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Teacher assessment

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UncleEbenezer
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Teacher assessment

#374006

Postby UncleEbenezer » January 6th, 2021, 6:17 pm

OK, we know ruthlessness is a component of more-or-less any big success in life.

Now it'll go right down to the level of school grades. Those whose parents, or more rarely themselves, can inspire terror in teachers with credible threats:

  • The threat of physical violence such as beating up or smashing of house/car/etc. Or the threat to teacher's family.
  • The threat of lawyers. Probably a greater threat, as those who might credibly make it are more focussed on those grades, and lawyers can do more damage than any beating up short of GBH.
  • The threat of career- and life-destroying allegations, most obviously of sexual improprieties.

Any teachers here? I don't suppose you can anticipate how you'll react until it happens.

didds
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374022

Postby didds » January 6th, 2021, 6:45 pm

Are you touting for business UE?

stevensfo
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374083

Postby stevensfo » January 6th, 2021, 9:31 pm

We seem to hear a lot from teachers, parents and others, but not so much from the Examination boards. Since a lot of work has gone into designing and organising a syllabus for each program of study, could they not develop regular tests to be administered online during the year, as well as essays and assignments to be completed within a certain time? Since we all have off-days, they could agree to discount some of the lowest marks (as I believe is done elsewhere), allow tests to be repeated (though with different questions) and involve teachers only when a student was borderline. The results would then be in the hands of software and anonymous examiners as it was in the past, and not the teachers.

Re. parents terrorising teachers, for my own childhood and even my own kids, I think it was usually the other way around. 8-)

Steve

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374094

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » January 6th, 2021, 10:31 pm

I'm a little disappointed. I thought Uncle was doing a review of Teachers falling down water.

Well it is the snug isn't it ;)

AiY

88V8
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374103

Postby 88V8 » January 6th, 2021, 10:54 pm

School league tables will of course be selflessly disregarded when teachers submit their gradings...

One bad option or another.
But I can't really criticise as I don't know what else one can do now.
I do however criticise the fact that they hadn't decided what to do and how to do it months ago.

V8

Bminusrob
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374190

Postby Bminusrob » January 7th, 2021, 9:21 am

We are living in difficult times, and kids are getting the brunt of it. I don't have a solution, but I worry that some will be badly affected. I remember when I took my 'O' levels, I got distinctly average grades, but raced ahead for my 'A' levels and did very well, geting a place at a very good university. Moving forward 30+ years, one of my (twin) sons also got very average GCSE grades, but hit the ground running for 'A' levels. The transformation was remarkable, but if that happened in the current climate, who would know? In my son's case, his hard work got him a place at Oxford, and he has never looked back. As I said, the kids are getting the brunt of it.

bungeejumper
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374207

Postby bungeejumper » January 7th, 2021, 10:26 am

Not for the first time, I'm grateful for the day 40 years ago when I finally quit the teaching profession and said goodbye to 15-hour working days and 24-hour worrying. (Yes, we had threatening parents even in those days, and some pretty nasty violent kids as well.)

But the flak that teachers get these days must be more than demoralising. And all those cheery people insisting that teachers (obviously!) have nothing to fear from the Covid virus, because the kids are somehow immune from passing it on to others, must be properly flattening. No, I don't know what can be done to repair the damage that Covid is wreaking on the nation's schoolchildren, but I suspect that Private Pike isn't it. ;)
Bminusrob wrote:I remember when I took my 'O' levels, I got distinctly average grades, but raced ahead for my 'A' levels and did very well, geting a place at a very good university. Moving forward 30+ years, one of my (twin) sons also got very average GCSE grades, but hit the ground running for 'A' levels.

Amen to that, with knobs on. In teacher training, we were required to read Piaget's theories on children's mental development, which weren't always right but which did come up with some essential truths. Not the least of which was the idea that a child's developing brain needs to have reached a certain physical stage before certain disciplines suddenly "snap" into place.

Thus, we learned, a ten year old has no developed sense of history, and the subject simply won't make proper sense until he's twelve or maybe fourteen - or, in my case, maybe 18. (I got a grade 9 fail at history O level, which was quite funny in retrospect because I've written a few books about political history since then.) Maths is a subject that you either 'get' at age twelve, or much later, or maybe never at all. (I barely scraped an O level pass, for which I was eternally grateful, but in later life I found myself doing fancy statistical stuff for commercial clients. I was never that great at forced-speed structured learning.)

And don't even get me started on spelling punctuation. Most normal kids have a light-bulb moment at age thirteen or thereabouts, when spelling suddenly falls into place, but it can be much earlier or much later, and it generally happens almost overnight. (Punctuation may come much later, if at all.) The developing brain is a peculiar place.

So yes, the prospect is always there that this year's disruption might block a future career avenue if a "late developer" pupil is locked into a historical perception of his abilities that doesn't hold water any more. In practice, I suspect that these anomalies do eventually come out in the wash during later life, but that won't console everybody.

BJ

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374209

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » January 7th, 2021, 10:29 am

A petition asking parliament to debate prioritising teachers and school staff for the vaccine can be found here

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554316

AiY

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374237

Postby gryffron » January 7th, 2021, 11:02 am

But do teachers NEED the vaccine? Although children do spread the virus, they spread it in only very small quantities, meaning only the very vulnerable are really at risk of catching it from them.

According to the union 150 teachers have died of covid. That's a death rate of 0.03%. vs 0.1% in the general population. Of course there are no very elderly teachers, against which some of them may not have caught it at school. But it certainly doesn't sound like a compelling case for priority.

Gryff

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374242

Postby swill453 » January 7th, 2021, 11:07 am

gryffron wrote:But do teachers NEED the vaccine? Although children do spread the virus, they spread it in only very small quantities, meaning only the very vulnerable are really at risk of catching it from them.

Bold statement. Got any evidence?

Scott.

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374247

Postby gryffron » January 7th, 2021, 11:16 am

Only the fact that nowhere in the world are schoolchildren, their teachers, nor their parents dropping dead in large quantities from covid (or even average quantities).

I have discussed at great length on the various covid threads the fact that disease and infection is all about the numbers of virus you are exposed to. This isn't really the thread, or board, for such a discussion.

Gryff

swill453
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374252

Postby swill453 » January 7th, 2021, 11:19 am

gryffron wrote:I have discussed at great length on the various covid threads the fact that disease and infection is all about the numbers of virus you are exposed to. This isn't really the thread, or board, for such a discussion.

Are you going to report yourself, or do you want someone else to? ;-)

Scott.

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374295

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » January 7th, 2021, 12:38 pm

gryffron wrote:But do teachers NEED the vaccine? Although children do spread the virus, they spread it in only very small quantities, meaning only the very vulnerable are really at risk of catching it from them.

According to the union 150 teachers have died of covid. That's a death rate of 0.03%. vs 0.1% in the general population. Of course there are no very elderly teachers, against which some of them may not have caught it at school. But it certainly doesn't sound like a compelling case for priority.

Gryff

Are you sure that 150 teachers dying is not a compelling case for them to receive the vaccine with an increased priority? I'm not. I think they have a right to be concerned and a right to be heard. Like many they've done an excellent job in exceptionally difficult circumstances.

AiY

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374336

Postby dealtn » January 7th, 2021, 2:11 pm

88V8 wrote:
I do however criticise the fact that they hadn't decided what to do and how to do it months ago.

V8


When precisely, how many months ago? Before the current wave when it didn't look necessary.

Maybe they did decide, at least as a contingency, and that's why the announcement of teacher assessment was made relatively easily at about the same time as the lockdown. Sounds almost as if the plan was in place that if a second lockdown was agreed to be necessary then the plan for teacher assessment (agreed "months ago") would be put into action.

Do you expect to be notified of all contingency planning so you aren't disappointed going forward?

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374341

Postby dealtn » January 7th, 2021, 2:17 pm

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:
gryffron wrote:But do teachers NEED the vaccine? Although children do spread the virus, they spread it in only very small quantities, meaning only the very vulnerable are really at risk of catching it from them.

According to the union 150 teachers have died of covid. That's a death rate of 0.03%. vs 0.1% in the general population. Of course there are no very elderly teachers, against which some of them may not have caught it at school. But it certainly doesn't sound like a compelling case for priority.

Gryff

Are you sure that 150 teachers dying is not a compelling case for them to receive the vaccine with an increased priority? I'm not. I think they have a right to be concerned and a right to be heard. Like many they've done an excellent job in exceptionally difficult circumstances.

AiY


To make it compelling I would want to see how that profession compares with others, and with other possible causes of death etc. (Should we ban all teachers from driving, for instance, to ensure they don't die in road accidents on the way to work too?)

That 0.03% vs 0.1% might be sufficient evidence suggesting it wasn't at all compelling, although, as acknowledged it would need to be age adjusted (and possible other adjustments too) not just the bald number.

Disclosure: My wife is a school worker, so not just speaking as a neutral observer.

88V8
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Re: Teacher assessment

#374354

Postby 88V8 » January 7th, 2021, 2:49 pm

dealtn wrote:Do you expect to be notified of all contingency planning so you aren't disappointed going forward?

The Education Secretary, in whom teachers have such faith, said in Parliament that he was 'consulting with OFQUAL'.
That doesn't sound as if arrangements had already been agreed.

Notified? No. But I do expect there to be oven-ready plans.
Since when was it not crystal clear that there would be a 'second wave' come Autumn? Which might scupper the exams.
Head in sand in the hope that it won't be needed, does not amount to planning.

V8

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374361

Postby dealtn » January 7th, 2021, 3:03 pm

88V8 wrote:
dealtn wrote:Do you expect to be notified of all contingency planning so you aren't disappointed going forward?

The Education Secretary, in whom teachers have such faith, said in Parliament that he was 'consulting with OFQUAL'.
That doesn't sound as if arrangements had already been agreed.

Notified? No. But I do expect there to be oven-ready plans.
Since when was it not crystal clear that there would be a 'second wave' come Autumn? Which might scupper the exams.
Head in sand in the hope that it won't be needed, does not amount to planning.

V8


I see your use of the word "might"! Exactly why I said they were contingent plans!

Consulting with OFQUAL could have been exactly as I described. "We think it is time to invoke our agreed contingency plan and the consultation is securing your agreement as well as keeping you in the loop etc."

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Re: Teacher assessment

#374836

Postby 88V8 » January 8th, 2021, 4:36 pm

dealtn wrote:Consulting with OFQUAL could have been exactly as I described. "We think it is time to invoke our agreed contingency plan and the consultation is securing your agreement as well as keeping you in the loop etc."

Had that been the case, I'm sure he would have said so in Parliament. after all he knows he is generally thought a prat, here was a chance to show otherwise.
But noooo.....

And now we have this nonsense about schools being shut except they aren't.
And what happened to the school CV19 mass testing. Perhaps that was only church schools.
Ye gods, who'd be a teacher.

V8


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