Comments on: You Get To Fire A Math Teacher

By: I’m back « Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere

I’m back « Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:19:33 +0000

[…] We disagreed here and there (we had a variation of this conversation/debate).Â […]

By: Benjamin Baxter

Benjamin Baxter — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:47:08 +0000

@ Tom McHoff:

The first teacher is competent, remember. He just isn’t stellar-math-whiz-second-coming-of-Euler competent.

@ Morty McNutt:

That’s exactly what it is. In my minds’ ear, I say “get to” sarcastically, if that’s any consolation.

@ Per McSwede:

You’d be surprised. There are plenty of math teachers who understand not much more than the subject they’re teaching at the moment. That goes for all subjects, really. As Dan said, don’t use it and you lose it.

@ All McAll:

Be sure to check out the full discussion over at the original post, too.

By: Per

Per — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:45:08 +0000

Depends on what classes he/she is supposed to teach and the reason why teacher 1 know so little. Is the reason he stopped at 1st semester calculus because he scraped by and managed a C- or did he do fine with a good A and never had the time to keep going?

A weak 1st semester calculus student can NEVER be a good teacher for anyone at math. I might change my mind the day a see a weak calculus student who really understands fractions and functions. If the teacher don’t understand what and why they can just teach how to do stuff but never teach real thinking and that is the real point even with geometry classes.

If you really understand calculus you can be a good teacher at least up to precalc in my opinion.

Steven Hawking would be a disaster in most classes but with the right motivated group of student he would be a dream, a teacher who gets the students ideas, can see what works and what need trimming. But for most classes I prefer someone who have decent charisma and fair understanding.

So I would 1st fire the teacher who just barely took 1st semester calc (how did he get to teach to begin with?), the I would fire the super nerdy math wiz that I only could use I a few special groups or as a resource for other teachers. I would keep the teacher who really understand calculus that works well in the lower level classes but I would force him/her to keep taking more university math classes before giving him/her a steady position.

/Per (giving you the Swedish perspective)

By: Morty McNutt

Morty McNutt — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:43:00 +0000

A little sadistic question. I mean, you “get to” fire a teacher? You make it sound like a “you get to choose a free vacation to Bermuda or Aruba” type question. These are peoples lives, careers, etc at stake. So it should be worded as, “forced to lay off a math teacher”.
I know, I know, I am taking this blog entry too seriously, but that point had to have been made. I would choose to let go the teacher that had the lower amount of seniority.

By: Tom Hoffman

Tom Hoffman — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:39:38 +0000

But as a math teacher isn’t expertise in “teaching math” more important than expertise in “math?” In particular, for example, it isn’t important that a math teacher can pass second year calculus, but it is important that you truly understand what’s going on when you divide fractions. A math teacher who doesn’t have very good math chops is one who does not understand and cannot explain, for example, the division of fractions.

I think it is easier to teach the math and math education content to a teacher than it is to teach the personal and emotional skills.

But ultimately, have you ever actually had to deal with deciding who to fire in a school? Once you’ve actually been through it, seniority doesn’t sound like such a bad system.

By: Mr. K.

Mr. K. — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:54:05 +0000

Whoops!

I wasn’t very charismatic about that, was I?

By: Dean Shareski

Dean Shareski — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:55:01 +0000

Hearing the word charisma, immediately makes me think of Jim Collin’s description of Level 5 leadership. While Collins’ work focuses on business, I see many similarities to education. He points out that the best leaders are not necessarily charismatic; often challenging our traditional schema.

http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/level5/p2.html

Anyway, not much help on the issue at hand but hopefully contributing to the conversation.

By: Megan Golding

Megan Golding — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:03:19 +0000

Mr. K: Wow, that’s embarrassing. A math mistake on a math teaching blog. Mea culpa. Thanks for spotting it!

The important part is that I think the better K12 teacher is “competent” (as stated in the original case) and charismatic. I’d take teacher 1 over teacher 2 any day.

By: Mr. K.

Mr. K. — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:13:38 +0000

If teacher 1 throws 50% less material at the kids than teacher 2, but 50% more sticks when taught by teacher 1 than teacher 2, you’re left with the same amount of math knowledge in the kiddies’ heads.

I can’t believe you posted that in a math teaching blog!

By: TMAO

TMAO — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:53:30 +0000

Q: Who do you fire?
A: I don’t fire anybody, because principals are not really endowed with the authority to fire anybody.

Q: Who does the D.O. fire?
A: Nobody. If there’s a budget crunch, the central office will cut the number of paraprofessionals working in SpEd and ELL classrooms, cut the sports budget, and disallow field trips.

Q: Who does the D.O. fire the year after they cut paras, sports and field trips and still need to get in the black?
A: They fire Dan, because the other two have tenure, and any individual merits are therefore besides the point. As teachers, we have created, to our shame, the working conditions where a question like this, which seems so very reasonable on its face, is laughably illogical and disconnected to the realities of the job.