Posted on 09/08/2007 6:44:51 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Some parents are not ROFL -- Rolling On the Floor Laughing -- about a Grand Prairie math teacher's assignment asking his sixth-grade class to decode popular, and sometimes lewd, text-messaging abbreviations. The teacher at Jackson Middle School was disciplined this week after a mother called to complain about a Web site the teacher told her daughter and other students to use for the assignment, district spokesman Sam Buchmeyer said.
The site, www.netlingo.com, includes the abbreviations POS (Parents Over Shoulder), TDTM (Talk Dirty To Me) and GYPO (Get Your Pants Off).
"It was just an activity that he thought would be engaging for his students," said Buchmeyer, who added that the assignment was not part of the district's approved curriculum. Some of the Web site's material, he said, "has been deemed inappropriate."
The teacher and principal have apologized to the parent who complained, Buchmeyer said.
Other parents from Grand Prairie, Arlington and Irving have contacted the district this week with concerns, some calling for the teacher to be fired, Buchmeyer said. Others said the assignment has sparked an important dialogue between parents and their children about inappropriate text messages. The Web site outlines 70 abbreviations it says parents should know.
The teacher was not fired.
"He didn't think through it. He admitted he made a mistake," Buchmeyer said.
Is this the new math?
On the other hand, my students get mad because I take off points for spelling if they use abbreviations such as "b/c" for "because" -- "This isn't English class!"
Fuzzy math,perhaps?
Could this guy be searching out for a child who is interested in lewd things? I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, don’t take your eyes off this one!
It’s not really clear from the article whether the assignment itself included lewd messages or just the website. If the problem is just the website, it’s probably a simple lapse in judgement, since the website is not overtly lewd.
the future of america...I aks!!!
Apparently common sense is not a required course for a teaching degree. If he’s a math teacher, does that mean he’s a nerd who lives in Mom’s basement in between Star Trek conventions, or is he a converted English teacher who was allowed to teach math when the school system dumbed down the curriculum for math?
Like I said this guy needs to be watched for a while, he’s dealing with children here for crying out loud!
If his sin was sending kids to that website, a slap on the hand really should be plenty... he’ll get the message. If he actually included lewd messages in the homework itself, watching him is probably insufficient.
Others said the assignment has sparked an important dialogue between parents and their children about inappropriate text messages.
This is the good part. Most parents have NO IDEA what their kids see and do and the web and via text-messaging. The involved parents are much wiser now.
Silly me, I thought POS meant something else entirely.
A lot more information is needed to form a reasonable opinion, but on the surface, I have to ask the following:
1. Why are you doing this instead of math?
A. Too lazy to put together a decent lesson plan.
B. Pandering to what the kids think would be cool.
C. Wanted a lesson that would be more fun for me.
D. I didn’t know what the abbreviations meant and was hoping the kids could clue me in.
E. It is more important to make homework fun than it is to actually teach things.
F. All of the above.
2. Why didn’t you check out the website for appropriateness first?
A. Too lazy.
B. Too ignorant.
C. I did. This was deliberate. I’m trolling for sex.
3. Didn’t you think about what the reaction would be?
A. No. Too lazy.
B. No. I couldn’t care less.
C. Didn’t think any parents were involved enough to find out what the kids were doing.
D. I thought the parents would think I was cool.
E. I didn’t care what the parents thought.
F. I didn’t care what the principal thought.
G. I only care about what the kids think and I thought they’d think it was fun.
I’m amused by those who have their names tattooed on their forearms, as if they might otherwise forget who they are.
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