What reason would a parent give for withholding permission for a classroom to be videotaped ? Locker rooms and bathrooms, of course not, but a classroom ? If I were a parent, I'd love to have the ability to randomly check audio/video recording every square inch of the public spaces where someone in authority is acting in loco-parentis of my kid.
Teachers unions have so much clout in most states that if they wanted to get such a law on the ballot or pushed through the legislature, they could do it. So that leaves me wondering if a majority of teachers are more afraid of their everyday non-molesting teaching performance being evaluated than they are of being falsely accused.
Why would you want to give such a potent weapon of you teaching the class to the administration? They could easily edit it to incriminate you. And, what you might consider a little joke or humor might be viewed as an insult to a kid, with all the cultural differences you encounter in a NYC classroom. A Hispanic male teacher in the Bronx recently was fined a huge amount for using a word of Spanish slang. Seems it means one thing in one country and another thing in other Spanish-speaking countries.
If I call on a Chinese student to answer a question, I often get the brain-dead students screaming out, “That’s racist!” Everything is racist to them. They can parrot perfectly what Al Sharpton and his ilk pollute the airways with, but couldn’t tell you what was on the board 5 minutes ago. What is racist about calling on a Chinese student? Only the brain-dead could tell you.