While teaching, I made more phone calls and wrote more referrals for unacceptable behavior than any teacher at the schools where I taught. I know this because administration pointed it out and it wasn’t meant as a complement.
When I heard what Meyer says in the ABC news segment in Part 1 of this series, I got angry, which motivated me to write this series.
How do you explain the results I had as a teacher? According to the district I worked for, my students showed improvement annually on state standardized tests.
- Stop Blaming Teachers for Everything – Parents are Responsible too.
Some of my students won awards for poetry and short stories, while my Journalism classes placed in the top in regional, state and international competitions.
My standards were high. Class work and homework made up the majority of my grading formula. Tests and quizzes never represented more than 15% of the grade.
When students earned failing grades on a progress report, I called every parent I could reach and told them about the homework hotline and invited them to come to class and sit with their student to motivate them to work.
Most of those phone calls to parents resulted in no changes. Those kids still didn’t do the homework or class work.
– to be continued
Return to Speaking Out About Education – Part 2
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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