Teacher Baiting
This weekend I learned a new term "Teacher Baiting." It involves students pushing a teacher to the breaking point and then capturing the teacher's outburst on video and posting it to YouTube. It can also take the form of students making disrespectful and lewd gestures and gyrations behind and unsuspecting teacher. Evidently, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times on this topic (it would be linked if I could find an active link to it). To see some of this type of video, go to YouTube and enter the search term mad teacher. This is a growing trend as students have small video devices (i.e. cel phones) with them at all times. In my opinion, the concept is not new. Students like to see how far they can push a teacher, but the dissemination possibilities are the new and Web 2.0 aspect of this.
All teachers lose their temper sometimes and that's part of being a human being. However, when it's captured on video, indexed by Google, and available to parents, students, and lawyers 24/7, that is another issue. When teachers are targeted by students and pushed it is likely that there will be some unprofessional things come out of a teacher's mouth.
What are your thoughts about this? Have any of you seen this in action? Besides never losing your temper, what can a teacher do to prevent this?
Comments
My first thought is to say that cell phones really have no place in the classroom for the most part. I am annoyed when students are texting during class, I think it's rude and inappropriate. If we were working on a technology lesson then maybe the phones would have a place in the classroom, but otherwise I think they need to be put away. Now, obviously there's no realy way to enforce this so it's not going to happen.
I think baiting the teacher has always happened. The fact that now the insighted behavior can be captured and put on the web is problematic for teachers... however, what would parents and students think of student's bad behavior was captured on film and put on the web? I've heard many times that students act differently at school than they do at home, so I wonder, other than the blaring legal issues it would cause, how parents would react if they could see how their child truly behaves in school.
There needs to be some sort of legal protection for teachers regarding this sort of thing I think.
If the teacher could set out some mutual respect rules with the students maybe this wouldn't happen. Or would happen less frequently.
What motivates the behavior? And how can we use that to create some meaningful artwork?
Posted by: Katie | October 23, 2007 10:12 AM
I think baiting the teacher has always happened. The fact that now the insighted behavior can be captured and put on the web is problematic for teachers... however, what would parents and students think of student's bad behavior was captured on film and put on the web? I've heard many times that students act differently at school than they do at home, so I wonder, other than the blaring legal issues it would cause, how parents would react if they could see how their child truly behaves in school.
Posted by: Mobilni | June 1, 2008 8:14 PM
Quite interesting actually, i'll have to bookmark your site now to check out what other things you might say. ;)
Posted by: dekor | August 11, 2008 5:32 PM