Warning Rant. Americans and stereotypes.

[RedDwarfIV]

It amazes me that germans, the most orderly of all western people (not counting the swiss), and certainly one of the most conservative, are the ones to have delieberately destroyed their uniform gramnmar system. I really would not have expected that.

MY GOSH THE STEREOTYPES

My German teacher finds it amusing. But really, both double s or ß can be used interchangebly now.

One of the few things I remember about German.

Ich heise RedDwarfIV.

Ok, I\'ll admit, I din\'t use Google Translate on that. So two things I remember.

[bandit4910]

MY GOSH THE STEREOTYPES

My German teacher finds it amusing. But really, both double s or ß can be used interchangebly now.

One of the few things I remember about German.

Ich heise RedDwarfIV.

Ok, I\'ll admit, I din\'t use Google Translate on that. So two things I remember.

There should be a ß in heiße.

Yes I speak a bit of German.(My family went to germany one year for vacation..)

[RedDwarfIV]

There should be a ß in heiße.

Yes I speak a bit of German.(My family went to germany one year for vacation..)

My parents told me I had to do a language at GCSE.

So I got a U grade.

[Johno]

Okay. Teacher gets right of reply. WARNING: POST CONTAINS EXCESSIVE SARCASM.

Yeah, it\'s so easy, isn\'t it? So simple to teach a class. Everybody knows what to do!

But if you pop the bonnet[1] and look at what the student doesn\'t see, things might just be a little different to what you think.

I\'m presenting a few documents here. Exhibit A is an excerpt from the Syllabus content for Chemistry for a New South Wales school. Syllabi are different in different countries, states and provinces, but the same general idea will be found everywhere. We have to get through dozens of pages like it. At the same time we have to satisfy requirements indicating how many practical lessons a student has in a year, health and safety policies, Information/Computing technology policies, policies regarding Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander students and lots of other stuff.

Exhibit B is another page from the same syllabus, this time showing the outcomes page. Every Syllabus has a collection of standards against which students are assessed. At the same time as going through the content listed in exhibit A, we have to be thinking about assessing the student against the standards listed in exhibit B. Needless to say, they don\'t necessarily agree with each other; we kind of have to make them fit together.

We do this by creating a program. I don\'t have one of those I can show you (they\'re property of the school, and I could get in trouble for putting them in a public place). But they\'re a massive job, and they take hours of time for each year of teaching.

Then there\'s marking your assignments and tasks. Kids often tell me they hate assignments. I tell them that they don\'t really hate them; what they\'re experiencing is mild dislike, and it won\'t be until they have a pile of 30 assignments to mark that they truly know what hatred is.

With all this work done, THEN YOU\'RE EXPECTING THEM TO BE A BIT CREATIVE.

Professional pride means that a lot of us will do our darnedest to do so (I know that I do). But it\'s tough. You walk into your sixth lesson for the day and the LAST thing you feel like doing is teaching. It\'s a huge effort of will to actually engage with students and teach rather than just telling them 'Open your textbook to page 130 and do exercises 3.2, writing the questions as you do.'

I\'m not trying to excuse teachers who don\'t make the effort, of course. What I AM trying to do is to get people to take another look at them and maybe cut them some slack.

[1] That\'s 'Pop the hood' if you suffer from being American.

[Rascal Nag]

Okay. Teacher gets right of reply. WARNING: POST CONTAINS EXCESSIVE SARCASM.

Yeah, it\'s so easy, isn\'t it? So simple to teach a class. Everybody knows what to do!

But if you pop the bonnet[1] and look at what the student doesn\'t see, things might just be a little different to what you think.

I\'m presenting a few documents here. Exhibit A is an excerpt from the Syllabus content for Chemistry for a New South Wales school. Syllabi are different in different countries, states and provinces, but the same general idea will be found everywhere. We have to get through dozens of pages like it. At the same time we have to satisfy requirements indicating how many practical lessons a student has in a year, health and safety policies, Information/Computing technology policies, policies regarding Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander students and lots of other stuff.

Exhibit B is another page from the same syllabus, this time showing the outcomes page. Every Syllabus has a collection of standards against which students are assessed. At the same time as going through the content listed in exhibit A, we have to be thinking about assessing the student against the standards listed in exhibit B. Needless to say, they don\'t necessarily agree with each other; we kind of have to make them fit together.

We do this by creating a program. I don\'t have one of those I can show you (they\'re property of the school, and I could get in trouble for putting them in a public place). But they\'re a massive job, and they take hours of time for each year of teaching.

Then there\'s marking your assignments and tasks. Kids often tell me they hate assignments. I tell them that they don\'t really hate them; what they\'re experiencing is mild dislike, and it won\'t be until they have a pile of 30 assignments to mark that they truly know what hatred is.

With all this work done, THEN YOU\'RE EXPECTING THEM TO BE A BIT CREATIVE.

Professional pride means that a lot of us will do our darnedest to do so (I know that I do). But it\'s tough. You walk into your sixth lesson for the day and the LAST thing you feel like doing is teaching. It\'s a huge effort of will to actually engage with students and teach rather than just telling them 'Open your textbook to page 130 and do exercises 3.2, writing the questions as you do.'

I\'m not trying to excuse teachers who don\'t make the effort, of course. What I AM trying to do is to get people to take another look at them and maybe cut them some slack.

[1] That\'s 'Pop the hood' if you suffer from being American.

I\'m not saying it\'s easy. But it is necessary in my opinion. And it does not have to be done every single class. It doesn\'t even need to be in the classroom, to be honest. There could be a whole separate time in the schedule for it, where there would be content that ALL faculty could collaborate on. My school has different schedules, sometimes school ends at 2:45 on a normal day. Sometimes at 3 if there\'s an assembly. Sometimes at 1:45 if there\'s faculty meetings that day OR a large after school event, and after 1:45 all the students are at it. I think if these assemblies (Right now, they\'re often just times for ANOTHER alumni who went into a business field to recount his life. Which is seen boring by almost everyone.) and after school events (Which usually are boring games that everyone is forced to go to) were put to good use, they could go a long way to inspiring people.

[RedDwarfIV]

I read a book about a month ago. In it the author said that teachers fail badly at their jobs. That their success rate is so low that if a police officer had that sort of crime prevention rate, he would be sacked.

Now, I\'ll agree with the facts of the statement. But the author didn\'t say anything about the difficulty of teaching, or put any considerations into it. For instance, my English teacher is \'awesome\'. She\'s inventive, she\'s funny, and she once said a string of silly words to emphasize that all she could hear from the class was people constantly talking and saying swear words and laughing. A very good teacher. The flaw is the class. Ms.Trickey cannot teach, not because she has no ability, but because so many members of the class won\'t let her. When she is quiet, people talk. When she stares daggers at the class whilst quiet, the class stops talking. While she is talking, the class talks, and she has to go back to stage 2 just to get them to shut up again.

I\'m not saying there aren\'t teachers who aren\'t \'awesome\', but seriously, the biggest problem is that so few people have respect for authority now.

[Rascal Nag]

I read a book about a month ago. In it the author said that teachers fail badly at their jobs. That their success rate is so low that if a police officer had that sort of crime prevention rate, he would be sacked.

Now, I\'ll agree with the facts of the statement. But the author didn\'t say anything about the difficulty of teaching, or put any considerations into it. For instance, my English teacher is \'awesome\'. She\'s inventive, she\'s funny, and she once said a string of silly words to emphasize that all she could hear from the class was people constantly talking and saying swear words and laughing. A very good teacher. The flaw is the class. Ms.Trickey cannot teach, not because she has no ability, but because so many members of the class won\'t let her. When she is quiet, people talk. When she stares daggers at the class whilst quiet, the class stops talking. While she is talking, the class talks, and she has to go back to stage 2 just to get them to shut up again.

I\'m not saying there aren\'t teachers who aren\'t \'awesome\', but seriously, the biggest problem is that so few people have respect for authority now.

That is a problem. I\'m not sure if it\'s the biggest one, but definitely a problem. Especially in some public schools. I would really like knowing why this is a problem all of a sudden, though. Is it because of poor parenting? Maybe. Is it because new technology has made entertainment seem more important than education? Maybe. Is it because they feel the authority is just leading them to a dead end? Maybe. Or is it all of that? Cause and effect - Something\'s causing a drastic change in how people look at authority, and it needs to be found and dealt with in some way. A lot of people think it\'s just teens being teens, growing pains. But I doubt it. Did you hear about this kind of stuff before? And why is it happening on such a huge level now? Saying it\'s just teens being teens just doesn\'t sit well with me. Not all humans have the same personality, ESPECIALLY when you get into a highschool setting where people are often still figuring out who they are and what they want to do. If there\'s to be such a widespread problem of disrespect for authority in such a diverse community such as human beings, I don\'t think it\'s just because that\'s the way things are. People with different minds should respond differently to authority, naturally.

Unfortunately this problem won\'t be easy to solve. There will be some groups that are lax and say it\'s because we\'re too harsh and need to pamper everyone (wrong, then when they\'re met with something tough they\'ll throw a fit).

There will be some that say we are too lax and need to be harsher and punish everyone severely (also wrong, then you just get more hate)

Then there\'s those who would rather sit and watch the grass grow.

Oh and yeah, then there\'s those who won\'t respect authority and tell anyone who tries to fix the situation not to bother because they don\'t want their help.

[bandit4910]

I read a book about a month ago. In it the author said that teachers fail badly at their jobs. That their success rate is so low that if a police officer had that sort of crime prevention rate, he would be sacked.

Now, I\'ll agree with the facts of the statement. But the author didn\'t say anything about the difficulty of teaching, or put any considerations into it. For instance, my English teacher is \'awesome\'. She\'s inventive, she\'s funny, and she once said a string of silly words to emphasize that all she could hear from the class was people constantly talking and saying swear words and laughing. A very good teacher. The flaw is the class. Ms.Trickey cannot teach, not because she has no ability, but because so many members of the class won\'t let her. When she is quiet, people talk. When she stares daggers at the class whilst quiet, the class stops talking. While she is talking, the class talks, and she has to go back to stage 2 just to get them to shut up again.

I\'m not saying there aren\'t teachers who aren\'t \'awesome\', but seriously, the biggest problem is that so few people have respect for authority now.

That isn\'t half as bad as my old school.

When my teacher was talking the students talked over her.

A boy walked into the girls bathroom on purpose.

It was just horrible.

Not to mention that they built a new building with air conditioning for the younger students.

They should of just tore the whole building down in the summer to rebuild.

I remember my kindergarten teacher hated me.

So it was just horrible.

My mom found out about a online schooling system through ads and I was transferred there the nect year.

Of course It\'s an online charter school so the schooling is more advanced.

[RedDwarfIV]

That isn\'t half as bad as my old school.

When my teacher was talking the students talked over her.

A boy walked into the girls bathroom on purpose.

It was just horrible.

Not to mention that they built a new building with air conditioning for the younger students.

They should of just tore the whole building down in the summer to rebuild.

I remember my kindergarten teacher hated me.

So it was just horrible.

My mom found out about a online schooling system through ads and I was transferred there the nect year.

Of course It\'s an online charter school so the schooling is more advanced.

Our boys\' toilets have been repeatedly dismantled by Year 11 students.

[Nooblet68]

Our boys\' toilets have been repeatedly dismantled by Year 11 students.

I\'d guess that they don\'t actually use the toilet, just trying to screw those with an actual need to use the toilets. I\'d also guess there\'s a decent bullying problem in your school; there\'s normally a coalition between vandalism and bullying.

Of which, if this also has a coalition with teaching standard I don\'t know.

[RedDwarfIV]

I\'d guess that they don\'t actually use the toilet, just trying to screw those with an actual need to use the toilets. I\'d also guess there\'s a decent bullying problem in your school; there\'s normally a coalition between vandalism and bullying.

Of which, if this also has a coalition with teaching standard I don\'t know.

I should say that I transferred schools to this one because of bullying. My current Secondary School isn\'t too bad for that, since it has less students so more ability to police incedents. Plus, \'nerds\' are not a minority, so when picked on...

Geek squad, congregate!

And thus, order is restored. Also, I\'ve impressed several would-be-bullies by showing off my Paint.NET skills with their Product Design work. I did so A) Because they asked for the help Because I\'ve practically finished my PD coursework. There can\'t be more than one more page to do, which isn\'t going to stretch over the final six or so lessons.

[mincespy]

Our German teacher is unable to control the class...

Also, I just started doing my GCSE German.

We\'re learning stuff I learned in top set in year 7.

The problem is, many more students opted for french and not german. So there\'s only one german class.

There are students from set 1, 2, 3 and 4.

*Sigh* I HATE our mixed ability class. Especially when I\'m being dragged down by those worse at german than me.

Seriously, I\'m not even going to learn anything new there. We\'re 'revising' present tense...

SERIOUSLY. I did that when I started german.

[RedDwarfIV]

Our German teacher is unable to control the class...

Also, I just started doing my GCSE German.

We\'re learning stuff I learned in top set in year 7.

The problem is, many more students opted for french and not german. So there\'s only one german class.

There are students from set 1, 2, 3 and 4.

*Sigh* I HATE our mixed ability class. Especially when I\'m being dragged down by those worse at german than me.

Seriously, I\'m not even going to learn anything new there. We\'re 'revising' present tense...

SERIOUSLY. I did that when I started german.

Funny to hear that word coming from and emphasized by a Brony.

[mincespy]

Funny to hear that word coming from and emphasized by a Brony.

You wouldn\'t be saying that.

Were you in my class.

[RedDwarfIV]

You wouldn\'t be saying that.

Were you in my class.

That must be some class to override your love and tolerance.

[Johno]

I should say that I transferred schools to this one because of bullying. My current Secondary School isn\'t too bad for that, since it has less students so more ability to police incedents. Plus, \'nerds\' are not a minority, so when picked on...

Geek squad, congregate!

And thus, order is restored. Also, I\'ve impressed several would-be-bullies by showing off my Paint.NET skills with their Product Design work. I did so A) Because they asked for the help Because I\'ve practically finished my PD coursework. There can\'t be more than one more page to do, which isn\'t going to stretch over the final six or so lessons.

Bullying has been a major problem in Australia. Currently any school that does not have a bullying program in place will have to face awkward questions.

What this means is that bullying seldom goes unchallenged in an Australian school (if it does, you risk a lawsuit).

There is a catch, however - responses vary widely in their effectiveness.

Generally speaking, the more that kids want to be at your school, the more they care about the measures the school takes. Therefore, where I teach (a school which has fought tooth and nail to bring its reputation up), anti-bullying measures tend to be fairly effective. At other schools I have taught at, using the same disciplinary measures would do very little.

The other problem with schools\' handling of bullying is that at best you have the students for six hours of the average day. Okay, so if your measures work, maybe they\'re not bullying/being bullied then. But when the bell goes and the kids go home, you\'re not controlling them any more. So we can\'t stop bullying by mobile phone or internet, and we can\'t prevent kids from punching on in the carpark of the local shops after school (unless someone is stupid enough to tell the teachers!). So sometimes the best we can do is to force bullying underground.

[RedDwarfIV]

Bullying has been a major problem in Australia. Currently any school that does not have a bullying program in place will have to face awkward questions.

What this means is that bullying seldom goes unchallenged in an Australian school (if it does, you risk a lawsuit).

There is a catch, however - responses vary widely in their effectiveness.

Generally speaking, the more that kids want to be at your school, the more they care about the measures the school takes. Therefore, where I teach (a school which has fought tooth and nail to bring its reputation up), anti-bullying measures tend to be fairly effective. At other schools I have taught at, using the same disciplinary measures would do very little.

The other problem with schools\' handling of bullying is that at best you have the students for six hours of the average day. Okay, so if your measures work, maybe they\'re not bullying/being bullied then. But when the bell goes and the kids go home, you\'re not controlling them any more. So we can\'t stop bullying by mobile phone or internet, and we can\'t prevent kids from punching on in the carpark of the local shops after school (unless someone is stupid enough to tell the teachers!). So sometimes the best we can do is to force bullying underground.

I had that problem.

Until I called the police.

[Phoxtane]

I used to go to a school in Washington State. At that school, there was a deplorable number of students whom most attendees knew to be complete and utter druggies or what have you.

I now go to a school in Wyoming. It\'s much better here. Here, schools actually get most of the funding they need! There\'s also quite a lot fewer 'whatevers'.

I really do think that punishments for underage DUIs, drug abuse, and violence need to be much stricter. That way people would actually LEARN something, instead of going to juvie and just sleeping out a month of sentencing*...

It\'s really a shame what kind of work ethic some people have. They follow the word of the law, but not the spirit of the law. I overheard a group complaining about how they do the bookwork, but they still have bad grades for disrupting the class.

*Then these idiots have the nerve to complain about not having good grades and having to do missing assignments when they get back.

[RedDwarfIV]

I used to go to a school in Washington State. At that school, there was a deplorable number of students whom most attendees knew to be complete and utter druggies or what have you.

I now go to a school in Wyoming. It\'s much better here. Here, schools actually get most of the funding they need! There\'s also quite a lot fewer 'whatevers'.

I really do think that punishments for underage DUIs, drug abuse, and violence need to be much stricter. That way people would actually LEARN something, instead of going to juvie and just sleeping out a month of sentencing*...

It\'s really a shame what kind of work ethic some people have. They follow the word of the law, but not the spirit of the law. I overheard a group complaining about how they do the bookwork, but they still have bad grades for disrupting the class.

*Then these idiots have the nerve to complain about not having good grades and having to do missing assignments when they get back.

Unfortunately for me, ICT is one of those subjects I find incomprehensible. I don\'t plan on becoming a secretary, so I don\'t understand it. I did do all the work that the sheets said to do, but then I\'m told I was supposed to screenshot it. Then when I do all the screenshots, I\'m told I haven\'t done the work properly. Then no one marks it for a week so there\'s no time for me to fix the problems, and then I don\'t get to go on the Reward Trip.

And I don\'t think the Marking Box was ever looked at.

[LukeTim]

My god, you\'re right. How, if all Americans are fat idiots, did a British man working in Switzerland invent the internet?

Here\'s a stereotype for you; taking credit for other people\'s achievements.

You are confusing The Internet (The first form of which was developed in the US) and The World Wide Web.

EDIT: Sorry... That\'s a really late reply. I\'ve never seen this thread, and didn\'t realize it was at 10 pages already.

[RedDwarfIV]

You are confusing The Internet (The first form of which was developed in the US) and The World Wide Web.

EDIT: Sorry... That\'s a really late reply. I\'ve never seen this thread, and didn\'t realize it was at 10 pages already.

I already made that point.

[bandit4910]

Funny to hear that word coming from and emphasized by a Brony.

Translation to that.

They see me sledding they hatin\'.

I\'m a bit rusty since we went to Germany 3 years ago.

[RC1062]

You are confusing The Internet (The first form of which was developed in the US) and The World Wide Web.

EDIT: Sorry... That\'s a really late reply. I\'ve never seen this thread, and didn\'t realize it was at 10 pages already.

Sums the thread up nicely though...

[RedDwarfIV]

Sums the thread up nicely though...

This thread wouldn\'t exist if not for the World Wide Web. This conversation just wouldn\'t be the same by eMail.

[Ydoow]

I can\'t wait for eBooks to start doing things right.

They\'ll be amazing once they\'re interactive.

My dream eBook is to have some text off to the side, describing electrophilic substitution, or Wittig reaction while off to the side the reaction is being happening, showing you exactly how the electrons move, how the atoms line-up, which bonds break/form and so on...

eBooks have great potential to make studying fun, intuitive, and useful compared to reading a paper book.

I spend so much time online pleading:

'Please Internet...just show me the goddamn reaction...that\'s all I need...once I see it, then I\'ll know it. These words you present to me, they make no sense, full of ambiguity...'