Incidentally, the principal's daughter did not go to her class. Instead she went to the other teacher (not the one we wanted), a teacher of the year, btw.
How strange is that?
If it is anything like my schools growing up her credentials are probably "being an existing teacher or administrator's child".
Overreacting parent with the expectation that THEIR little angel is the center of the universe. So typical these days.
The first grade teachers abilities will have very little to do with the overall success or failure of your child. Trust me, a mediocre first grade experience will not doom your center of the fucking universe kid to be a manager at McDonalds.
What will is having parents who do not contribute and participate in the education of the child.
Sounds to me like you are trying to sluff your parental duties onto the school system. Along with thinking your child is the center of the fucking universe that too is a common theme these days.
She's actually 7-8/10.
I've never heard of a Catholic person denying that physics exist; the big bang theory, however, I could understand if they're that deep into their faith.
The post before yours, 12 minutes earlier, addressed this.
Pope Pius XII had no problem with the Big Bang Theory. In fact, the Big Bang Theory was proposed by a Catholic priest. (Georges Lemaitre)
I like to look at it this way: the Catholic church finally (after a history of burning people who disagreed with them) realized that "hey, if they say they have evidence, maybe we should look at how compelling the evidence is before we denounce them. We still look pretty bad over that whole Earth is the center of the solar system screw up."
Also, for what it's worth, Pope Pius XII said on evolution (early 1950s) that there's nothing in the Bible against it - only that the souls come directly from God. He more or less said that he hoped it was a scientific fad, but that more study in the area would be beneficial toward a determination of whether it was true or not. In 1993, in addition to saying "woops, our bad" and pardoning Galileo for accepting Copernican theory, Pope John Paul stated that there was so much compelling evidence for evolution that it's not just a hypothesis.
That's right boys and girls - at least one major religion in the United States isn't ass backwards when it comes to viewing evidence and interpreting that evidence.
That's right boys and girls - at least one major religion in the United States isn't ass backwards when it comes to viewing evidence and interpreting that evidence.
Incidentally, the principal's daughter did not go to her class. Instead she went to the other teacher (not the one we wanted), a teacher of the year, btw.
How strange is that?
So my kid went to the first grade today. Public charter school.
Last school year my wife and I volunteered like mad for the school when our kid was in K grade. We made friends with the K grade teacher, and she was extremely nice to us. She considered our kid one of her best students.
End of year, and it's time to think about the 1st grade teacher. There were four teachers going to teach, each one of them an excellent teacher, but we also had our favorite. We asked her if she could take our daughter next year. She said she would be happy to, since she noticed our kid a while ago, and would enjoy having a smart girl in her class. But, she does not make the decision - it's based on the recommendation of the K-grade teacher.
Fine. We go talk to our K-grade teacher, and since we've been on such good terms she said she'll try to help us out. So we left it at that.
Fat forward to last Saturday. I'm about to go volunteer at the 'Back to School BBQ' when we get a letter in the mail with the teacher assignment. Well, we got royally fucked - not only it's not a teacher we asked for, it's a brand new teacher who just transferred to this school.
She's 25, graduated with a major in Bible and Theology, and was a pastor for three years in Rockwell, CA. Then she decided to go back to San Jose, and entered a teacher credential program in which she taught 5th grade for a year. That's all the teaching experience she has.
What. The. Fuck.
This morning she was helplessly trying to organize a class of kids and get them to at least sit in a circle while the other teachers already had their classes going on, and kids enjoying the school time.
We now have 2 weeks to try and appeal and get transferred. I honestly have no idea what to do.
Credentials are public info and can be looked up on CA DOE site. She has Preliminary Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, and that's it.
The other teachers have been teaching at the school for at least 5 years. New principal came in and reshuffled the teachers this year, though. I've heard from quite a few working at the school that they are not happy with the new leadership.
Then you obviously don't know anything about teachers (at least not competent ones).
Also for your reading pleasure:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2185449&highlight=
No, you couldn't. First grade is not about calculus or economics, it's about teaching kids to read and write, and to be willing to learn.It's a lot of work, and management, and creativity and structure.
If you make mistakes like 'there' vs 'their' in your official teacher's blog (not mentioning others), you may want to rethink your applicability for first grade.
I know a lot about teachers. Their contract is for a 40 hour work week.
Their contract is for approximately 9 months of work which equals out to 1872 hours. The average teacher's salary is 47,602, approximately $48,000 in 2008-2009.
Thats $25.64/hour. Seems pretty darn good to me for what they do.
http://www.teacher-world.com/
Incidentally, the principal's daughter did not go to her class. Instead she went to the other teacher (not the one we wanted), a teacher of the year, btw.
How strange is that?
I know a lot about teachers. Their contract is for a 40 hour work week.
Their contract is for approximately 9 months of work which equals out to 1872 hours. The average teacher's salary is 47,602, approximately $48,000 in 2008-2009.
Thats $25.64/hour. Seems pretty darn good to me for what they do.
http://www.teacher-world.com/
wow. i can't believe all the vilification up in here.
imho:
1. new teacher should be given a chance before making judgement to withdraw/transfer/appeal. it's possible the principal placed smarter kids in the new teacher's classroom in order to make it easier for her. being a new teacher i suspect any display of incompetence on her part will quickly be rectified on her own. after all, she doesn't want to get fired, espeically since she doesn't have tenure yet.
2. 1st grade is much more important than many in this thread are making it seem. it's also much more difficult than anyone who hasn't taught could imagine. while K introduces the letters and the sounds they make, 1st begins the foundations for word formation and recognition. and the kids are all of 6 years old which means they are significantly more prone to distraction than meth addicts (ok this is hyperbole).
3. OP is a concerned parent and for that he is being crucified which i find funny considering how often we criticize parents who don't do enough. his behavior could easily become helicoptering and may already be (though i disagree), but i think the fact he is at least trying to be a good parent warrants civility instead of derision.
so OP, to answer your question i think you should give the teacher a chance. she may surprise you and if your child is smart enough she should be ok as long as the basics are covered (and you read at home every night).
Studies can't even prove that which high school a child attends has any measurable impact on their education. 1st grade is even more meaningless. What matters far, far more is the parents. Do you read to them? Do they even have access to books? Etc. Be a good parent. But forget wasting your time about a meaningless 1st grade teacher.
He's bringing a lot of it on himself. Frankly, part of being a parent is developing a filter to understand when you're overstepping yourself. Asking "what if every parent acted like this" is a good step. He's already upset because he didn't get what he thought he had finagled through a so-called friendship with the teachers. That shows a pretty large lack of maturity. The school has absolutely NO responsibility to give parents the teachers they want. Most folks realize it.
I applaud him for taking an interest, but it's pretty damn important to realize when an interest changes from involvment into overzealous annoyance.
Deal with it and stop being a bitch. If you don't like the public school system, do what my parents did and take your kid out and put them in private school where you can excercise a little bit more leverage.
Welcome to the perils of the public school bureaucracy, don't like it? Get the hell out.