Traumatic things Teachers have done?

[thom1102]

I am studying to be a teacher, and in an attempt to learn from other people's mistakes, I am asking DUer's to post the most traumatic, memorable things their teachers have done. You know, that thing that happened in third grade that you have been trying to suppress like the Ohio vote, but haven't yet succeeded?

[redqueen]

1. We had a poetry contest in the 6th grade.

I was trying to rhyme words and used 'eating peaches and cream on a swing' or some such nonsense... and the teacher (Mr. Cox) said that since that's something that isn't done anymore and is old fashioned, that I must've copied it. He didn't enter my poem into the contest and wouldn't even give it back to me. Still irks me to think about it.

[HEyHEY]

3. Fess -up you ripped it off

;-)

[redqueen]

6. Oooooooh!

:spank:

[HEyHEY]

2. When I was six - YEARS before I was diagnosed as having

Learnign disabilities. My teacher yelled at me and ripped a page of cursive writing out of my book and threw it in the garbage because it was too messy.

I remember it so clearly, and to this day whenever someone rips a page from a book I flashback. I had never really been yelled at before and it was such a shock.

[JohnKleeb]

30. you have a learning disablity?

yo! me too.

[HEyHEY]

33. ADD AND Dyslexia

THough the Dyslexia doesn't really have an effect anymore

[JohnKleeb]

38. Ahh, I am ADD as are my dad and brother

I think my youngest brother is too. At least you got diagnosed, my dad really was never diagnosed. Teachers can be jerks to learning disabled kids, a traumatic memory I have is of my third grade special ed teacher grabbing be the arm when I couldnt do long division, well I know it now, take that Ms. Zarling, you witch!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. History teached said Copernicus had been burned at the stake

I never trusted teachers' abilities or knowledge for years thereafter. No, wait, maybe that was a good thing.

[ulysses]

9. heh - my sophomore yr. history teacher hated me

because I corrected him when he said that no one ever knew what had happened to the Red Baron. Then again, he was the wrestling coach.

Personally, I'm waiting for the thread on the traumatic things teachers have *experienced*. :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. May I also add he was a pro-military-dictatorship RW nutjob

Said the military had wisely decided selection of the president was too important a job to be left for the people. I kid you not.

Isn't it amazing how stupidity and RW-ness always go together?

[nicolemrw]

5. i used the word "quay" in a poem

and correctly too, i might add, and the teacher refused to believe it was a real word.

Main Entry: quay
Pronunciation: 'kE, 'kA, 'kwA
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of earlier key, from Middle English, from Middle French dialect cai, probably of Celtic origin; akin to Breton kae hedge, enclosure; akin to Old English hecg hedge
: a structure built parallel to the bank of a waterway for use as a landing place

that one still irks me to this day.

[Kire]

7. don't argue, but if you do, make sure your facts are straight

My history teacher argued, and argued with me, insisting that Hong Kong was not an island. But, it was. I had physically been there not too long before that. He actually had me stay after school to discuss it. When I brought sources to back it up, he avoided it all and never conceded that he was wrong. I think it was because he didn't like that I had long hair and wasn't on his football team -- he was the coach.

[KitchenWitch]

8. In First Grade

I was sent to the kindergarten room on a regular basis, because I worked methodically (to the teacher, I worked too slowly). I still have anger to this day at that teacher.

[HEyHEY]

12. I hate that shit too

I was kicked out of enrichment because I missed a part of when the teacher was explaining directions. I obviously did the whole Exercise VERY wrong and looked like a total dumb ass so I was booted out.

[proud patriot]

10. H.S. Sophmore year english

I had a creative writing assignment failed for
the heading ie I didn't write out January
I abbreviated it ...She didn't even read my
paper. :grr:

[incapsulated]

11. I went to Catholic school...

So the list is too long and most of it won't apply. ;)

But, generally speaking...

Never ridicule

Never make a kid feel guilty about their schoolwork, you don't know what's really going on

Be their friend, but stay an authority figure. Without that, good luck getting them to listen to anything. I'm old fashioned that way.

And good luck, thank you for being a teacher! :hi:

[patdem]

25. I, too, went to Catholic school...and the stories...oh, the stories...

between me being a rebel without a cause, the the nuns HATING rebels with and/or without a cause...my life for 8 years was pure HELL!

[bobbobbins]

13. This is a bit younger but...

I remember being in kindergarden, and asking to use the restroom...and the teacher saying no, because I had used it once already that day. I ended up wetting myself.

[patdem]

14. Well, when I was in first grade, the first time I skipped school,

I was waiting for the bus to go to school,(I went to Catholic school) and my cousins were walking to school, and invited me to go to their school, so I just walked across the street and on to their school. Well, I ended up in the office and they put me in the 'first grade' there and they SANG roll call, boy what babies, I thought. Of course the office was calling my partents so see why I was there.

Anyway when I finally got to school that day the nun said, "gee all the desks are taken up since you are so late, here you will have to sit with this BOY!" I did and all day I wondered "What did HE do wrong to have to sit with a GIRL?"

Of course his memories are probably more horrible than mine, since he probably did nothing to deserve his punishment!!

LOL! :D

[Fifth of Five]

15. First grade

In reading circle - if you mispronounced the word you were given to read, you had to sit on the floor.

Bad enough if you truly pronounced it wrong - but when I pronounced "read" as "red" which I knew to be a correct pronunciation of the word, I had to sit on the floor because other students might get confused that a word can have more than one pronunciation.

Never use humiliation as a teaching technique.

On second thought, maybe the worst was my French teacher trying to run over me at the bus stop in front of my house.

Teachers shouldn't forget to stop for school buses.

[HEyHEY]

16. Got that thom - DO NOT try to kill your students

It scared them

[thom1102]

22. Hmm, that might just be an effective teaching strategy

:P

[ulysses]

17. absolute #1 rule.

Never use humiliation as a teaching technique.

:thumbsup:

[nicolemrw]

27. yes, and don't assume the kid is wrong

especially if you're teaching an advanced or gifted class. the kid may know more than you do.

[Goathead]

29. The bitch teacher I had in 3rd grade

didn't use humiliation as a teaching technique, but she humiliated the hell out of us. It was like she didn't realize there was a line that you are not supposed to cross being a teacher and she broke the teacher/student contract. She got off on making fun of the students almost as if she were in the third grade herself.

[incapsulated]

19. What is it about those French teachers?

Mine was scary, too. She looked like Morticia Adams and was missing one finger.

:scared:

[Fifth of Five]

23. Every time mine blinked,

her eyes rolled up into her head and they kind of vibrated on their way back down - looked as if they got stuck temporarily. creepy

[incapsulated]

28. And I forgot to mention...

The sleepy eye she had! :o

EDIT THAT: It was a GLASS EYE! Fuck me, it's all coming back now!

Weird.

She never tried to kill us but she did threaten to. She enjoyed frightening us.

[Blue Diadem]

20. Nothing I can think of for me, but for my kids,

One teacher, wouldn't allow my son to use the bathroom because he had gotten out of the line to get a drink of water. He ended up p'ing his pants. I wasn't easy to reach being in outside sales, no cells in those days. They contacted my Sister in law, she ran a pair of her son's pants to school. My son had to wear high water pants for the rest of the day. He stopped liking school that year.

My daughter has also mentioned having her desk turned over when she was in 3rd or 4th grade because it was messy. She said it really embarassed her and caused other kids to tease her.

[KitchenWitch]

21. Longish story about my son's first grade teacher

A couple of stories from his elememtary school days actually.

1. We live in the suburban Twin Cities area, and we have a park reserve that abuts our backyard. Often, we hear and see coyotes back there. My son's first grade teacher asked the kids what "wild animals" live in our town, and my son raised his hand and told the class that we had coyotes in our backyard (totally true) and she, in front of the entire class told him he was lying. We went to the nature center at the park reserve and talked with the park ranger and got information for the teacher and brought it to the teacher, proving my son's assertion. She never apologized.

2. My son is an extremely gifted student (particularly in math) but works slowly and methodically, his second grade teacher (harpy bitch from hell) did not like the pace at which he worked so she put him in all the "lowest" groups, since she thought he was not very bright (this is a child that understood the concept of square roots at the age of 4). During our conferences she told me how stupid she thought he was, and I nearly came over the table to rip her face off. I told her how I had been brow-beaten for working methodically in elementary school and that at the time I was pursuing an advanced degree in college. She inferred that my son "might find a niche somewhere" (read - developmentally disabled job workshop). It took everything in my being to hold myself back. He is now in middle school and is in honors everything.

[thom1102]

34. Tracking=bad

we were just learning this semester about it. Those tracks that you all remember, "Honors" "College" "Remedial" etc. are bad ideas. The honors kids end up without the appropriate social skills and the remedial kids end up with no appropriate peer role models in class. It was devised as a method of appeasing the local elites when schools were integrated. "We can go to school with THOSE people as long as our kids are in separate classes." If your school board decides to eliminate tracks in your school run up to your superintendent and give them a big sloppy wet one. It is the best thing that can happen to your kids.

[gollygee]

24. I spent almost the whole first grade in the hall

My teacher told my mom I needed Ritilan or whatever it is and my mom refused to have me take it, so my teacher refused to teach me. I sat in the hall *all the time*.

[Goathead]

26. I had a elementary school teacher

that for punishment she would make us stand at the front of the room with both hands outstretched and hold a stack of encyclopedias in each hand until we cried or couldn't do it any longer. She also would stand behind you and ask you a question, if you got it wrong she would say "Wrong, wrong, wrong" and slap the back of your head with her open hand while wearing rings. Ouch! She played favorites in the classroom and there were students that made her shit list that got punished constantly that was borderline abuse. The list goes on and on. She had no business teaching or even being around children. She was a c@#t bitch from hell!

[patdem]

32. I would not call that 'borderline' abuse, I would call that OUTRIGHT abuse

That woman should be banned from teaching and even having children. She sounds like the most abusive person on earth! Damn, and I thought the nuns were bad!!!

[DustMolecule]

31. In second grade, there were two reading circles...

I worked very very hard to become the BEST oral reader in my circle - I thought it sounded sooooo cool to be able to read outloud like that (like a grown-up). I DID become the best reader in the circle and was very proud of myself.

The teacher told me that she was moving me over to the other circle. When I got in THERE, I found I wasn't the 'best' reader anymore :-( . (This was a catholic school, btw). I figured that she was 'punishing me for my pride in myself' and I was very sad (inside).

It wasn't until like the 5th grade (thinking back), that I realized those circles were broken out into ability groups and she was moving me up into the 'better' group. (No one ever told me then that's how it worked!) All that time I thought I was being punished and really didn't want to be prideful or the 'best' at anything in school cause I didn't want to be 'punished' again that way.

[thom1102]

36. Similar thing happened to me in 4th grade...

twice a week, I would have to get into a small group with a teacher from outside of the classroom for "Open Court" reading. I always thought that I was a slow reader and needed remediation. It wasn't until a few years ago that mom told me that it was because I was reading above my classmates reading level. Here I was thinking I was stupid!

[benddem]

35. There isn't room enough

but the absolute worst was...in Catholic School I was in 3rd grade and my brother in 5th. He was learning disabled and I taught myself to read before I went to school and was a great reader. His teacher had me brought into his room and told me to read a big paragraph...with lots of difficult words. He says he doesn't remember it, but I did and hate that teacher to this day.

[barb162]

37. I went to a Catholic school too and yes they humiliated kids galore

[johnnie]

39. In 7th grade

We were getting ready for gym and I was chewing gum. The teacher came over to me and shoved his fingers in my mouth, grabbed my gum, shoved it in my nose and swished it around. He then pushed the gum back in my mouth.
I won't go in to what my father did when he found this out, but needless to say the teacher wasn't there teaching the next year. I loved my three years of catholic school..lol. I have many many more, but this one stands out. So...don't shove gum up a child's nose and put it back in their mouth.

[fortyfeetunder]

40. casting a kid in a role to make fun of him/her

this was in elementary school. We had teachers change mid-year, and the new one went out of her way to make fun of me. Therefore, I was distraught for an entire year. I could barely do my homework or keep up in school. This was in the day where the teacher was right and the student was wrong so I got no support.

Well, we had a class play. And this was a barely integrated classroom. The girl who had the straight, long hair, who could barely read any of the lines in the play the teacher cast as the princess. And I who had the little nappy-haired braids was cast as the witch. And what pissed me off was when that bitch implied I should let my braids out so my hair would stick out like a witch. I was never so glad to see that school year end.

I guess that is why I have never taken a real appreciation for theater or movies.

[GRLMGC]

41. Not traumatic. Well, I guess it could be

I had this bastard drama teacher in high school. So, he'd make us go see plays and write reviews for them. He was EXTREMELY disorganized and would give us all kinds of extensions. One day, this really annoying girl started complaining that it wasn't fair to the students who brought the review in on time and that she should be able to turn hers in right then and there. So he gets angry (very temperemental man), yells (DON'T EVER TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!!!!!!" and pushes his podium over. It falls on a girl, who is, luckily unhurt, the annoying girl gets scared and starts choking on her gum, and the teacher has to give her the Heimlich maneuver.

Yeah, don't do that.

[tk2kewl]

42. I remember my fifth grade teacher laying down the rules

on the first day of class. and mind you, this guy was a 6'4" 250lbs jarhead.

he said if anyone puked in class he would wipe it up with their hair