How good was YOUR school Teacher

As time goes on, and the initial fuss dies down, people will realise that it is about as dependable as a student ragmag.
 
extopia said:
ratemyteachers.ie is moderated and maintained by student volunteers from each listed school.
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The question then is how seriously do they take the role and is there any consistency between moderators? As I mentioned earlier the info on my son's school ranged from ratings of non existent teachers to fairly questionable comments that had nothing to do with teaching skills.

Ratemyteachers is an entertaining site and without strict moderation will probably never be anything more than that.
 
Yep - 'Assuming it is used correctly' is the key phrase...yet there is nothing there to ensure that it is...& that is essentiall the problem I see with it Garret.
 
I didn't bother checking this site until now as I thought it would be a student rant. However, I've just had a look at the teachers from my old school that are still there. I'm amazed at the general positivity of the commentary. I really don't think we would have been so measured in our day, although maybe if we were being monitored by the strait-laced head-girl brigade, we would have been careful too :)

As everyone says, it's difficult to see a practical reliable use for it. I notice that the problems we had with particular teachers, remain the problems today. If nothing else, maybe they might take onboard some of the sensitively-put (seriously they are!) comments and try to address these issues and maybe improve in the next ten years.

Rebecca
 
I looked at our old school and most of the comments were spot on. But then we had some serious weirdos teaching us.

Also it was fairly obvious that a few of the teachers had probably put comments in about themsleves as some of the truly abominable teachers (with no redeeming features) had some "positive" comments about their teaching styles, which just did not ring true.

I don't however see the site as anything much more than snide 'get your own back' on teachers type nonsense, to be honest. So I can understand how teachers might feel about this. How would you feel if there was something similar about your workplace in the public domain and people wrote horrible things about you on it?
 
The "non existent teachers" on the site are probably teachers who are no longer teaching at the school. They can still be rated, presumably by past pupils of theirs (and why not).

Why would students need to get their own back on teachers? Is it unreasonable for students to rate their teachers?
 
Why would students need to get their own back on teachers?
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Have you actually looked at the site and the type of comments made? Does it sound fair or rounded to you?

Perhaps you wouldn't mind if your boss took you to one side one day and said he thought you were a complete loser and a bit of a tosser...or had hunched shoulders or etc etc...

Not exactly measured appraisal is it?


One of the teachers in my old school had the following comment made about him..."This man is the devil"!

Maybe you're right actually extopia...no sign of revenge there ;)
 
Ummm, yes Gabriel. I have looked at it. Is it fair and rounded -- all I can say is in the case of my old school the comments about the teachers I know, I largely agree with. So in that sense it's credible to me. In your earlier post you also agreed that "most of the comments were spot on" in relation to YOUR old teachers. If it's spot on, it's fair, in my opinion.

Most schools I have looked at are fairly balanced. Some teachers are positively viewed, some fare poorly. In my experience of the world there are good teachers and there are poor teachers so, again, I would say yes, it looks like it's GENERALLY fair and rounded.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind if your boss took you to one side one day and said he thought you were a complete loser and a bit of a tosser...or had hunched shoulders or etc etc...
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Well actually I wouldn't mind, if it were true. I'm not afraid of a bit of criticism.

Obviously that teacher in your old school is NOT the devil. That's just one comment. Did you totally disagree with the general ratings of the teachers?

What's the big deal about all this anyway? What are people afraid of?
 
The comments on my old school teachers are much more fair than I expected too. I can't see how useful this site could be in practise, but equally, I don't see anything wrong with it being there for its own sake.

Rebecca
 
Guys,

The reason I posted this link was because i found it interesting that some of my teachers are still teaching......

It seems to me that a lot of people seem to take offence to the whole idea of rating etc....

My view on this is .... if i was a teacher and I had bad reviews then i would look closely at my performance and make a conscious decision to either improve or ignore...

I would also find the appraisal or criticism as good form of feedback to either improve or continue with the way in which I am teaching..

Bear in mind also that al lot of "old school" teachers seem to be out of touch with what their students think about them and it would be no harm for them to hear this independent view on their performance..

I do however also believe that it is an avenue for disgruntled students to voice an opinion on a teacher ... but i do also believe that it's monitored just like the moderators do here...
 
To be honest I don't really care. I'm not a teacher. I'm just putting myself in their shoes.

Is there any moderation of the site? What's stopping me from making personal remarks about people?

Do schools have a right to block access to the site? I would have thought so...
ratemyteachers don't mind you...
[broken link removed]

I'm not saying I don't think the idea of rating schools or teachers is bad...just that I don't particularly think this is a "good" idea...while still understanding why it's so popular.

Extopia - I don't think everyone would have the hard skin that you have.
 
Maybe the schools should 'compete' with the website in a controlled manner. Set up their own internal website with controlled access for pupils only, where pupils can rate the teachers (possibly anonymous, possibly not).
 
Checked out the entries for my old school and found the entries very true to what I remember. The best teachers got the best ratings. The criticisms expressed were accurate and not cruel. The moderation seems good.
 
Schools' efforts to "block" access to ratemyteacher reminds me of when the Irish minister for communications was going to "restrict" access to the internet back in the 90s!
 
See my old school is one of the ones blocking access.

That's a guaranteed way to get all the pupils logging on.

I think the site is probably most useful for parents.
 
I'd hope if I was a parent I would completely ignore a site like this and instead listen to the feedback from my hopefully intelligent son or daughter instead.

Let me give you some examples:

I had a teacher for economics who just beggered belief. The man was a half-wit and a social misfit. He was, hands down, the most useless human being (let alone Teacher) I've ever met. He was harmless...but rubbish at his job.

Here's some comments from the site which look genuine...
"he is very hard to understand.we get away with anything in his class."

"I'm sure he is a nice person but he is not a good teacher! *** needs to give himself a new, stricter and smarter image if he wants to be respected."

"worst teacher ever,ever!"

"Tom is a terrible teacher. Poor communication skills and very bitter about the job."

This guy was a grade A idiot and a poor teacher. All the time. Kids are cruel...I know. We made this guy cry nearly every day. He was a nervous wreck and complaints were made about him regularly.


Now check out these comments...

"Best teacher I ever had. Drills it into you. You learn whether you like it or not. Listen to this man and you will go far. Possibly underestimated in the school"

"an inspiration"

Now...if they're genuine comments I'll eat my hat.
This guy knew he sucked btw. He doesn't need a website to tell him that. He was a poor teacher and shouldn't have been teaching.

For anyone who might think they know the school...his second name was ******.


Also...I should note that, for some strange reason, the most vicious and thoroughly evil teacher in the school is strangely ommitted completely from the site!!! This guy expelled more students in his time than everyone else combined. Anyone who knows the school I'm talking about knows exactly what he was like. Strange how he isn't mentioned...even once.





NOTE *** Above post edited to remove name of libelled individual. Please do not libel named individuals on this site

(From Gabriel: Re edit...apologies. Forgot about libel and all that. His name wasn't important anyway)
 
They're way too nice about some of the teachers in my old school - I'm convinced that the teachers and their friends are putting in comments themselves.

My old German teacher was an outright bitch to half the class and disgustingly sweet to the other half. The reason she hated me was because I once said German wasn't my favourite subject and she continued to take this out on my younger sister who went to the school after I left!

All the comments go on about how sound she is and you can really talk to her about problems - even the ones she liked couldn't talk to her about problems cos even they could see she was a two-faced pyscho!
 
Gabriel, as you so rightly said, the "fake" comments are easy to spot - and hence ignore. Almost everyone agrees that the comments tend to be accurate in general. So therefore it's a useful site.
 
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