Out of field teachers and notifications

[wrobert]

Okay here is another issue I am dealing with. My son is in an Algebra class, the teacher is off on family leave for her new baby, and he has a long term substitute. I spoke to the sub, nice enough, she is a 35 year experienced teacher, but it is in elementary ed and not the higher maths. I am concerned that my son may not receive the foundation he needs for future courses, because of this block scheduling thing, the class will be about finished by the time the regular teacher returns. In my situation it appears that the school is trying to address the issue. But when I inquired I was told that because it was a substitute that the parents did not have to be notified of the out of field teacher.

And that is my issue. If the school district is trying to open up the lines of communication with parents and make everyone a part of their child's education, then why would they use a loophole and not notify parents of what is going on? This gives them an excellent opportunity to communicate with the parents as to how the situation is being addressed and to even ask the parents to participate by paying closer attention to what my be happening in that class.

Keeping in mind that the school is suppose to notify parents of out of field teachers that their child may have, or at least that is my understanding.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Robert, I did some substitute teaching at Walton High last year. My suggestion for all School Board members and candidates is to look closely into that program.

I won't be going back. IMO the district needs to have some training, orientation, and general attention paid to the sub. program. Right now, it seems all you need to do is to know someone in the school system, get your fingerprints taken, and you are good to go.

If you want more details send me a PM

 

[ShallowsNole]

Until you get officially elected and are able to check into the sub program, monitor your son's progress closely. If he hits a roadblock, steer him towards www.math.com . We have used it frequently over the years - that is, until my math-challenged son stopped paying attention to my suggestions.

Note - don't know about Walton, but SW's progress reports are coming out Monday 9/15.

 

[Beach Runner]

I have taught some of these math ed majors at the University of Florida and the University of South Carolina. It is really scary how poor their math skills are.

Reminds me of the avatar that says, "Find x." The response is, "Here it is."

I have a math ed student in my calculus class. A calculus problem boiled down to computing 4 times 16. She said she didn't have a calculator. I said, "You don't need a calculator for this. You should be able to do this in your head."

So here's how she did it.
16
+16
___
32
+16
___
48
+16
___
64

She can't freakin' multiply!!!!! Obviously the kids from her generation are so dependent upon calculators that they don't know how to do simple multiplication.

Another student said he couldn't compute the square root of 9 because he didn't have a calculator. Jesus.

After that class I went to the bookstore. A calculus student from another class works there. When I walked in, the bookstore manager said, "Oh, there's Dr. BR. She'll know the answer." I said, "I'll be happy to help." She said, "What's the cube root of 150?" I said, "It's not an integer. You'll need a calculator or either use Excel." Well, first of all, she had no clue what the word "integer" means. Then she had a basic calculator that didn't do exponentiation.

 

[wrobert]

Until you get officially elected and are able to check into the sub program, monitor your son's progress closely. If he hits a roadblock, steer him towards www.math.com . We have used it frequently over the years - that is, until my math-challenged son stopped paying attention to my suggestions.

Note - don't know about Walton, but SW's progress reports are coming out Monday 9/15.

The election is just going to delay my concern about this problem until November 5th. Then, win or lose, something is going to have to be done. Or at least we are going to spend an awful lot of time talking about it at board meetings.

 

[30ARosie]

Okay here is another issue I am dealing with. My son is in an Algebra class, the teacher is off on family leave for her new baby, and he has a long term substitute. I spoke to the sub, nice enough, she is a 35 year experienced teacher, but it is in elementary ed and not the higher maths. I am concerned that my son may not receive the foundation he needs for future courses, because of this block scheduling thing, the class will be about finished by the time the regular teacher returns. In my situation it appears that the school is trying to address the issue. But when I inquired I was told that because it was a substitute that the parents did not have to be notified of the out of field teacher.

And that is my issue. If the school district is trying to open up the lines of communication with parents and make everyone a part of their child's education, then why would they use a loophole and not notify parents of what is going on? This gives them an excellent opportunity to communicate with the parents as to how the situation is being addressed and to even ask the parents to participate by paying closer attention to what my be happening in that class.

Keeping in mind that the school is suppose to notify parents of out of field teachers that their child may have, or at least that is my understanding.

Being a retired teacher I understand in field/out of field reporting. Substitute teachers are not considered full-time employees therefore they do not have to be reported as in field/out of field under the No Child Left Behind Act. As a veteran teacher I can tell you that a teacher that has developed good teaching techniques can teach any subject once they have studied the content. Without strong techniques, in field/out of field, substitute, or full-time employee knowing the content doesn't matter. I think your concerns are unfounded and that probably comes from the fact that you don't have an education background, perhaps you should trust the professional educators that are making the decisions it seems to be working. It is my understanding that your opponent is a life-long educator.

 

[NoHall]

It is my understanding that, nationwide, there is a shortage of teachers, particularly in the middle and high school grades. In other words, you're stuck with what you can get.

 

[CPort]

Your luck to have a certified person in the room!

 

[wrobert]

It is my understanding that, nationwide, there is a shortage of teachers, particularly in the middle and high school grades. In other words, you're stuck with what you can get.

School board chairman tells me that we get 35 qualified applicants for each opening in Walton County.

 

[NoHall]

School board chairman tells me that we get 35 qualified applicants for each opening in Walton County.

If that's true, you're lucky. I'm not trying to dispute you at all, but if you'll allow me to play devil's advocate: In the last several years around here, I've heard folks manipulate statistics according to the need of the day. A principal/school board will make a similar statement to the one you made and it turns out that "qualified applicants" is a matter of interpretation. 8 applicants are just putting out feelers because they're nervous/disgruntled with their current job. 7 live out of state, and are looking at options. 9 are 22-year olds who just graduated, but who will end up doing something different in the fall (move out of the area, go back to grad school full time, etc.) 11 are "qualified," but not at all appropriate--fired from previous jobs for inappropriate conduct or bad performance reviews, left because of rehab or other issues, etc. 35 degree-holding applicants, and still no one to teach algebra to Junior...

But then again, you live at the beach. Maybe you really do have that many good ones!