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RateMyTeacher.com -- Students Fight Back

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RateMyTeacher.com -- Students Fight Back

Is it a good thing? Or is it a bad thing?

http://www.ratemyteacher.com
from JoeUser Forums
RateMyTeacher.com is a site that you probably have not heard of yet but probably will soon, especially if you have kids. RateMyTeacher.com is a site where students, or anyone actually, can go to the site and rate their middle or highschool teacher by giving a 1-5 rating in the categories of easiness, helpfullness, clarity and popularity. You then can view the overall and individual ratings that people are giving teachers along with comments that are given at the time of the rating.

Their mission statement is for "students to be informed about teachers they'll have in the future. It gives students and parents a good foundation for where their education is leading." This gives students the ability have more of a voice in their education and the ability to hold teachers accountable for what they do, or do not do, in the classroom. And students can use this rating system to get an honest opinion about their teacher from their peers.

Ok, in theory this may sound like a good idea but I have to disagree. First off, ratings are given anomously, so this gives the student the power to be able to say just about anything and not have to be held accountable for what they say or rate. The student could have a bad day at school, or maybe just received a poor grade and take out their anger by giving their teacher an underserving rating. Also, you must remember the students are children and they do not think or rationalize like adults. They may not understand why a teacher does or says something. They may take it the wrong way even though that the reason behind the teachers actions is for their benefit. They don't understand that words can hurt or even ruin a person's life or reputation.

Even if all the ratings were fair and honest, how does that really benefit the student? Sure they may see if a teacher is well liked or disliked by their peers but I honestly do not see where that will make a difference in their education. I just think it opens up a can of worms and that most of the ratings will not be done fairly which really disqualifies all ratings because you just don't know which ones were done fairly.

So what's your opinion. is RateMyTeacher.com a good thing or a bad thing?
20,719 views 69 replies
Reply #27 from JoeUser Forums Top
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Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top
Kristen said:i think that rate my teacher is a good idea because the teachers always jugde us y can we judge them fair is fair>>>

Well let's put Kristen's grades out there for everyone to see. Fair is fair.
A- Gym
B Math
D+ Spanish
E Geography
C+ English
Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top
I would have to disagree.
1-The student's thus far have acted very responsibly, with more often than not consistency.
2-It does empower the students to have some kind of a voice and opinion about their teachers.
3-I'm a Guidance Counselor, and use the ratings in a few ways. One way is to get feedback from my students about me and my
efforts. Am I ok in continuing to do what I'm doing, or do I need to improve in certain ways. If a few students comment about
a particular negative, I will look to improve in that area. If the comments are consistenctly positive, I know I'm on the right
track in helping them.
4-I just finished a lot of Spring programming, and fortunately was (at times) able to give my students highly rated teachers. This
makes their education a lot fuller and much more enjoyable, and we all know what a difference a great teacher can make.
5-When a student complains about a particular teacher, knowing the ratings will help me in helping the student. We can work on
coping strategies, and more than a few times when the student has a highly rated teacher I've strongly encouraged the student
to talk to the teacher about their feelings, and very often the situation has improved dramatically. So using the ratings can lead
to a great learning experience in coping and communication skills.
Reply #30 from JoeUser Forums Top
I disagree.
1-The student's thus far have acted very responsibly, and more often than not with consistency.
2-It does empower the students to a degree to have some kind of a voice and opinion about their teachers.
3-I'm a Guidance Counselor, and use the ratings in a few ways. One way is to get feedback from the students about my
efforts. Am I ok in continuing to do what I'm doing, or do I need to improve in particular ways. If a few or more students
comment about a particular negative, I will look to improve in that area. If the comments are consistently positive, I know I'm
on the right track in helping them.
4-I'm working on Spring, 2004 programming, and in a number of situations have been able to assign students highly rated
teachers. This makes their education much fuller, richer, and enjoyable, and we all know the impact a great teacher can have.
5-On the occasion when a student complains about a particular teacher, I can use the ratings in helping the student develop
coping strategies, or in some cases when dealing with a highly rated teacher, I've strongly encouraged the student to talk to the
teacher about their feelings. I've had some very positive outcomes in these situations. So these situations can become great
learning experiences in coping and communication skills.
Reply #31 from JoeUser Forums Top
I would agree with the other comments about the lack of reliability of this site. I also know that most of my teachers (who know about ratemyteacher) don't take it seriously. In fact, some even joke about it.
Reply #32 from JoeUser Forums Top
How are we suppoed to act out then? We can't say annything bad about the teacher infront of them or we get thrown to the Principals office. So, for example, I have a teacher that just sits on her fat but all day and answers e-Mail, she tells us a page in the book, and has us do the assighnment after it, it's not that it's to hard, you just don't learn annything. So shouldn't I be able to speak out against her without getting detention? Then about the rating poorly because they might have had a bad day, What the heck do you think teachers do!? Teachers ask kids to have sex with them for good grades, or they give them bad grades to get back at them for something that hapend to them. About the , students are children, so they can't rationalize, that just pisses me off!!! I am sick and tired of being judged because of my age, Old fogies take one look at me and judge me as a stupid teen-ager that don't know crap! I would like to know what your I.Q. is, when I was 11 mine was somewhere close to 1200. So that just cancells its self out. You better start learnin more about us " dumb ,imature, reject, kids"before you go and say what we are and aren't capabel of dooing! In my opinion annyone who uses some dumb word like mature to make themselves higher up is either, a class bullie, or a dweeb that isn't good at annything so makes a word up.
About your last comment about, I don't see the point, whell thats how things start! brick by brick is how all great New Yorks are built, baby-step, by baby-step, piece by piece.
I rest my case!
Reply #33 from JoeUser Forums Top
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Reply #34 from JoeUser Forums Top
i hate da fact that when you have 2 say something da teacher doesnt let u talk like ms.pearl
Reply #37 from JoeUser Forums Top
It is about time that we begin with the real people, the students, rateing their teachers. I am a 54 year old male and I am only sorry this site was not around when I was growing up. There are so many real good teachers out there who will not be afraid of this site. The people and teachers who oppose this site are the ones to watch out for. I read a article in the Orlando Sentinel about this new site and was happy for the students and parents, I am a grandpa of 12 and 14 years olds and I can't wait to get the name of their teachers so I can check them out. Keep up the good work!!!
Mike A Orlando, Fl
Reply #38 from JoeUser Forums Top
As teacher who has been rated on this site I am disappointed in the site's abuse of both students and teachers. I might be aging my self, but the site is nothing more than an electronic slam book. I have both good and bad ratings in my section. I can tell who wrote one of the bad ratings because they are almost exact copies of comments made by the students on a confidential survey I have the students fill out at the end of each year (something I have been doing for the entire time I have been teaching, by the way). I use the information I gather to modify the courses I teach by way of content and delivery method. Do I show the surveys to anybody?, no because some of the language that the students seem compelled to use would make a sailor blush. There are still good ideas to be found in even the most profane surveys. The bad rating with comment was written by student who was suspended from school for over thirty days for drug trafficking and use, skipping school, and fighting. Along with the suspensions this student was also absent from school for 37 days as well. That is over 1/3 of the school year that the student was not in my class to see or hear what was going on. If we add in the 62 days that he just put his head down and slept because science was just "to boring because you want me to think" that’s over half the year this student has no basis to comment on. The rating also came one day after I informed him that he would be receiving a failing grade for the year, due his poor performance and failure to complete even 30% of the class work. So who was having a bad day?

Three more comments.
First to john lepik, Shame on you for using this site to steer students toward or away from any teacher. As a guidance counselor your job is to schedule students, not to make judgments about how your fellow staff do their jobs. That’s the province of the administration.

Second to Sorry nope, if you had an IQ that high you would know the scale only goes to 200 and that is hard to determine. (how does a lowly physics teacher know this? I also have an advanced degree in psychology)

Third to Michael A, You sound like the typical" I went to school, so I know how to teach" type I hear so often complaining about high taxes and overpaid teachers. Any time you time your local schools have an "I've been back to school" program that lets the public try their hand at this difficult, yet important job go give it a try. and if you really have something to offer go volunteer in your grand kid's schools.
Reply #39 from JoeUser Forums Top
Not a good teacher. she refused to hold a s-team meeting several time to se if my son had a disability and seemed only concerned with mixing with her white female students. I am a parent and who has had two children under her care and neither one was impressed with her and say the same thing. I just hope she had learned and is doing better for the sake of her students and not trying to be a fashion statement like the students she is teaching. I would rate her a 1 out of 1-5 with 1 being the lowest.
Reply #40 from JoeUser Forums Top
Was a pricipal but has now moved upward toward better things. Huge disappointment because when she should have told a teacher she was wrong, she covered for the teacher and allowed my child to be assulted with nothing happening to the bully. I even had a witness and his father who supported me but she didn't want to her anything due to race being an issue. It sad that principals cover up for teachers who hurt students and not try to help students who have problems so that they can excell.I would rate her a 2 out of 5 because she should have did her job.
Reply #41 from JoeUser Forums Top
Guidance counselor who needs to find another job. She only wants to look good and have a position behind her name. Didn't do her job and even prevented my sister from attending a meeting with me concerning my son. To this day she either walks the other way or doesn't say anything to me because she knows she was wrong and should have did her job to help students in need. Her rating would be 0 our of 1-5. Only thing left to be said is her day will come when someone she loves gets the same treatment.
Reply #42 from JoeUser Forums Top
Anything that empowers the children is to be applauded. There are many instances of children being abused and their childhood taken away from them. In my school in the 1960's a music teacher was prosecuted, but he kept his job. Ratemyteacher.com might be the only place a child can express their thoughts on a particular teacher. If some the comments are just getting even, so what, the children are just getting even. Isn't that what fairness is all about? Being even.
Reply #43 from JoeUser Forums Top
Dont you mean RateMyTeachers.com that is the name of the site but ratemyteacher.com does redirect to it.
Reply #44 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm a high school student and find the site useful. just because we can't necessarily choose the class we want with the teacher we want doesn't make knowing a little bit about the etacher before you have them isn't helpful. And as far as only letting the parents leave comments, what help would that be? They didn't attend the class everyday like I did, nor did class assignments, homework or projects. I think ratemyteachers.com is an excellent site. it gives the students a heads up on what they should be expecting on their classes to come. learning the class is dificult, or the teacher is really helpful if you're not understanding.. or a lot of extra credit is available.. or the teacher gets frusterated easily and you might want to get someone in mind who is able to help you early.. anything really, could help the students prior to taking the class.
Reply #45 from JoeUser Forums Top
I don't see what all the teachers are getting so offended about? I mean, sure, there might be things you don't want to read about yourself.. negative comments here and there.. but it's a realization to ourselves really. the site can help us out along with helping the students. the goal of a teacher is to become the best teacher they can be, correct? what's wrong with a little student input.. you should take the comments as what they are. negative.. work on the areas.. positive.. take it as a compliment. it's only a website?
Reply #46 from JoeUser Forums Top
I don't see what all the teachers are getting so offended about? I mean, sure, there might be things you don't want to read about yourself.. negative comments here and there.. but it's a realization to ourselves really. the site can help us out along with helping the students. the goal of a teacher is to become the best teacher they can be, correct? what's wrong with a little student input.. you should take the comments as what they are. negative.. work on the areas.. positive.. take it as a compliment. it's only a website?
Reply #47 from JoeUser Forums Top
Mr. Lambert is a nice teacher he is very cool sometimes he get really mad when people don't do there work or homework.
Reply #48 from JoeUser Forums Top
This site is not a good thing. It says nothing about the teachers these students have. There is little to NO truth to any of the statements that are posted. All it does is let the poor or angry students vent about teachers they do not get along with. If you think this is a godd site, lets make another site that lets teachers rate the students they have, but I guess we should do that. It would be mean or unfair to the wonderful students.
Reply #49 from JoeUser Forums Top
Mrs.Lewis is a very nice woman her class can sometime be hard but very understanding. i been knowing Mrs.Lewis since i was in the eight grade. She is a fun and caring lady
Reply #50 from JoeUser Forums Top
To begin this is an invasion of a teacher's privacy. If a teacher decides to change jobs can this be used against them? If teacher evaluations or rather opinions are posted publically can teachers also publically post student evaluations. At least student evaluations are based on a various number of assessments over the course of a term. This site is one more place where students can openly show disrespect and disregard for teachers who (for the most part) work hard to educate under often extremely adverse working conditions. Often it is the students who create the most disharmony in a classroom who speak the loudest and have the least to say.