on my toes as new events arise. I'm told by far your hardest year is your first, as not only are you not "in the groove" yet for dealin with kids/teens, but you dont have any lesson plans developed. Hence, alot of late nights. I hear from friends who graduated before me that a social life is null and void your first year.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by bcb

You definitely raise some good points; however, I have never heard of any "credential Program". CBE (at least) only pays teachers monthly, spread out over 12 months.

In the US, the credential program is part of your education. Once you have your 4 year degree you have 2 years in the credential program, you do your student teaching and you have to pass your CBEST and CSET before you can be hired as a teacher.

Its the school districts, as the employer, that give you the option of how you want to be paid. The instructor for the credential program was just more than willing to share this loophole with us, as students, as a way to pad our salary, since we will all end up "underpaid and unappreciated."