I am asking, NOT for a leg up, charity, or even the upper hand. I am simply asking for a deck of cards that isn’t marked and a game with rules that apply to everyone. The only way I can see this happening must be easily installed and affordable. Transparency is the key. Nothing extra nothing lost…we simply CANNOT solve a problem until we can define it.

People would initially blame teacher for not doing xyz, but then they would be forced to admit that teachers hold the failing components of the educational machine together. Let bad teachers be caught and fired, bad students be held accountable, and poor practices be shown in the light. What are we afraid of? The truth?

Teachers can now teach to our contract without fear of reprisal!
– An unruly student fails to respond to procedures set by parents and the school results in a video where the teacher does all that is asked and the often ridiculous mandates are shown to be flawed instead.
– A teacher seen grading papers during the film may now inquire as to whether immediate feedback is useful to students and parents…or better….ask the parent/admin to point to the schedule and identify WHEN grading should be done.

Teachers would finally be able to show the world the VAST amounts of work we invest each day both in school for pay and at home for free! Teacher accountability would become parent, student, and district accountability! A student with poor grades can be correlated with poor behavior (not always true). Statistics would now include behaviors, attendance, AND grades.

Bottom line, teachers would have to stop working so hard for a time. Let the world see what we do and point to our contracted hours to show us where to squeeze in the work asked of us. I know that I havn’t taken a full lunch in years and the bathroom is often but a dream. I BEG to have my class on camera. I will do everything to the letter, no more. I will also have PROOF for MYSELF that the system is ALSO accountable thereby preventing termination.

I don’t think that we would care very much. In fact it may help during parent/teachers conferences if there were vid clips to reference. I can understand the idea that this is invasion of privacy and that natural behavior may be altered because the cameras are present. This being the case I would agree to cameras until a specific age, maybe 10th grade.

2. Would teachers’ classroom instruction / pedagogy be better, worse, or the same if parents could watch and hear what was occurring in class on a regular basis?

This is a very good question. I feel that teachers often feel attacked when explaining occurrences in the classroom to parents of problematic students. Parents often excuse behavior as something that the teacher may be doing wrong that needs to be changed. If there are cameras in the class students behavior would not be so easily dismissed as a communication problem. At the same time, this might enable the more controlling parents to try to micro-manage what happens in the classroom. There needs to be clear guidelines as to how and why the class in managed the way it is, in order to allow methods to be put in context.

3. Would classroom management / discipline be better, worse, or the same if parents could watch and hear what was occurring in class on a regular basis?

I do think that behavior would be better. I am not sure that this wouldn’t defeat the purpose for some. I think that most parents would want cameras in classrooms to see what there child is doing when they are not around.

Question B: If I was proponent of classroom camera monitoring I would believe teachers’ classroom instruction/pedagogy would become better because teachers/classroom are constantly subjected to observations from both parents and school administrators.

Quesrion C: As a classroom management/discipline tool, classroom camera monitor could promote positive student/classroom behavior and discipline. For teachers, the tool offers parents and administrative a visual of reported negative and disruptive behavior displayed by students.