Classroom Chaos

[hugoboss]

Anyone watch this on C5 last night? I was amazed at how badly some of the kids were behaving!

I have been observing classes in secondary schools for a while now, but haven't seen behaviour that bad yet. Anyone know how realistic/representative that prog was? ta

[Octavius]

Did they know the camera's were pointing at them?

[hugoboss]

no it was secret filming. the teacher had a camera on her blouse and one in her briefcase.

[5029]

Having watched it with a teacher who has been teaching since the 70s, i would say it was realistic, my friend kept agreeing with what was happening, saying she had been in that situation and thats exactly how they behave.

 

In saying that though, the woman doing the teaching was a sub, who get worse treatment than full time teachers, and also seemed quite out of practice with dealing with the children.  During a fight she just stood there uselessly shouting "whats going on!  whats going on!"  By the end of the prog we had switched off because she was getting on our nerves

[michele0123]

I worked as a supply teacher in the 1980's and for a short time in 2001 - 2002.  Supply teaching has always been tough but I would say that the behaviour shown was completely accurate.  In fact it wasn't as bad as it can be.  In the '80's as a newly qualified teacher I had little trouble dealing with even the 'worst' classes - in 2002 the 'best' weren't as good as the worst of the '80's.  I think most of it is down to the fact that in the old days there were lots of very experienced teachers in schools who had been in their schools for years.  There was continuity and teachers were respected by parents who had been taught by the same teachers as their kids.  In the 80's experienced teachers were encouraged to take early retirement with pension enhancements, so that heads could employ  newly qualified teachers who were cheaper and experienced.   Stability is affected, couple this with constantly changing educational goalposts and massive anonymous schools and you have a recipe for exactly what you get - chaos!!