GlowingBlueMist wrote, on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:59:18 -0500:
When I asked, the answer came back that *all* the teachers use some sort of *huge* bathroom pass that the students need to carry.
Some literally use a toilet plunger; others use a long plastic pipe.
Apparently, the system is that the pass is so large that it can easily be
*seen* by students anywhere in the classroom if it is *in* the classroom.You never know whether the last student put it away either, but, being so huge, it can't be hidden in too many places, so, nobody disrupts the class looking for it under a pile of papers.
The students apparently don't *ask* to go to the bathroom ... they just take the pass, and its obvious to anyone within 100 feet of that student what their purpose is.
Also, only a single student can leave the classroom at a time, so, you
*know* exactly how many students are missing when the pass is missing.Teachers in San Jose, have tougher students, than most school districts, although San Jose pales in comparison with Oakland or LA, I'm sure.
I think the size point is that it would be lost within seconds, and, the class would spend (perhaps on purpose) inordinate time looking for it, as an excuse not to do their quadratic equations.
Again, size matters.
It should be *visible* anywhere in the classroom; and, any student in the hallway should be easily identifiable as to their purpose.
This neighbor recently lost her husband and had to get the first job in her life. She went through a tough 2-year certification procedure, which then allows her to teach math in the high schools. Now she has to teach for 2 or 3 years just to "clear" the certification. She's overwhelmed.
In the certification, they never taught the teacher how to teach. Nope. From what she has been telling me, they teach you mostly how to be sensitive to ethnicities, language barriers, socio-economic issues, and other pressing California issues.
She did student teach, for two semesters, in an even worse California school district further east, but there was always a "real" teacher in the classroom maintaining order.
The kids swear in every class, and she showed me a homework that a
15 year old had handed in which contained the f-word all over it.The kid was failing every class, she told me, and just didn't care. In California, she told me, the kid is allowed to go to class until their senior year, even if they fail every single class, and that's exactly what this girl seems to be doing.
Anyway, this poor mother is all alone, the bank is taking her house, she is trying to teach, the students are making her life miserable, and, all I was trying to do was help her out.