Inside Four Walls: RatemyTeachers.com

So maybe you have heard of this site or not, but it is a teacher's worst nightmare. Students having the ability to "rate" you, anonymously of course. I am sure there are some students that go on and try to be fair about it, but I am sure there are more that are "pissed off" at the teacher for some reason causing them to go on the site.

This is a little troubling because a teacher at our school was called into a counselor's office and he mentioned his low "rating" on ratemyteachers.com. He said that it seemed like students weren't comfortable with his style.

I would have gone off on the counselor, but it wasn't for me. Problems with this;

1. It's anonymous. Put your name up there and then we can talk and respond.
2. You can rate a teacher as many times as you want. So one student can go in and rate a teacher 50 times and make it seem like they are all from different students. I actually tried this on my own.
3. Let's say each person is a unique individual, they still only represent a small fraction of the students we teach. I have been teaching 7 years. Let's say I averaged 35 students a period (5 periods) over those 7 years that equals 1225 students roughly. I have a total of 36 ratings right now which is 2.9% of my total students taught. Small sample I would say.

The sad thing is that parents and now administrators are looking at sites like these to "evaluate" teachers. One more thing we have to put up with.

By the way, I thought I would share a rating about me;

"If you're someone who wants to actually learn, then don't get this guy. i mean he was cool, but he's a republican who very openly shared his throughts during the obama/mccain elections, and he also favors some people which i found annoying. but he's pretty chill, quite an easy class, but i'd rather have someone else. plus if you don't like metal music, this isn't your dude cause this man likes to blast that s**t in the early mornings.

"

I like how it opens with the "if you are someone who actually wants to learn, then don't get this guy." Cause you know I don't teach at all apparently. Oh well. Like I said if you want to get an eye opening experience and read what parents have read about you go look yourself up.