Stupidity of School Teachers

LOL... Sounds like some of my teachers...

you think you got it bad?

I did two years of coursework for bonus points on my final exams but my idiotic science teacher loses all my work 3 weeks before the exams!!!!!

Also, i have this french teacher who doesn't speak english, doesn't speak french who just sits in the corner while the class messes about and one time WATCHED and LET my friend smoke in the classroom.

Which is why it comes to no surprise that my school is closing down in july next year :sarc

NO wonder kids don't like school these days.

I remember a science lesson,the teacher said for homework we had to think of something that went up but never came down, whoever could come up with something would get $5.00, five dollars isn't much these days, but back then it brought a lot of lollies (candy) or meat pies etc (showing my age) lol
Anyways, the next lesson came around and everyone tried, saying things like rockets, sun, umbrella ... the teacher saw me smirking in the back and asked what was so funny ... I just said I know what goes up but never comes down, thinking I was pretty smart, so i said "your age" all the other kids laughed at him because he said there was nothing that did, needless to say i never got the five bucks and got a C- for my next assignment.

If you think that is bad... try being forced to do a Data Processing course with an English major for a teacher, who teaches out of book...
At least 10 times last year she showed us how to do somethign and I came up with a better way which she denied would work, and 2 days later at the next class she'd teach the new way that I showed her...

Not to mention she types 68 wpm and claimed to be great... I topped her off at 143 wpm on the final... yes we had a computer final...

Hmmm lets see... the IT dept head who couldn't figure out why the computer wouldn't log on to the network, and after 10 minutes I turned to him and pointed out that it wasn't plugged in to the network...

The computer teacher who thinks it is a big secret how to change your password and charges $.50 to change your password (50 cents is a lot to ask for when you have to log on to type a paper)...

I could go on forever

Oh yeh. The so called "Expert IT STaff" at my school had a problem when I had to sort it out. This kid had put IE into Fullscreen by accident. You know F11. He said my Internet is broken, she came over and said mm. She spent about 3 minutes trying then went. I wonder if there is a entwork problem. SO I said "Excuse me, iI only try to be helpful but is the problem it is in Full-Screen mode, because it's easy to get out of." She said "If you think your so smart you do it." So I stood up went over pressed F11 and walked away again. EVERYONE in the class laughed at the teacher.

You know, they really shouldn't make teachers teach stuff like this when they clearly don't know what they're doing.

How about dumb bosses? I had a big argument with mine about switching over to stylesheets (you should see some of the code we've got in here, it makes me want to throw up). She thought that they wouldn't work in NS (Hello ?!?!?)! Of course, that brings me to the fact that a lot of my co-workers still use NS, and that the computer department here insists on installing it as the default browser on all new machines... Bah!

Oh, and another time my boss went in and changed some of the graphics on one of the courses I developed. Of course, that threw the entire colour scheme out of wack, so I had to argue with her again to let me change them back. Everything would be fine if she just left my stuff alone! The worst is when she goes in and changes some of my code.... to add font tags! Barf.

There was this one ICT lesson we had, and the ICT head couldn't be bothered to do anything with us. So she got these CLAIT books out which as far as I remeber(from the copyright) were last published in 1992. Of course she said just do the database work ( Access), which admittely I had never used before but I knew there were going to be a few compatability problems (as the school uses Office 2000). Of course the Access they were written for didn't have any of these wizards, so pratically the whole class was asking me for help. Luckily I'd figured it out and completeed mine.

But sometimes I think it would be much better If myself, this kid called Leigh or a friend called Jack took the lessons, we know more about the lessons than they do.

The generation gap really shows when it comes to technology. Megan's right in that way too often, teachers are teaching students who already know more than them. One generation didn't grow up with them and one generation did. The only gripe I have that comes to mind is how my school works with such outdated and stoneage software.

My school network is nice except that the machines run Win98 -- upgrade to XP, already! But more significantly, all the software we run is like Office '97 -- pretty obscure in today's world. It's not very worthwhile to teach kids software that's almost six years old when all those lessons won't apply on today's Office XP software.

They also try to block sites, but thanks to Google's cached page feature, I can view pretty much any illegal research/help site I need.

Finally, is there some kind of secret rule that all school web sites must look like something from 1996? My school's web site keeps getting uglier -- and this current version is supposed to be an *upgrade* of the old one. Whoever is responsible for it has no sense of design, usability, or standards compliance.

Googl's cached? what I never knew about that. Good job as http://hideme.com was blocked on the last day of school.

Also they blocked geocities. (I often use my temporary account on geocities to test HTML code I write at school as we're not allwod to install programs). Lucky I know back way... http://gecoties.yahoo.com hehe

Quote: Originally posted by mjames

Finally, is there some kind of secret rule that all school web sites must look like something from 1996?

Yes, didn't they tell you?

Anyway that http://www.wmchs.org/ is indeed really ugly. I must say that my school's site is kinda cool. Kinda... as is it's still a school's site

LOL! I think the rules that apply to your school also apply to higher education in Canada! Except that our websites are all designed by Graphics people who have no clue about the web. Case in point, my University's website Notice that the parts that are updated daily and the search box appear below the fold at 800 x 600. This problem is corroborated by the fact that most of the time you do need to use search to find anything on this site because the organization is horrible. It was a big controversy when they switched over from the old text-based version... last summer!

Many of the computers in our office are still running Windows 95. Yes, 95. I'm lucky to have 98 and supposedly we're going to be upgraded to 2000 in January. It will only be 3 years old by then! Office '97 is the rule around here too, and Netscape as I already mentioned. Some people in my office are making webpages with GoLive 4.

Megan, you need to bring a laptop to work! Something with WinXP, Office 2000 or Office XP, and IE.

A HIGH SCHOOL LEADING THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

LOL.. You go to a funny school Marc...

BAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA.........
I cut up a frog once!

We didn't have computers when I was in high school.

ummmm......now how old am i ???

Quote: Originally posted by mjames
My school network is nice except that the machines run Win98 -- upgrade to XP, already! But more significantly, all the software we run is like Office '97 -- pretty obscure in today's world. It's not very worthwhile to teach kids software that's almost six years old when all those lessons won't apply on today's Office XP software.

Hey think yourself lucky! When I was at school we had one computer, one of the old BBC things bit like a Commodore 64!!!

I wish I was back at school now as I grew up in the wrong generation I think....

As for networks, imagine an office of over 400 employees using Windows 98 for networking and a combination of Office 95, 97 AND 2000!! How's that for incompatibilty? Throw in the odd Mac for good measure and hey presto you have my office network....

Little wonder I can't develop shared applications for my dept.

Quote: Originally posted by Mark Hensler
Megan, you need to bring a laptop to work! Something with WinXP, Office 2000 or Office XP, and IE.

Now why in the world would I want to use IE? Tell me that... luckily I am able to configure the machine however I want basically (ahem, Opera as default browser thank you...). I don't use Office too often so I really don't care if it's an older version.

But, anyway, this school touts itself as being the big innovator but the reality of that is quite different... that's what bugs me. I hope I don't get in trouble for converting all my old html files to xhtml 1.0 transitional. Of course, I'd be surprised if there are more than 2 people in my office who know what that is. (and my department is known as "WebDev"!)

I hear all this ranting about school and teachers... let's add a bright note here:

My computing teacher/IT head is one of the few teachers who has a head screwed on. He may not know the most in in HTML, programming and lots of other things, but he's aware of enough and knows his place very well. He can easily accept that most people (including students) are better skilled than he is in some aspect or other, so his classes are usually quite open with lots of input from the students.

He's a pretty good boss too (I work sometimes in the IT department under him). Gives loose hours, decent pay (for a student working holidays) and free drinks and chocolate from the li'l fridge by his computer.

Our school network is quite good. About 170 to 200 computers for 1500+ students and teachers. It's reasonably fast, and has a decent ISDN internet connection. Most boxes run Win2K but theres one room with only Acorns/RiscOS. They're old but reliable and are useful with recovering info from damaged floppies.

Our school website is not half bad either.
http://www.lynfield.school.nz

So there is still hope...

I'm with you disaster-master (the frog), except I never cut mine up, I just placed it in a girls schoolbag

We had about 6 PC's in my school (DOS), back in my day, internet wasn't invented then.
windows was on the side of a building
a mouse was a lil rodent
a hard drive was a long trip in the car
a virus was the flu
bill gates wasnt rich

*sigh*

rebel without a frog

lol@busy

kids in my Bio class played catch with a pig heart

When I was at school we didn't have a computer until I was in the 2nd to last year at secondary school and then it was for the whole school and I can remember being sat in a tiny little room with all my classmates trying to see the screen with the teacher showing us how it could sort tabulated data and we all went "oooh, wow" then left the room and thought no more of it!

Trouble with the thread is that everyone is showing their age!!

hehe. Pretty sweet I join a forum and I post a message and get all these replies.

At my Primary School the head of YEar 6 was also head of ICT and she would often come to me when they were in need of help, usually in Science lessons which were boring so it was good. Now I'm in Grammar School in a class I still get to help out the teachers, (nice ones ) and tehy respect me:).

And I'm really looking forward to YEar 9, because it's teh first year that I can use Computer Art as a standard. Because in my schools art room there are two computers. And one has PSP 7 on it. In year 8 I got to do the odd thing on the computer but in EYar 9 I get to do all the years course on the computer. (I may have to take the files home for extra editing on PS 7 though ) So it should be fun.

We had some pretty sad computers when I was in high school. I learned to type on Icons in 1990 or '91. Those were also being used for upper-year programming classes the entire time I was there. Grade 10 computers was on Pets with keys that kept stickinggggggggggg! Then we found out that the principal was smuggling money from the school so that explained a lot of things.

We even had better computers in elementary school (Commodore 64's which were pretty decent machines in the mid-80s. We used to get to play Donald Duck's Playground in computer class ).

Anyone know where to find some pictures of these antiques (not having much luck with a google search here...). Some of these young'uns around here have probably never seen a C64!

If we would have had computers when I was in school, I am sure my whole life would have taken a different course. And I would probably be rich!!

Kids and young adults now days just do not know how fortunate they are. Gosh, I remember watching The Wizard of Oz on a little bitty black and white TV. Didn't know what color Dorothys slippers really were until years later. I can remember having to go outside and turn the pole on the TV antenna until dad yelled, "That's good!" so the picture on the TV would be viewable. I can remember having to go to the laundry mat in town with mom to wash clothes twice a week. Picking up bottles on the side of the road for extra money. Cutting fire wood to stay warm. No air conditioner. Getting eggs from the backyard instead of the store. Ah, those were the days though. Wouldn't trade em for nothing.

How about THIS ONE or THIS ONE

Look! It's a Koala Pad! We had one of those!! The predecessor of the Wacom Tablet.

Yup, that's the Super Pet that I first learned to program on. No wonder I didn't take computers again after grade 10 (okay, so the guys next to me kept copying my programs and the teacher wouldn't do anything about it. That made me mad.)

Quote: developed in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

Now that's pretty cool! (UW is my current employer in case you didn't know). Developed in 1981. Monochrome, green display. 1mhz. 96kb ram!

Thanks for the link DM, I don't know why that didn't show up in my search.

My first boyfriend had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum which had spongy keys!!

LMAO@Julia.

Cough Cough. tut tut. I'm 13 YES. I'm a massive Retro Gamer. I've got a Spectrum 128k +2, Spectrum 48k (sticky key version), COmmodore 64, 6 Nintneod Game and Watches, then moving on to consoles. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Master System, Mega Drive (Genesis), Dreamcast and Gameboy

And yes I love the old games.

It's funny, my Mum was just here and she was saying how she misses all the games she used to play on the C64 and wishes she still had it to play them on!

hehe

Josh.... all those game systems and NO ATARI??????
Even I have a 100% working Atari 2400 with breakout, pong, Pacman and Centipede... I still spend hours with it... it's never ending fun

mm. I actually went past an Amiga 600 the other day. It was going for £15. I would have got it but I was on my own, and only had a tenner, and I didn't particuarly want an Amiga at the time. I originally was searching for Game and Watches but a boxed NES for £5 swayed me.

I still want an Atari VCS. I would love one.

G'Day Everyone,
My age is gonna show but hey in 1972 I wanted to do cooking and home ed instead of History and Geography and if it wasn't for the fact that My sister was the School Secretary I would have been expelled as a troublemaker instead of being given a transfer to a new school.
Wow,look at School curriculums today,but hey some of the teachers still have to progress a little bit,it's not Little House on the Prairie schooling anymore.Some(note I said some NOT ALL) aren't interested in teaching,their just waiting for retirement to roll around.
Just My 2 cents worth.
Cheers Hoppy

Building off what Aussie_Hop said. I know a few teachers who really, really hate their job. The school system restricts displinary (sp?) action from teachers, so with all the flack they get from the students it makes teaching so much harder. Eventually they just don't care anymore.