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 lazy teachers?? 
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In the teacher's lounge yesterday at Avery High School, my teacher was talking to fellow teachers about his new job in Tennessee. He explained that he had saved up enough days to take every friday off for the next 3 years. The men laughed and grunted in approval of this situation - even saying "no, no - take Mondays off...they're their worst!!!". I sort of laughed along with them, but couldn't help but wonder - are our teachers lazy?? Do they dislike the job or are burnt out so much that they want to take a day off per week every week of the school year??
On top of that, I arrived at Avery around 8am. School starts at 8:10am. I expected my teacher to be in the classroom preparing for his lesson or giving students the opportunity to come in and ask him questions. No, no. We were in the teachers lounge right up until the bell rang, then we went to class along with the students. THEN he informs me that he'll be back in 10 minutes, that the bulb in the overhead projector blew out yesterday and he had to go search for a new one. I'm sitting there thinking, "if it blew out yesterday, why are you only fixing it now that class has started?". So, 10 minutes of class was wasted by him searching for a new bulb, only to come back empty handed.
Is this what most teachers do? I don't know, I'm beginning to wonder. This might be a generalization, but it seemed to me like the only teachers in the teachers lounge waiting for the bell were male teachers - the women were nowhere to be seen. Where THEY in their classrooms preparing for the day? Maybe. Maybe they were out chatting elsewhere, I don't know.
I just wish I hadn't witnessed so much laziness on my first day of interning. It seemed so unprofessional. Do you guys think teachers are slacking?

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Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:19 am
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I'm appalled at how often my kids at Watauga High School report watching movies--and they're Disney movies! I can see showing videos or even feature films that relate to the curriculum, but...

I think some teachers who need to do grading use this the way parents use tv, to get time to get something done while the kids are quiet and still. But I would think they need all the instructional time they can find and hate to hear that even in honors classes, kids are being entertained by tv.

So, yes, there is definitely some evidence of teacher laziness if you're looking for it.


Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:35 pm
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I believe that there are lazy teachers. Some teachers just have a bad attitude about teaching and you have to wonder why they are still teaching. For example, I have overheard one teacher saying, "I am not paid enough to put so much time and energy into it [teaching]." Obviously, we do not go into the teaching profession for the money, so why do teachers complain about not making a lot of money when they begin the profession knowing that they will be underpaid? Does the lack of money make teachers grow cold to teaching? I just do not understand how so many teachers get burned out on it and become lazy and careless. I just know that I don't what it to happen to me.


Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:04 pm
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We all know it, but maybe we all havn't seen it, but there are lazy teachers. I don't know how she ever got away with it, but a high school teacher I had was an excellent history teacher, but they also gave her physcology to teach in the afternoons. All the students knew it, but I don't know if they administration knew it, but this class was a joke. Only seniors were allowed to take the class and we all had heard that you didn't do anything in that class. With my case of senoritis I signed up immediatly. The first day of class she didn't even show up. The times she did show up she let us do whatever we wanted including homework, reading, games, or laying out in the sun right outside her classroom. I don't mean to be telling on my school or this teacher, because I loved her has a history teacher. I just think that she could have put some effort into learning something about the course she was teaching rather than using that as a free period.

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Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:39 pm
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There are lazy teachers in all schools and like Summer said most of us has witnessed some type of lazy teacher. As frustrating as this is for all of us while doing my observations I have came to realize that these teacher have taught me more about teaching and what not to do rather than the best way to get things done. Like all of you have stated this is very frustrating for future teachers but at the same time I like to use these bad experience as learning tools for improving my teaching.


Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:33 pm
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Oooh. Lazy teachers. Lazy perhaps, but driven by another evil undercurrent--discouragement.

Last Wednesday at PS Jones Middle School in Beaufort County, I too faced an uncomfortable situation in the teacher's lounge. "Get out now," said one grizzly faced teacher, with haggard lines in his face etching the frustration he felt. "You've got to be crazy to teach here, let alone teach at all," agreed another. The art teacher I was observing nodded silently, her eyes burning with some sort of inner turmoil. "Seriously, get out of education," the grizzly man said again. I nodded sadly, and looked out the window. When I left I was miserable with discouragement, not so much at the prospect of teaching, but at how disillusioned so many teachers have become. I need not explain why they're discouraged, we all can conjecture as to the reasons. God help us to never become like that.


Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:17 am
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As with any profession, there are good apples and bad apples. I think plenty of people get burned out and keep teaching only because that's what they're used to doing and don't really want to change. However, there is an underlying concern that distresses me. We've ALL experienced the bad teacher. Some more than others. Who's in the middle of this problem? The students. It's scary that there are so many bad apples out there. The students' learning suffers at the hands of a lazy or uncaring teacher. I think we should maybe be able to evaluate teachers and find out if they're not meeting expectations or helping students to learn, or if they're just plain burned out. Perhaps there are systems in place, but apparently it doesn't work that well. It's so cruel to not use class time to not teach students.


Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:16 pm
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I do unfortunately admit that I believe there are lazy teachers as well. They think teaching is easy and look forward to having their summers off and that is all they care about. They enjoy way too much their time in the teachers' lounge, even though they probably don't deserve the break. Teaching is by far, not an easy job. People that think it is/will be are insane. I know it's going to be hard, but it will be so worth it if we put forth the right effort and truly try to make a difference.

Like many others, I too had an encounter with a teacher that had negative things to say. This was my former 6th grade math/science teacher. I ran into her in a public setting (a restaurant) over spring break. She didn't remember who I was, and quite frankly I didn't really like her all that much either when I had her in 6th grade. We got to talking though and I told her I was an elementary ed major at Appalachian. She kinda looked at me with "Why in the world do you want to be a teacher?!" It was the whole "are you sure?!" questioning. I am sure! I want to be a teacher. I am tired of hearing teachers and others for that matter try to talk me out of it! I understand that some people get burnt out or are lazier than others to begin with. Those are not the kind of teachers I want teaching my future children. Teaching is not for everyone! I would rather people teach that really want to be there and put their all into it, making a difference in the lives of the students they teach, as opposed to lazy ones that don't care. I know too that teaching is obviously not about a big salary. I am okay with that. I just really wish there were more people in education for the right reasons.


Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:42 pm
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My mom is a teacher. She is not allowed to leave the school(if she wants a full days pay) before 3:15 which is 30 minutes after the students leave. Many of the teachers in her school will walk out at 3:15 on the dot and not carry anything out with them. My mom will stay and work until atleast 5 everyday and still bring home a bunch of stuff to grade or get ready for the next days lessons. I had to do some classroom observations at my mom's school one day and I sat in on one of the other second grade teachers. As the students did their book work, the teacher graded papers. In my mom's class, as the students did their paperwork, my mom would walk around the class making sure that everyone was on task and understood what they were learning. Personally, I hope to follow my moms example and be a more devoted teacher. I know that just means more work for me but I would rather know that the students understand the concepts being taught so that we do not have to revist the topic later when they don't remember how to do it.


Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:34 pm
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I too have witnessed lazy teachers in my recent observations of local schools. My only hope is that since we have seen it and recognized it, we will learn from others mistakes. In this profession it is easy to become “burned outâ€


Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:19 pm
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I feel ashamed that the teachers that you observed being lazy were males. The one thing that i can offer is that at some point teaching does become just a job. It basicaly is up to the individual teacher as to whether or not they let themselves begin to veiw it as a just a job. I remember in high school their were several teachers, men and women that gave off a perception of being lazy. Unfortunately for me some of them were PE teachers. Now I have to start out fresh with a tarnished image. People are already going to think that I wil be a lazy roll out the balls PE teacher. teaching is something that we must try to maintain a certain amount of conviction to push forward with to keep it from being just a job.


Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:58 pm
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I agree with all of you guys in that some teachers are lazy. This really bothers me. This is not a field for the lazy in my opinion. Teaching is a hard job, because of the time and energy it takes to be a good teacher. I'm going in to teaching because I care about the state of our young people and I think I can make a difference. Teachers who complain about the lack of money being a factor need help, because they knew when they decided to become a teacher that teacher's weren't paid enough. None of us are teaching for the money!


Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:31 am
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There are lazy teachers in every school. Hopefully, everyone in this class will replace a lazy teacher and we will make it an honorable profession again.


Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:16 pm
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Janet is right. There will always be lazy teachers that you run into. We have to go into the field with the mind set that we do not want to be one of those and take what we have learned and use it to become a great, aspiring teacher.

If we all set a goal of this, that will be at least 20+ going into the classroom as non-lazy teachers.
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Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:54 pm
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I know that there are those teachers we come across in our internships, classrooms, and past school experiences. There are those that have been really great and really influential to us as well. I have a short story to tell.

I had a great, awesome, drama teacher in the 9th grade. she was fantastic. So inventive and creative, really had been places and knew things about life, that we as 14 year olds were so eager to uncover ourselves. The excitement for our soon rebellion in our soon to be young adulthood laid in her stories. Well I got in contact with her recently, and I hadn's spoken with her for awhile. Come to find out she was now out of teaching and working with local theaters. Now she isn't retirement age in the slightest, and I asked her why she left. Her reply was "I love the kids. That was enough when I was young, and maybe still could have been. But I grew up, had children of my own. I had a family. When I needed the support of fellow teachers now turned administrators I was denied, when I look toward parents for help with their children I was denied and finally when I went to make a change I was denied." She explained that life happens and as it does it becomes more apparent and the hypocrisy of the education system enters your classroom. She fought with parents more than she taught the children. She spent the money for her own kids allowance raises on supplies her adminstrator decided to give to "extracurricular activites". She finally had to leave because..well she never really said, but I think we all can see why.

When we give our teachers so little to look forward to as a country letting the educational system remain the same without radical change, how can you expect everyone to be so strong? Lazy teachers are unfortunate, and unavoidable. I doubt though that they planned their career to be this way either.


Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:18 am
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