View Full Version : Rate your THS teachers!
Is this right? Should teachers be up for anonymous scrutiny by their pupils? Would you like to be scrutinised anonymously in your own field of work on the internet?
Rate your teachers (http://www.ratemyteachers.co.uk/schools/scotland/thurso/thurso_high_school)
I don't think that's right at all. In fact, it's pretty awful.
connieb19
03-Sep-06, 01:06
I don't think that's right at all. In fact, it's pretty awful.
I agree 100%, it's not very fair at all. :(
Niall Fernie
03-Sep-06, 08:13
Yes its terrible, the cheek of some people :roll:
percy toboggan
03-Sep-06, 08:28
This is a mild outrage quite frankly.
Such sites should be pulled. The same in-school disciplinary code should apply to posters, good and bad. We used to have an expression 'out of bounds' it seems rather quaint now, an anachronism. This site should be labelled thus by the school authorities and any defiance handed a draconian punishment.
Authority is crumbling , if it continues to do so at this rate we shall all be the poorer.
Niall Fernie
03-Sep-06, 08:35
Perhaps I should have written my post like this:
Yes its terrible, the cheek of some people.
You only have to read a few forums to see exactly the same thing, us admins get it all the time. On here right now, firemen are getting stick as are homosexual men and local filling station owners. And thats in just the first 30 threads or so. I don't really see the difference when someone convienently groups one set of workers together on one site for comment. After all how often have people had a go at teachers on here?
luskentyre
03-Sep-06, 08:58
I'm generally in favour of upward appraisal, but giving this kind of forum to kids is like giving a vandal a can of spray-paint.
Mister Squiggle
03-Sep-06, 10:22
As we speak, teachers from all over Britain are frantically logging on, checking out their stats, planning how to improve their ratings by bribing kids ....
No, actually I don't think so. I think this kind of website is for curiosity purposes only and is probably largely (a) ignored or (b) laughed at or (c) all of the above.
On second thoughts, I'd love to see a website where the teachers rate the students - I wonder how my own kids would fare?? :confused
Good on you Niall and Mister Squiggle; a good example of do as I say, not as I do!
Must admit I only read a few postings when the link first appeared and most were in praise of good teachers with summaries to support what the pupils said.
If there are derogatory statements on it now maybe it is better they get it off their chests in cyberspace. And remember, you do not have to read them.
It's rather like sneaking up to the bike sheds and listening to their conversations which, I'm sure, can be rather cutting at times. ;)
After all, who here has never slated off a teacher in their time. In fact I think I remember something similar happening on these very boards some time ago!
It's rather like sneaking up to the bike sheds and listening to their conversations which, I'm sure, can be rather cutting at times. ;)
I disagree, it is quite the contrary.
I disagree, it is quite the contrary.
Yes, I see your point Rheghead; my mistake. The internet is rather more public than behind the bikesheds. :)
You only have to read a few forums to see exactly the same thing, us admins get it all the time. On here right now, firemen are getting stick as are homosexual men and local filling station owners. And thats in just the first 30 threads or so. I don't really see the difference when someone convienently groups one set of workers together on one site for comment. After all how often have people had a go at teachers on here?
This forum is strictly moderated and any threads containing comments made against a particular group are purely ephemeral. Also, you have a policy of not naming names. I fear this rate-my-teacher site rather 'institutionalises' the act of slagging off against a group of public workers who are constantly in the public eye and have increasingly got their hands tied to defend themselves against accusations by a particulary emotionally bouyant group of people.
cuddlepop
03-Sep-06, 12:06
Rheghead,How did you come across the site?.Is there general unrest about the standard of teaching in Thurso HIgh?.
There has and alwas will be good and bad teachers,this seems a very public way to humiliate them or appraise them.Dont think i'm in favour of such a web site, no matter how awfull the teaching in the school is the teachers who get the thumbs down cant defend themselves.There usually is two sides to every story.
ah but - in support of the site - I would like to see myself as others see me, so to speak, with a view to improving. especially so if I was a teacher I think. Some comments are obviously not worth the effort of writing them, but an intelligent person should be able to seperate the constructive from the downright slanging from those who don't like school/teachers full stop.
Rheghead,How did you come across the site?.Is there general unrest about the standard of teaching in Thurso HIgh?.
There has and alwas will be good and bad teachers,this seems a very public way to humiliate them or appraise them.Dont think i'm in favour of such a web site, no matter how awfull the teaching in the school is the teachers who get the thumbs down cant defend themselves.There usually is two sides to every story.
I am not bothered about the standard of teaching or the ratings/comments labelled against the THS teachers. On the whole they seem to be honest and positive. I am against the principle of the thing, would you like to have your dirty washing out for everyone to comment and view?
Furthermore, I have read a couple of comments and there appears to be a few typos made by the pupils that puts what should be a positive comment into a negative one. Such misuse could be misinterpreted by a school governer or worse still an industrial tribunal!
Furthermore there appears to be some misuse whereby a fake teacher has been added! Now explain how such comments cannot give a maligned impression of a school?
The moderation of this site is appalling.
EDIT, Should I set up a Ratemypupil site for teachers to make candid anonymous comments for the world to see. Oh, the number of admin email complaints I would envisage!:roll:
Whitewater
03-Sep-06, 12:28
I am not for slagging any named person in public (teacher or whoever). The first thing asked on this site in the teachers name and school. On caithness org we are not allowed to name names. It is a good principle. The method of reporting on that site is crazy, it was obviously set up by an idiot who wants to cause trouble, and subject teachers to more stress than they already have. There is nothing wrong with appraisil in either direction when it is carried out in a responsible manner by responsible people.
I have no objection to people apraising upwards, it is only fair, you appraise your workers, they are entitled to appraise the bosse. I have been subject to this method of appraisal all my working life and have not found a problem with it when it is done in a responsible manner. It ensures that everybody involved is treated fairly and the upward appraisal should ensure that line managers do not bully their employees.
percy toboggan
03-Sep-06, 13:34
Niall Fernie you seem to miss the point.
The posters here are children. Immature and likely to sound off opinions that are equally immature. Once published mud can stick like dirt to a blanket.
This is wholly unacceptable, I really can't understand how anyone who would wish not see school discipline - what's left of it - undermined.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
Niall Fernie
03-Sep-06, 13:52
Miss what point?
The point that I made is that other people in other walks of life get treated in a similar way on forums just like this one. Percy, you are just as anonymous as the kids making comments about their teachers as are most of the users of this site. People on here make similar comments about folk in other walks of life so how is that fair? As an admin of this site I've put up with my fair share of comments from anonymous people, do you think that is fair?
I was simply suggesting that people like teachers have a pretty thick skin otherwise they would not be able to stick their job for more than a couple of weeks. Suggesting that any kind of authority in their line of work would take comments on a site like the one pointed out without a great big pinch of salt is a bit short sighted.
The posters here are children. Immature and likely to sound off opinions that are equally immature.
When you say this are you talking about our forum or the one about the teachers, as from where I sit, I don't see a great deal of difference a lot of the time.
changilass
03-Sep-06, 13:52
Niall Fernie you seem to miss the point.
The posters here are children. Immature and likely to sound off opinions that are equally immature. Once published mud can stick like dirt to a blanket.
This is wholly unacceptable, I really can't understand how anyone who would wish not see school discipline - what's left of it - undermined.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
I am sorry percy, but I think it is you that is missing the point.
The site was set up by school children, some of the posts are quite positive, others are negative.
I am sure members of school boards have enough inteligence to work out which posts are just a personal attack by a disgruntalled child and which are not. After all, there will be a record of and disiplinary action taken against the pupils.
There is however a slight chance, that a teacher who is acting inappropriately, may be found out, and this can only be a good thing.
I would be quite interested to see the comments if I was a teacher, it may help towards teacher pupil relationships, and the ones who have been given good feedback, must be feeling quite chuffed with themselves.
This is after all the internet, there is no way of stopping kids posting this sort of thing, so we may as well try and get something positive out of it.
What is the point of this site? (Ok there is not a lot of point to a lot of sites but rarely do they tackle important issues) If pupils want to appraise the performance of their teachers and get things off their chest then they can do it within school where it will be taken seriously, why do it for all the world to read about?[disgust]
If I went for a job interview and the interviewer said that my performance would be criticised by anonymously and publicly over the interview then I would turn the job down.
I thought we want to encourage teachers not frighten them off!
Niall, your comments that you have made about putting up with anonymous emails can soon be remedied by insisting on usernames and profiles that contain genuine identities, so that is your problem. In fact I could see great benefits if you did.
I think it is only fair that there be RateMyStudents and RateMyParents sites. After all, I have a lot of things to say about my students and their parents. When will you start those sites?
NEVER!! We will never have sites for rating students or parents. Teachers affect the lives of thousands of students; the reverse is not true. Anyone can start a web site. If you really think this is a good idea, then, by all means, go for it.
Oh, and students actions do not affect the lives of teachers? Probably the stress caused to teachers is due to the milk being off in the staff room.
If someone went and started publishing student names on the 'net without their or their parents permission there would be an outcry and that site would be closed in a heartbeat...
...which is what should coccur here - how many teachers are giving their consent for their info to be on the internet?
If my reading of the WHOis info is correct this is an American site which has branched out over here.
From their Privacy Policy -
Information Sharing and Disclosure
· RateMyTeachers.com will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone.
· RateMyTeachers.com may send personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people when:
That must be like Gratis Internet (free iPod/PSP/Plasma TVs etc.) promising not to use your information but then selling millions of email addresses to email marketers....
They have a wall of shame for schools which block access to this site - seems like a very mature way to get things done...
j4bberw0ck
03-Sep-06, 15:33
Listening to my 14 year old sounding off about some of his teachers it's fairly clear that teachers aren't "good" or "bad", but "cool" or "not cool". I don't know for certain but suspect that there's no correlation worth worrying about between "cool" teachers and "good" results.
Maybe if the education authorities started publishing league tables of pass rates by subject and teacher and school, we might learn something of value? But first, give teachers back the right to slap the little sods round the ear where needed.........
Alternatively, maybe sites like these are a good argument for school pupils having a personal digital certificate to authenticate themselves as the author of the comments made (or of exam papers sat?) Then slam in some security so comments can't be left without digital authentication which positively, publicly and incontrovertibly identifies the author. The laws of libel are still fairly robust.... :lol:
dirdyweeker
03-Sep-06, 18:24
It is not just pupils who are rating the teacher as it asks if you are parent, teacher or pupil if you post.
percy toboggan
03-Sep-06, 18:33
[quote=Niall Fernie;129433]Miss what point?
The point that I made is that other people in other walks of life get treated in a similar way on forums just like this one. Percy, you are just as anonymous as the kids making comments about their teachers as are most of the users of this site. People on here make similar comments about folk in other walks of life so how is that fair? As an admin of this site I've put up with my fair share of comments from anonymous people, do you think that is fair?
[quote]
Are the teachers anonymous?
You are anonymous too though surely , even as an adminstrator from where I'm sitting so
it's hardly the same ,surely. Heat and kitchen spring to mind. I take it you had some say in setting up or assuming the admin role here. The teachers concerned will have had no such choice.
There are some roles in a youngsters life which need to be re-inforced - parents/teachers, and they should not be not subjected to some kind of public overview by a chattering coterie of critics.
With respect, the importance of this reduces tittle-tattle on a forum like yours, or is it ours? to comparative insignificance.
It is not just pupils who are rating the teacher as it asks if you are parent, teacher or pupil if you post.
so can teachers post too? And who started this site - would it be a pupil?
Is this right? Should teachers be up for anonymous scrutiny by their pupils? Would you like to be scrutinised anonymously in your own field of work on the internet?
Rate your teachers (http://www.ratemyteachers.co.uk/schools/scotland/thurso/thurso_high_school)
That's sad.:~(
Niall Fernie
04-Sep-06, 10:26
Are the teachers anonymous?
You are anonymous too though surely , even as an adminstrator from where I'm sitting so it's hardly the same ,surely. Heat and kitchen spring to mind. I take it you had some say in setting up or assuming the admin role here. The teachers concerned will have had no such choice.
There are some roles in a youngsters life which need to be re-inforced - parents/teachers, and they should not be not subjected to some kind of public overview by a chattering coterie of critics.
With respect, the importance of this reduces tittle-tattle on a forum like yours, or is it ours? to comparative insignificance.
No the teachers are not anonymous? I think that is the point of the web site. I'm not trying to argue that the site is a good or a bad thing, I am just pointing out that exactly the same type of commentry appears on forums like this one. When things get a bit personal for whomever is being discussed, we receive the same kinds of comments/complaints that are being displayed on rate your teacher.
Adults are just as guilty as the kids posting on that site when they pass judgement on a person or group of people anonymously on a forum like this one. I'm pretty sure that gay men and homophobic firefighters (and many others) would be equally dismayed at some of the comments made on our forum even though they are perhaps not named as individuals.
Yes, I made the choice to become an admin of the web site that I helped create, my profile is fairly public as far as web admins go.
I can see where you are coming from as far as the teachers' names being banded about the net but is this not just a symptom of the modern world rather than some kind of hatred of teachers in general. I think I would rather see a site like this that can be moderated somewhat than a load of comments going unmoderated on sites like myspace. Are we not going to be seeing similar kinds of things like league tables for surgeons, GPs etc soon? Where does the demand for public accountability end?
There is obviously a fine line between criticism and abuse and without sites like Rate Your Teacher, how will we ever find where the line is? I'm pretty sure that that the admin of that site is finding out as we speak. Certainly the lines of moderation on our site have changed over the years as we have gained more experience and tried to develop a system that is pleasing to most people. Like any other site of its ilk our site will never be able to please everyone and there will always be a (hopefully) small group of users who are dissatisfied with the way we run things just as I'm sure that there are probably a good number of teachers who are quite happy to be discussed on the web.
I am aware of several sites like this and some My Space sites and Bebo.com that have been used to single out bully and otherwise make people's lives a misery. I think there are no controls over sites like this and to say they can be used for positive feedback is not enough to allay my concerns about it. I think there is far more opportunity for people to use sites like this to settle a grudge than i am confortable with.
changilass
04-Sep-06, 11:13
If folk want to settle a grudge they will do so with or without sites like this. A couple of phone calls to the authorities concerned would do far more damage than a site like this. More credence is likely to be given to someone going to the effort of making the call, than simply logging on and making anonymous claims.
This if used properly is a great idea espeially if the teachers them selfs read them it would be a great way for them to see how the pupils liked or disliked there teaching methods, because they are not going to be told other wise could you imagine a pupil going to tell a teacher that the either liked there or disliked it.
But this web site does'nt just allow pupils to discuss teaching methods as a way to improve teaching teachers are being described as and I QUOTE'' A bit of a Barbie type' and 'A wee dragon' also commenting on what fun it was to steal from the teacher what good is that?
dirdyweeker
04-Sep-06, 19:55
so can teachers post too? And who started this site - would it be a pupil?
No reason why teachers cannot post on this site. I doubt if they would be able to rate themselves unless they used a different joining name.
As to who started it.........no idea!
Niall Fernie
04-Sep-06, 20:24
I QUOTE'' A bit of a Barbie type' and 'A wee dragon' also commenting on what fun it was to steal from the teacher"
Sounds like it should be reported to the site admin as I'd say it goes beyond the site's own rules. I'd imagine he has an even harder job keeping up with the number posts than I do. It could be that no admin is monitoring the section you were reading. Am I correct in thinking that the site is set up to have a moderator from each school?
I think the moderator is a student for Thurso High.
I think the moderator is a student for Thurso High.
If you look the website isn't just Thurso High School by far. If you take a closer look you can search schools in America so i find it very unlikely that it is a Thurso High School pupil that set this website up!!
Lassie,
Each school listed has a 'moderator' allocated - and there is no guarantee of impartiality of that Moderator. And yes, as I stated earlier in the thread, from checking WhoIs this site is registered to a US address, so the chances are it is an American 'idea'...
luskentyre
27-Sep-06, 00:11
Can't help but notice that there have been no "user comments" posted since July 2006. This site is obviously very receptive to feedback and free speech then...
This if used properly is a great idea espeially if the teachers them selfs read them it would be a great way for them to see how the pupils liked or disliked there teaching methods, because they are not going to be told other wise could you imagine a pupil going to tell a teacher that the either liked there or disliked it.
Having two kids at THS i totally agree:) Neither of mine would have the confidence to approach a teacher to say what they liked or disliked.As it happens neither of mine have any issues with any of thier teachers, and seem happy in the school:D
But used properly this could provied benaficial feedback.
Has any pupil mentioned the new history teacher? The words 'rather' and 'dishy' spring to mind. Lovely guy - hope he is enjoying his first year in teaching!
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