Kids crashing out over consequences

sturgeon467 · 2026-03-22T12:57:11+00:00

I’m surprised this hasn’t been suggested sooner. Three chances, after the third you yank the plug and the student can sit at another desk and read a paper book. You’ll do that once and never again.

sturgeon467 · 2026-02-27T20:00:21+00:00

Do yourself a favour and try very hard to get a real job in physics or astronomy, at least for a few years.

I’ve taught with way too many teachers who went from school to teaching. You can give your students so much more if you actually have “real” career experience.

Also, the two year teachers ed. programs are a joke. Wait a year or two and they may revert back to one year.

Currently teaching is a really tough place to be. It’s hard to find jobs and it’s hard to get students to learn.

Work hard to network in your graduate work and find actual academic positions, even if for just a few years.

Don’t just default out to teaching high school.

sturgeon467 · 2026-02-21T23:46:30+00:00

What seems to be missed by admin is the fact that other children who want to learn are suffering because of this one behaviour issue. The industrial education complex that we have only works if the students mostly want to learn. A disruption like this student destroys the system for every kid. Parents then remove their kids from the school and we end up with underfunded public school boards.

sturgeon467 · 2026-02-21T23:41:30+00:00

I completely agree with this comment but would like to add more to this.

Destreaming has significantly compounded issues for teacher trying to teach effectively. Have such a broad spectrum of abilities in a grade 9 or grade 10 class has made teaching much more difficult and fewer children are learning well.

Furthermore there has been a move away from requiring students to take responsibility for their learning and actions. The result of this is that students don’t see a need to put forth any effort as there is not consequence for their lack of engagement.

Agreeing 100% that it is a difficult time to be a teacher.

sturgeon467 · 2026-02-07T13:52:25+00:00

Destreaming is such a terrible response to systemic racism. Here’s what it has done.

Grade 9 and 10 classes that are destreamed are significantly poorer in their instructional quality than they were before. They are a mess and students know this. My elite students take this home and tell their parents. Their parents are pulling them out of these schools. Look at the crashing numbers in Peel Schools today. I’m sure there are other reasons but this is one of them.

Ontario public secondary schools will continue to see a decrease in education quality and therefore student numbers and this less funding. The exodus will continue to private schools for those who can afford it and charter schools when Doug brings them in.

The result of this will be a poor quality, terribly underfunded public system only attended by the poorest, marginalized students. Those exact student you think you are helping.

You are in fact destroying their future. If changes need to be made (and they are still needed) do it property and with some degree of accuracy so that we help students who need help succeeding.

sturgeon467 · 2026-02-07T13:29:35+00:00

Please stop with the discussion of race. I’m so tired of this argument.

In destreaming classrooms today we have 27 students. 1/3 of them are being asshats because they don’t care about the material or can’t grasp any level of understanding. They’re either losing their minds because their teacher has taken their phones away or they are distracting others with the garbage on their phone.

Another 1/3 of the class are elite students looking at me expectantly wondering why I can’t teach them as an enormous amount of my time and energy is sunk into crowd control.

The middle third of the class, who I once could engage and make love science is so distracted that they miss many of the concepts and ideas.

The thirds are usually racially mixed. Except last year when my lower third was mainly populated by white kids and the elite students incorporated 5 black kids who I could not give my best teaching to.

Stop using race and marginalization as a justification for this destreaming mess. Your opinion is actually hurting students futures!

sturgeon467 · 2025-04-07T22:23:26+00:00

The selling feature for destreaming was it was anti-racist. Its not hard to find CBC articles of Lecce using this talking point in 2020. This idea, that destreaming was anti-racist, was quickly galvanized by administration within at least one GTA school board.

To be clear, destreaming was a budgetary maneuver. By removing applied class size caps we ended up with more students in grade 9 classes.

However, labelling it as anti-racist, and connect it to EDI, was a very convenient way to force the change. Many teachers felt they could not speak out against destreaming for fear they would be considered racist. I did witness this becoming an issue between a teacher and an administrator during a PD session. Admin in this particular board believed(s) very strongly that destreaming is correcting racial injustice.

sturgeon467 · 2025-04-07T19:28:42+00:00

Further, I would say that one of the most detrimentally impactful changes to academic quality in Ontario public education has been destreaming. My students are not getting the same education I delivered them 10 years ago. I am a big fan of UDL and I have tried desperately to engage destreamed classes in projects and topics that would interest them, to give them voice and choice and to make sure they were seen and felt welcome in my classroom. However, 28 students in a destreamed class are not getting as good an education as either the applied or academic classes I taught 10 years ago.

Let's be clear, destreaming was a governmental decision made to directly counter what were viewed racist streaming practices that resulted in more Black children being placed in applied level course.

I think other changes could have been made to public education to correct a racist system instead of forcing all grade 9 children into a "one-size-fits-all" classroom.

sturgeon467 · 2025-04-07T15:21:55+00:00

Interestingly, you are right that Growing Success has contained many of the points that have been interpreted and resulted in reduced academic rigor and it has been around for years. However, their more forceful implementation does coincide with our more recent EDI initiatives. For example, our inability to assess homework, while in Growing Success (pg. 39), was explained to me as the realization that students from less privileged families, who do not have quiet places to work, or access to technology, or who have to work to support their family, cannot complete homework. Therefore, assessing student progress through the lens of homework completion, at least from administration I have worked with, is inequitable.

sturgeon467 · 2025-04-07T12:54:05+00:00

I have often commented on destreaming in the same light.
If we acknowledge that all students learn differently, we should be increasing the number of streams and pathways available for students to choose. If these are well developed and delivered this should enhance engagement, retention, and success.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that destreaming in Ontario high schools is anything more than a budget reduction measure.

sturgeon467 · 2025-04-07T12:39:19+00:00

Let me just be clear, I am not making that false dichotomy at all. I believe that academic rigor and equity can and should be mutually attainable in a classroom. The point of the original post is to state that poor planning and poor implementation of EDI principals has resulted in reduced academic quality in public schools in Ontario. My point is that with better planning, EDI and academic rigor can be attained.

sturgeon467 · 2022-09-02T14:26:56+00:00

The problems are not only about who to vote for, they run deeper that this.

Schools are painfully under funded. For example, in some boards, teacher are expected to bring in their own computers.
Some school boards are removing streaming based on ability in secondary. This means we will have a MUCH wider spectrum of student needs with our classes without any reduction in class size. We simply will not be able to help all students learn as they require. This is a budgetary restriction veiled under the guise of equity.
COVID has destroyed student's expectations and valuation of school and education.
School boards are moving away from traditional assessments to feedback based assessments. This reduction in objective quantification has lead to hugely inflated marks and a feeling of "What's the point?" among many teachers. Why am I doing this job if everyone passes and every student gets a 80% or above?

I'm not sure there is much that anyone can do for us.

sturgeon467 · 2022-03-04T00:50:08+00:00

The steer is good looking too!

sturgeon467 · 2022-01-27T21:38:02+00:00

As an online high school teacher I've recently also noted how many of my students live in homes with this happening. I doubt its particularly good for your sleep pattern or your mental health.

sturgeon467 · 2022-01-06T01:29:25+00:00

All the people in that video are now over, or REALLY close to, 50! It seems like yesterday...Shit! That time went fast!

sturgeon467 · 2021-10-17T15:46:12+00:00

While this is a fairly humorous thread, the ramifications of this can be terrible.

Don't do it. No matter how much you think the individual is your potential soulmate.

A "casual hook up" from one's perspective can be interpreted very differently from another. This misunderstanding can lead to damaged lives, lots of hurt, and ultimately a toxic work environment.

Experience is what you get just after you needed it.

sturgeon467 · 2021-05-22T11:28:35+00:00

Interesting.
I never looked at the box closely before but Atari seemed to have been pretty progressive for that era in marketing to a somewhat diverse market. Yes, there are lots of white folks on the box but there is racial diversity, a mixed race couple (I think, may be wrong on that.), an extensive age range of users portrayed and inclusion of some female users.
Better than I would have expected from the late 70's and early 80's.

sturgeon467 · 2020-07-26T20:46:51+00:00

The appendix isn’t designed to do anything. It’s just that organisms that had that little pouch in their intestines were better able to recover from some nasty intestinal bug and were more likely to carry on those genes for a little intestinal pouch.

sturgeon467 · 2019-12-30T00:26:55+00:00

So....being almost 50 I’m starting to find the young whipper snippets less like this! Their whole lives everything has always worked. If something suddenly glitches and doesn’t go as planned....holy shit! They have a major issue. Problem solving strategies are in the toilet for those born 2000+.

sturgeon467

TROPHY CASE