[ABusyTeacher]

I am the teacher representative for our PTO. This is funny because the only people who come to meetings are employed by the school, but whatever. So last night I was at the PTO meeting and we were discussing a variety of things. One teacher had requested that the PTO purchase an ELMO for his classroom.

Allow me to give you some background on this teacher. The ELMO that he has been using the past 5 years recently broke and is too expensive to fix. He shows videos in his classroom all day, his students don't have homework, and I am not really sure what he is teaching them.

So at this point, teaching without his ELMO is a tragedy. No one else in the district has one. The one he had was the district's, but he never shared. So at the PTO meeting, two others and myself said that we should not purchase a new one for him. He doesn't really use it for educcational purposes, he doesn't share, and it was a lot of money to be spending on one classroom. The principal disagreed, but the topics moved on.

Then about half an hour later, the principal brought it up again. It just really made me mad. I thought that we had decided that we were not going to purchase this for him. End of story. So we had more discussion about it. Still decided against purchasing it.

This morning, I come into school and check my email. He has emailed the notes from last night's meeting. In his email, he says...and I quote "Although I disagreed, PTO decided against funding this." I feel like the principal threw me and the rest of us at the meeting under the bus by saying that. It was a group decision. It would not benefit as many students as some of our other options would. I am just really fired up about it. Sorry...


Thanks for letting me vent!

no matter what it is...I'd have a problem as a pto member spending money on something so expensive when it isn't shared and is requested by one particular teacher. (we had that issue w/ the cappacino machine our principal wanted...and got...one year - he was the only one that used it and kept it in his office!)

I think the school should buy the elmos..

Our dist. has elmos in every room along w/ smart boards and/or intelliboards and student computers (usually at least 2 in lwoer gradesa nd ms and high school has them in every room for every student, even tho they really don't use them in a lot of the classes.) go figure. sometimes i ask myself,,,what recession?

[Quatro]

Maybe if you gave him an Elmo from Sesame Street he would get over it! Ha-Ha

[ABusyTeacher]

Funny thing about you mentioning Sesame Street...a couple of weeks ago when it was Sesame Street's 40th birthday or whatever...he had his students watch it. They are fourth graders...

[abookworm]

You need to find a couple of mini-Elmos for cheap and put it in their mailboxes anonymously.

Fight fire with fire, girl!

[TLC]

Yes, he threw you under the bus, but it made him look stupid, not you. The other teachers probably feel just like you. The only annoyed teacher is probably the spoiled one who needs his Elmo to babysit.

[Mrs.Lilbit]

I feel so stupid even posting this but...wth is an ELMO?

I seriously read your thread thinking that this guy used a little red muppet to teach (not really sure how it helped him show videos); and then I had this vision of its head falling off and him requesting a new one, and this crazy principal demanding the PTO fund the insanely expensive stuffed furry toddler.

[marmar]

An elmo is a document camera. You can put a paper or book on it and it shows it exactly as it is on the screen.

[lovkteaching]

You know i had the same problem when only one person had a smartboard in our elementary school. I raised a big stink everyone thought i was awful but by golly with in a couple of years we ALL had them. I so get where you are coming from. You go girl!!!

[linda2671]

A couple of weeks ago, one person on each grade level in our building got a Promethean board. I'm not sure how they picked who got one, because one of the people who got one in her classroom never writes lesson plans, and just does the exact same thing year after year with no changes. I can't imagine her ever learning to use a Promethean board.