Teacher poking/prodding students over posture.

afkasurfjunkie · 22-11-2018 12:18am

What do you mean by technological help?

wirelessdude01 · 22-11-2018 12:19am

TargetWidow wrote:

Update:. Have acquired some technological help to assess the situation for myself. The other parents have been and talked with her and it has made some minor difference. Thenpoking has stopped. But this is one angry sounding woman. If I was 10 I'd be ****ting myself afraid of her. My child has been telling the truth from what I have found out so far. I await her crossing the line again.

Recording without consent could be an issue if this is what you are doing or planning to do.

spurious · 22-11-2018 12:27am

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Recording without consent could be an issue if this is what you are doing or planning to do.

This.
Don't make things worse for yourself.

Garibaldi? · 22-11-2018 10:12am

You need to be prepared for the eventuality that somebody has recorded in that classroom and that some parents may be shocked at what they hear from their own children.

downthemiddle · 22-11-2018 11:33am

TargetWidow wrote: »

Update:. Have acquired some technological help to assess the situation for myself. The other parents have been and talked with her and it has made some minor difference. Thenpoking has stopped. But this is one angry sounding woman. If I was 10 I'd be ****ting myself afraid of her. My child has been telling the truth from what I have found out so far. I await her crossing the line again.

So you haven't spoken to the teacher?

evolving_doors · 22-11-2018 11:44am

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

What do you mean by technological help?

They've planted a recording device in the child's bag/coat/clothes etc.

Garibaldi? · 22-11-2018 2:00pm

https://metro.co.uk/2017/02/08/why-i...share.top.link. Seriously, the further this debate goes on the more inclined I am to favour cctv within the classroom. What some people do not realize is that this would come as no great shock to teachers or pupils. For many years now there has been team-teaching in Primary schools.The classroom is no longer a little independent republic. Parental support in group work has been operationg for a long time. if the adult had an inclination to be vindictive or ill-tempered the presence of cctv would certainly make him/her think twice. Pupils who pick on others/use inappropriate language/deliberately disrupt class might undergo a miraculous transformation. Those pupils who did not would clearly require intervention for their own good and for that of the class. If there were allegations of abuse, recordings could be used in evidence. Almost everywhere we go now we are monitored.The classroom is not a place of great privacy or confidentiality.

Rega · 22-11-2018 3:32pm

Do you have permission from the other parents to record their children, if that is what you're doing?

Garibaldi? · 22-11-2018 4:55pm

Any child could come in to school and decide to record what was going on in class. They nearly all have mobile phones in their schoolbags. There are a number of children would do this in spite of the rule about leaving the phone off. They could then share the recording with others.

evolving_doors · 22-11-2018 9:34pm

Garibaldi? wrote: »

Any child could come in to school and decide to record what was going on in class. They nearly all have mobile phones in their schoolbags. There are a number of children would do this in spite of the rule about leaving the phone off. They could then share the recording with others.

Sure they can do that. kids come in to secondary schools and deal drugs, bully people and go for a smoke behind the shed at lunch time... still doesn't make it right though.

Garibaldi? · 23-11-2018 11:09am

evolving_doors wrote: »

Sure they can do that. kids come in to secondary schools and deal drugs, bully people and go for a smoke behind the shed at lunch time... still doesn't make it right though.

That is very true. But I do know that teachers are very aware of the fact that pupils could possibly be recording them. It has happened a number of times. The fact that it is a serious misconduct issue is not likely to bother the type of pupil who will do it. Teachers these days are generally careful about how they speak. I was regularly called a "feather-head" in school.Other pupils might have been told they were "for the birds" or "away with the fairies". "As lazy as sin" was a popular description. There was a bit of knuckle tapping on the head. All fairly harmless stuff in the great scheme of things! But I don't think it happens now.:D:D:D

wirelessdude01 · 23-11-2018 5:10pm

Feather head and away with the fairies are all terms I have used recently in school directly to the kids or to their parents when describing them. You know what terminology you can use and with which parents and kids.

However I'd never call someone lazy unless the parent says it first and then it's fair game.

byhookorbycrook · 23-11-2018 7:49pm

Don't see a problem with " away with the fairies"- I have a fairy door in my room!Things seem to disappear that were under my hand now and again and we joke that the fairies took them. Much depends on the tone and context. Some children ARE lazy, though many will give the impression of laziness due to lack of sleep, hearing/vision issues, various SEN. I'd be inclined to say a child finds it difficult to concentrate at times or to motivate themselves to finish a task.

Garibaldi? · 23-11-2018 10:10pm

That is so true. You need to be diplomatic and politically correct at all times these days. I remember as a kid if someone fell in the yard the teacher might (jokingly) pat the ground and say "I hope you didn't put a hole in the yard" All great craic but you wouldn't know how that might be carried home these days.We had a teacher who told me in latter years that it was her policy to use a new word every day and not explain it so that the children would check it out as soon as they went home. A great strategy.I remember looking up words every day when I was in her class. A few years ago a relative of mine told a story of an incident in a girls' second level school. There was drama in the hall and a passing teacher remarked "Nice to see all the young thespians" Apparently there was a barrage of phone calls from aggrieved parents that evening. This school was in an affluent area(if that is significant).That word could have been checked out in seconds on a phone! We live in the era of the easily offended!

heldel00 · 23-11-2018 10:20pm

I once told a child that he was "a man and a half!" He went home and told his mam i said he was a half a man.
Little did i know his mother was obsessing over his height and came in the next morning ready to tear my eyeballs out!

TargetWidow · 06-11-2019 1:21am

Final update. Met with the teacher in question and put my concerns to her. I told her I understood she was under alot of pressure to get a ridiculous amount of work done with a class (with quite a few students with special needs) who were always giddy having just returned from break.

I stood firm on my objection to her threats to use baby bottles etc as an attempt to demean/control the class. I also told her I knew about the "pokey stick" incidents and how I found it's use to be abusive.

The woman was a raging narcissist.
All she could say, over and over was "well, I know I'm a good teacher". I explained how I felt that stress levels in the class were rediculous compared to other teachers classes and how this was inevitably going to negatively affect students emotional well-being and educational outcomes.

She denied nothing. She actually had the gall to suggest that my child had a vandetta against her. That my child was in effect bullying her by telling me this.

Her attitude was that this is her method and my child needs to develop a thicker skin. At 10. I gave her some of her own word for word quotes and that shut her right up.

I took it to the principal. She was not one bit happy about the pokey stick.

My child got an in person apology from both professionals that week.

The narcissist still teaches there though. But she has eliminated the physical aspect of her tutelage and desists from disparaging remarks. I'm sure it's a tremendous strain to her.

My child was horribly anxious by the time it was all done. It knocked her confidence sideways.

It has taken a year of counselling for her to get back to trusting and wanting to please her teachers again.

If you wouldn't say/do it to an adult work colleague you shouldn't say/do it to a child. If I behaved like this woman at work I(towards adults who aren't special needs) Id be fired within a week. And rightly so.

Far too much emotional abuse gets filed away under "banter" or "only joking" in retrospect.

There is professionalism and there is everything else.

Not asking for the moon. Just for this woman to do her job without traumatising the class. Something with which the other fabulous teachers in the school have no issue.

iamwhoiam · 06-11-2019 10:32am

Thank you OP for the update , well done for speaking up for your daughter and for other kids . I hope your daughter now has a different teacher and is settling well with help from you

Garibaldi? · 07-11-2019 5:51pm

A teacher who is not extremely careful about how he /she speaks to children is likely to land in trouble. Poking is unthinkable.

Teacher poking/prodding students over posture.

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