A teacher friend of mine was upset about a negative comment someone wrote about her on rate my teacher. She is a good teacher, a very caring person and very sensitive.
I know I shouldn't have done it, but I did it anyway. I went to the site and rated her every day until she ended up being portrayed as the teacher she is. What I did might not be ethical, but I don't care. I eased the hurt of a wonderful person. Besides, if the site takes anonymous ratings that are bad, it might as well take the ones that are good too.
230 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 230 of 230Some of you teachers need to get a thicker skin. You feel disrespected by a teenager ranting? Give me a break! If they don't write about you on this site, they'll talk about you with their friends! Teens aren't as dumb as you believe, though. I don't take many comments on RMT for a grain of salt but some are helpful. I even wrote some comments. They weren't kind. I am not trying to get a teacher fired, I don't wish to get them in trouble but I was failing a class because he wasn't teaching it well! I was doing the work and listening but his teaching was HORRIBLE! I felt like it was important to give other students a "heads up" about his teaching. RMT is an excellent site to do just that. I understand why teachers hate it. they hate seeing anything bad about themselves. No one likes that. However, if you look at the comments and look into yourself, you may begin to see room for change. Teachers that are being called a "stripper" - this is obviously inappropriate but maybe you were dressing a bit provocatively-unintentionally of course. Teachers complaining about getting poor ratings-look into yourself for improvement. Don't point fingers at naïve, stupid students. We have the right to share our opinions about you and if you want a site to share opinions about us students, strike up the idea at your next union meeting. :)
Actually, how do you know the comment was from one of her own students? It could have been from anyone.From another teacher, from a student in another class, even from the janitor, or partner.These sites are not controlled, anyone can say anything. If you want feedback from your students a form should be given to them or they should be able to do so anonymously online through the school/university. Therefore you know that it is actually the students that are commenting on a class, course that they have actually taken with a specific teacher/professor. What you did is not unethical, it shows that you care and I would have done exactly the same.
lol u guys suck
Last comment ^ was by a punk kid. LOL, yes, I called you out. And to the previous comment posted on the 27th, our union meeting? Really? That's cute an so typical of you fringe fanatics. Maybe we should donate our dues too? HA! You really want teachers to share their opinion about students? Good luck getting that to stand up legally because most would be minors and I'm sure mom or dad would be in a rush to sue anybody who would dare call out one of their little darlings because they could do no wrong. Frankly, as a veteran teacher, this country will rue the day they started to attack the entire public school system and push out the best teachers because of "cost" and constant bombardment of social media nonsense. Give it a generation and you'll see what I'm talking about...
If you want to rate me as a teacher, you should have the balls to put your name there. Parents and their children can be good at sneaky attacks like this rate a teacher site but wouldn't ever 'talk' to you before forming a negative opinion. Most of mine are good but one says that I don't do anything for missed labs or provide feedback. That's plainly not true. No lab = 0 and at least a letter grade drop. I also spend 16 hours of my own time correcting labs 4 x a year. I put copious amounts of feedback on their labs. This comment is a lie. That is libelous to me.
I know how you feel, but I prefer not that to happen.
I am a high school student(yes, don't ask why) and for us students, it is one of the only places we can actually express our own true feelings about how our teachers acted. Although she has you know her maybe a good person, and their might have been some false reviews, but please consider that probably some of those negative reviews were true feelings of real students.
i dont agree with what you did a teacher may be a great friend outside school but they may be a different person inside school, so its not fair what with what you have done i know a lot of teachers that are very rude inside school but are very nice around there friends,
yeah i agree this one time my teacher shit herself and we all rated her 5/5 cos it was funni. lol.
As a student that uses the ratemyprof site for reviews, this doesn't seem right to me. I know that people can say negative things, but if they are consistently negative then it might be a genuine issue. Also, the negative ones (I'd like to think) are also to help the teacher with issues: like maybe they are talking to fast or students feel they aren't available to talk to outside of class.
I have seen unfair or biased reviews as well, but I feel like if I am smart enough to figure that out on sight, then so are a lot of others.
I have also had some really bad experiences with teachers that makes me wonder about ratings. I had a math teacher in 8th grade who chucked erasers at kids, slapped a student, told us that she wished there was a room in the back of the class where she could lock us in until we starved to death, and made kids cry. But this was only her math class. She also taught choir and they loved her. She was nice to them, she only taught math (and she said this herself) because there were was only one choir period and she needed more than that to be considered a full-time teacher.
Both the good reviews and bad reviews were true, depending on which class the students were in.
While your friend may be a good friend, it does not necessarily make her a good teacher. Obviously the person who posted this review had a reason for doing so. People who do what you just did make this site even more unreliable. RTM, while extremely unethical, is for students (you know, people who have actually sat in the class and observed the teachers)to review their teachers. It is not for partial parties to post reviews when they have not had the teacher.
Please don't do this again.
While there are many teachers who still are sincerely interested in teaching our children, in inspiring their young minds and helping them grow into responsible adults, i have noticed that many of the younger teachers see teaching only as a well paid job, having little enthusiasm and little interest in whether or not their pupils are actually learning anything. These teachers are paid VERY well for 12 months per year but working only 10, they have numerous paid professional development days and sick days every year. They should be grateful for having a fairly easy job and remember that they are perhaps the single greatest influence in the development of a young child, next to his or her parents. Is it too much to ask that they take an interest and show actual concern for their charges? Toronto, Ontario
It was her fault to take it personally, and you should not have done that. People are entitled to their opinions, and you may have not been right in this situation.
Making all comments needing to be approved by the author is just a dumb excuse to make it look like you're right.
1. RMT is anonymous and unmoderated, meaning there is a very small but real chance a student, parent, co-worker, or troll will use it to completely tear a teacher down.
2. RMT (as a site for parents and students) should not be used as an evaluative tool for teachers, and if it is, then it is perfectly fine to anonymously and repeatedly boost your rating. If the administrators recognize that strategy as a problem, then they have the power to recognize how using the site is a problem.
3. Teacher can use the negative ratings helpfully. I do not mean "if you were called a slut, watch how you dress" like some people here suggest. Young female teachers will be lusted after by adolescent males no matter what they wear, and vice versa (check out the excellent @everydaysexism if you want to see how common this behavior is. What I mean is if a wave of hate-reviews start streaming in the day after you speak to a student, you know something is going on. Maybe you did not realize that you use bullying, intimidating, and shaming tactics on students. However, those are common corrective techniques that will infuriate students and their parents. While the bile is unwarranted, you can still improve.
4. There will be more negative comments than positive because the angry minority has a strong desire to be heard. By informing students of the site, and teaching them some internet etiquette, you can personally make the site more useful for you.
5. There are entitled students, out of touch parents, hopeless teachers. There is a growing trend of teachers taking the blame for poor student achievement, and the making of this behavior socially acceptable through laws, common portrayal, union bashing etc. simply teaches a new generation of children that they are not responsible for their own actions or the results. Hopefully this trend stops soon. However, there is only a very small number of "bad" people out there, and most of the time you are dealing with a "bad" student, parent, or teacher, you are really just dealing with a good person who has a different set of priorities than you. The only way to discover how much you actually do have in common is through real communication.
6. Most people going through the site can recognize what is hate-speech and ranting as opposed to thoughtful and well-intentioned feedback. "What a ho, I'd tap that" is not the comment of a thoughtful well-intentioned individual. Similarly, "he does not always button his shirt up entirely, and he must know that bicycle shorts are not appropriate classroom attire" would be the most politely phrased hate speech I have ever heard.
7. If you read through all the comments here, it was clear when the same troll came back, even months after his last post, to post basically the same message. If one or two people are spamming your account, most people will be able to tell. If you follow the process of flagging your posts, let all your students and parents know about the site, and teach students by example the value of positivity and constructive criticism, I think much of the personal problems go away. if your administrator thinks it is a good source of program reviews, have a calm and civil discussion with your administrator, and move up the chain of command if possible.
As a college professor.... I do not take any of the comments found on these sites seriously. Good or bad. My students have plenty of opportunities, throughout the course of a semester, to communicate with me face to face. The sites are bias either way. I encourage my students to talk to me directly. I make sure to lead by example in the classroom. If someone is doing a great job... I tell them so. If they appear to be struggling... I provide feedback and make myself available if need be. I also ask them for their opinions. I am there to fulfill the role of facilitator, not a tyrant. No need for a website. These sites merely enable poor communication skills. Confrontation when articulated properly, is a good thing. Sad that our technology is so misused and abused. Sadder.... That we allow it to continue. If a student has legitimate complaints about a teacher, there are appropriate avenues to do so within the school district or university.
Many teachers and professors have course evaluations/reflections for students to give feedback. Teachers are in the people business and their style and personality will never connect with all. I would prefer 100 percent participation to be shown on RMT verses the micro percentage of reports. I have taught over 2000 students in my tenure, but only have a few RMT reviews. My RMT reviews are good, but I would be irritated if only the few students whom I did not provide a positive connection or experience provide the community with a negative image of my teaching. That said, I know where I stand with students so I really would not lose sleep over a number of crappy posts.
Ninety percent of teachers are dedicated and care about what they do and ten percent walk the dog.
.
Contact with bankruptcy law firms just outside of your neighborhood
to receive idea in your area. While I am not directly advocating filing bankruptcy without an attorney as an easy option here,
I know that bankruptcy can assist you with paying back your
debt and put smiles to your gloomy face once again. "When the attorneys finish reading the book and offering their suggestions and comments, I can include those in the final edition for publication," Zeigler said, adding: "All the attorneys' comments will be considered, but the responsibility accompanying the book is mine alone.
my blog post Long Beach ()
as a parent i fully agree !
I accidentally ran across this. I have raised 4 children that are all in college and doing well. I hated the public school system, I had to sneak in the school to catch the teacher doing what my daughter said, screaming in a boys face half an inch away. I think this is like the cops that hate being outed, instead of responding by whining about bad ratings raise the bar. The teacher that you changed her ratings I hope you get your know being a great person, or friend does not make a great teacher. Respond with dignity to the post, to the raters. By the way when you talk to that teacher about your kid, it will get some relief but the teacher will just be more pissed, and take it out on your kid. Been there done that. I would give the teacher, then the principle one try each to get everything right, and if not go to the school board. If that does not work there is nothing like the local newspaper. Teachers may have to deal with classrooms, and kids, but this kid has to deal with the repercussion of a bad teacher his whole life. I also know there are many wonderful teachers, but to the school overall your child is part of their "business".
A problem I encounter with these ratings is that they are coming mostly from under-performing students. (they don't say what grade they got). Classes generally follow the bell curve with at least 3 A students and 5 B students in a class of 15 to 25. A and B students are usually on top of the assignments and are rarely absent or tardy. They read the syllabus, follow the guidelines and instructions, manage their time well, and take the time to seek clarification when needed. The poorer students skip class with impunity and expect to be retained even when they have exceeded their allotment. They miss the first week's meetings when syllabi are handed out and discussed. Subsequently, they miss the lecture on the design of and proper use of the text (outline, objectives, discussion, summary, critical thinking questions). Neither do they read the text or the power point outlines of the chapters posted on blackboard to help them digest essential concepts. They are often clueless about when assignments are due even when these are spelled out in the syllabus. Grading rubrics are a mystery to them even when they are told these are based on the outline format provided them so they can use them to succeed. They try to do too much in too little time. Instead of learning from the A student's example, the poor student dismisses them as nerds.
As a teacher I feel I would be able to do more for my students if they came to me so that I could fix and respond to their concerns. An anonymous post allows me no chance to understand in time to help that student. I would want to make sure that I can do all I could. My students do get a chance to rate me in class and it always leads to good discussions that improve my teaching. Posts would just make me sad and frustrated that I could not do anything about it.
My child goes to a highly competitive STEM program. I've recently read the reviews on RMT for all of the teachers in this very selective Science and Math program. Three-quarters of the teachers at our school received NOTHING BUT PRAISE on RMT and the remaining one-quarter received poor to horrible ratings. My student was unlucky enough last year to get two of the teachers who were rated poorly and they were, in fact, TERRIBLE teachers. My student was fortunate enough this year to get one of the highest rated teachers on RMT, and I can honestly say this heavily praised teacher is worth his weight in gold! My only regret with RMT is that I didn't reference the site last year; I would have hired tutors to teach my child what she didn't learn in school. Oh, and for those of you who will recommend that we should have talked to the poor performing teachers in question and to the principal...we did. We are now officially outcasts, and our daughter will never be offered the opportunities her peers are now receiving. We can forget good recommendations to colleges too. Even though STEM is considered crucial to America's future, our most accomplished STEM-oriented programs have teachers who do not know their subject matter and who cannot be held accountable or made to leave. Sorry RMT haters, but there has to be someplace for parents and students to go to get info on bad teachers and not all posts are malicious. Some posts are completely accurate - we know this to be true.
Testing
Sorry to inform you of this, but I'm not a under-performing student who commented on RMT. I have a 90%+ average and I commented on that website. As a student, I feel that it is necessary for me to rate my teachers on how well they teach me. If they taught me well, they receive a good rating, if not then they don't. Many times I was irritated with how some teachers do not teach their classes and simply "go with the flow." To elaborate on this, they let the students who rely on them to learn, suffer by not giving them enough practice, whereas the students who learned the course already continued to laze around. Other teachers I had would not stick to their word about what they are testing and would randomly test things without previously informing the students. Some teachers held grudges and would treat their students poorly (clearly evident) despite the students consistent apologies and attempts to lessen the damage. After experiencing this, of course I would want to get the word out to people.
I've been retired for two years. How do I get the site to remove my name?
I have bben a middle school teacher, a high school teacher and a college professor and I have to tell you, I am amused by the ratings I receive on Rate My Teacher sites. Middle School and High School students opinions of me run the gamut from my appearance and choice of shoes to what grades they received, and college students, who come to me with very little knowledge of much, go on the attack when there is too much work, too little work, etc., etc. I have been called dull, wonderful, kind, uneducated (that one makes me laugh the most) a hard grader, an easy "A"...you name it, I've been called it. Giving this power to students is like anything else in this "I have rights and I will say as I please," (even though I am ignorant) world of education. In time, they will mature and realize their opinions of their teachers don't matter, the subject matter and humanity they learned from them are the only things that do. Lastly, please know it is usually the disgruntled ones, who beg you to change their deserved grades who post on this site. Employers who take this seriously shouldn't be taken seriously themselves. Teach because it is your calling and ignore those who complain about everything and everyone.
I wonder why everyone is anonymous, LOL. I know I'm like eons late in responding. As such I be the same. Getting down to business, first of all, I think it's sweet that the initial post is trying to support her friend. I really don't care whether that's going to throw the poll off because of bias. The issue is about how valid and reliable is RMT? I know for a fact that RMT is not at all reliable when it comes to assessing a teacher. For one, any ONE person can submit at any number of times and thus make the outcome about that person more biased. This person may have this vendetta against this teacher or some grudge. In your case, you're doing it out of altruism and defending your friend which is noble. Besides everyone is doing it on FB anyways. The one thing I can say about how unreliable RMT can be is that because of professional jealousy sometimes, a fellow educator can inflict the most damage. Being anon is easy, online bullying easier. So can anyone really use the information here on RMT or on RMP to gauge a teacher/educator? I highly doubt it. It really becomes a popularity contest. Here's another reason why it is totally unreliable, any teacher can evaluate himself or herself and give their own rating. How biased is that? It's obvious why they would rate themselves but I also heard of one teacher where they would rate themselves in the opposite manner because he's getting to be too "popular". He didn't want too many kids in his class so he made up bogus comment about himself. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. So, I'm a student in 7th grade signing off. Or am I an adult? Can you tell?
Clearly the teachers don't like the website, (or at least the school board doesn't) as every single RMT has been blocked.
Post a Comment