School spelling lists

In the 1990s I used to be a school governor and part of our role was interviewing prospective staff members.

One young lady had applied to be a classroom assistant. She recognised the teacher on the panel and announced in great delight, "I remember you! You teached me din't ya?"
She was turned down for the job, partly because of her speech, and another panel member accused the rest of us of being snobs for thinking that it mattered.

On another occasion we were recruiting teaching staff. The Head sent all the governors a letter extolling the virtues of the school, to be sent to any applicants, for our approval.
It was riddled with errors so I sent a corrected version back and said it might be better to change it before it was sent out.
He was extremely sniffy about this and said sarcastically to my daughter, "Tell your mother thank you very much."

You mean the work bit, the actual website is accessible to everyone, sorry I am just being pedantic

Galaxy only parents have a password to access the school's website. I am a grandparent, so I don't have the password. (I suppose my daughter could let me have it, but she doesn't want to go against the school's policy of parents only).

Absolutely Ixion! ?

Grandmabatty
It's a case of I don't know what I don't know', isn't it?

School websites have areas which can only be accessed by people with passwords just like doctor's sites. It's to protect sensitive data and keep out those with bad intentions. Parents get the password but are advised not to share it.

Ixion I honestly don't know. I have worked with colleagues in other departments on literacy skills. I'm in Scotland and one of the central tenets was that teaching literacy was the responsibility of all teachers. It did alert colleagues to areas in literacy where they struggled, however I encountered people in promoted posts sending messages to staff and parents such as, 'would of' or 'could of'. They were sublimely ignorant that it was incorrect. In the authority where I worked, primary probationers were rigorously observed both by their Head Teacher and by an authority supporter. They would have been picked up for these errors. So it could be unaware of errors or just lazy. I take your point.

Antonia

Lucca I'm glad that they do use ClassDojo as I am unable to access the school's website. It's for parents only, and as a grandparent I am excluded.

Really ? I had no idea! I take it back!

Sorry what do you mean you are excluded from the school website? How can you be?

It may be that the phrases are included in a list that the teacher can add in one click (that's how reports are usually written). It is and will more and more become one of the problems with using American providers.

If by any chance "spellings" can be regarded as a colllective noun then there is nothing wrong with writing Here's this week's spellings.

I would myself have written Here's this week's spelling list, being an English teacher of over retirement age!

If the teacher who wrote it is American then there is a problem, as practice and practise are the other way round in American spelling to British.

With us practice, advice are nouns, practise and advise verbs.

So we advise you to practise these with your children would be correct in British English.

Lucca I'm glad that they do use ClassDojo as I am unable to access the school's website. It's for parents only, and as a grandparent I am excluded.

I should have been clearer! The words 'Here's this week's spellings' and 'Please practice the words' are instructions from my granddaughter's class teacher. I only mentioned ClassDojo because that is the platform the school uses, and the way in which I can view my granddaughter's weekly spelling list.

As a rule I dislike the blanket anti American feeling on GN but in this case I wonder why they have to use an American app. How easy would it be to send these spelling lists out via school website ?

As someone with mild dyslexia I always taught with a dictionary on the desk, the children accepted "let's look it up", and got into the practice of doing it themselves.
I was never taught good Grammar but a friend who had would always proofread things for me.
Later when notices had to be sent home we had a Head who was worse than us all put together she got another teacher to proofread. I must say the two colleagues who proofread had both done Latin at school and it seemed to be an enormous help. Also, Scottish colleagues always seemed to have a better understanding.
I can excuse someone for not being able to spell but not sending letters home with wrong spellings and Grammar which can easily be spell checked. Though you have to be careful it is an English programme or you will end up with u missing out of a lot of words as in color
The American one that gets me is they do math and use it as a plural.

On the worksheets it says :

In this lesson we will practice ........

So not the class teacher's fault really, though she ought to check first.

If there is a spellcheck on ClassDojo it may very well be set to American and will change "Practise" to "practice.

I'm not sure it really matters. English is a living language and living languages change. There are more Americanisms in our language now and there are likely to be even more. Much of our media is American and titles like "Your Honor" are the norm. Language is a means of communication not a set of rules which must be applied.

Not an actual English teacher here, Grandmabatty, just one with a reasonable education and eye for the 'correct'?

Just wondering- do you think it is down to being a lazy teacher or one who, in blissful ignorance, just doesn't realise that there's a problem in the first place?
Just curious!

Ouch No!
It is on the ClassDojo website, not the teacher. Just checked, but I can't get the screenshot to print.

I would have to say something! Retired English teacher. It's ironic that there are spelling and grammatical errors on a spelling task. Practice is the noun - the Doctor's Practice. Practise is the verb - doctors practise medicine. It should also be 'here are.'
If a teacher has difficulty in basic grammar and spelling rules, they should check, check and check again before issuing to pupils/parents. To me, that's a lazy teacher and I would wonder what other errors were being missed.

I am guessing Ellianne, I just interpreted it that way. Perhaps the written explanation wasnt clear enough

Antonia

Yes, ixion, exactly! I'm probably being far too fussy. It should also be, 'please practise.' I think the 'practise/practice is generally not understood, but the school is in an affluent area with many professional parents who would spot these errors immediately,

Makes no odds Antonio. I worked in the independent sector and spent days reading teachers' reports, correcting spelling and syntax.

Not that half the professional parents would even spot the mistakes anyway!

Galaxy

Class dojo is American or originated there at least. But I think OP is saying that the instructions came via the teacher? Current spelling list in a school I am involved in includes practice/practise and the difference between the two.

Thanks, Galaxy, I misunderstood. I thought it was the instructions on the website.

The same confusion seems to arise between advice and advise. Advice is what you seek or give; advise is what you do. Do we still have nouns and verbs? The nouns are spelt with a 'c' and the verbs with 's'. Same goes for prophecy and prophesy.