Saturday, May 11, 2013

Jeff Bliss

I am sure by now you have all seen the video of Jeff Bliss as he lectures his teacher about how he is not engaged and she shouldn't hand out packets. of work.

We have not heard the teacher's side, but every parent around here is chiming in (again) with the idea that the horrible, lazy teachers need to be fired.

We don't know a whole lot about either side except that Jeff had dropped out and then returned to school and is older than the other members of the class. His mother is a teacher.

It may not be a huge leap that Jeff is gifted and under-preforms and hence is bored. We do know that he has already found public school not his cup of tea (he dropped out).

So, why is he getting all this press? Is it dump on teachers again?

I am really doubting myself this year. I have a group who regularly threaten me and disrupt the class. I can spend most of the class teaching - preparing them for the state tests and for the math ahead - only to have a group start yelling that I am not teaching THEM, I am not teaching. I am too old. I am evil - or hateful - or whatever.

They badger me if they disagree with a decision.

They threaten to go to the school board (oh, please - would you?).

Georgia is going to start basing a part of the teacher evaluation on student surveys. Do you believe you get an adequate evaluation of my ability by listening to the opinions of this group?

Do you think you get an idea of what I can teach looking at their test scores when they are willing to throw a temper tantrum during a test? Or they fall asleep during the state test, wake up, and answer B to every question? (Do your students tell you that if you don't know the answer you should answer B? Mine do. Wonder where they heard that. Probably the same place where they were told that x = 1. So 3x^3 + 2x^2 + 5 = 10.)

The video gives me more questions than answers. Personally I think Jeff Bliss is a jerk who should be in time out.

2 comments:

Tom said...

THANK YOU!

rho said...

Total agreement. He sounds like he rehearsed it or has ranted like that before; certainly was playing to the camera. If he thinks he knows so much, then let him go get the education and become a teacher.
The lack of civility in education today is appalling; these new evaluation systems rely too much on factors a teacher has no control over. There are going to be big lawsuits ahead; I am going to document student behaviors relentlessly this coming year.