Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Workday fairly uneventful. At dismissal time, I was planning to speak to a parent about her son. I think I mentioned (in a previous blog entry) about a parent who had "high expectations" for her son. She is very strict and checks his notebooks daily. Knowing that she is strict (and checks her son's notebook daily), was about to let her know that her son has been beginning to slip. He seems more laid back now than he was at the beginning. And with comments like, "my mother wishes I had a stricter teacher", and "are we going to be doing harder stuff, told me that I needed to keep the mom informed. I suspect that when kids feel that mom has an ax to grind with the school and/or the teacher, kids tend to feel relaxed about their school work responsibilities. It is very easy to divert mom's anger about school work or an assignment (or a report card), with a comment beginning with "My teacher forgot to..., or my teacher didn't...". Mom then goes into a ranting about that "%^&$ing" school, or the school system, etc..."Little man (or little miss) know it all" sits back and relaxes. Just a personal observation. I've seen failing grades justified with, "the teacher doesn't like me, or the teacher forgets my name, etc...

Anyway, when I saw the mother, I had to wave the mother over, she didn't come to me like she often did. When she got to me, the first words out of her mouth were, You know we are having a meeting tomorrow. (no, I didn't) I am worried about my son."

I hate those slaps in the faces. No, I did not know about a meeting. I think that being so concerned, she should have come to me first, and then if she did not see a result, then take the next step.

Anyway, since a meeting was called, I just smiled, and said I understood. I would have given her examples of how her son is slipping. High level, star student he is not. Nice, well-mannered, but not a star student. But hey, a slap in the face deserves the same. I am a bit of a doormat most of the time, but sometimes I can have a bit of an evil streak. I already had work samples of her son on about every curriculum area. I was just waiting to lay those graded papers on the table after she went on (and probably on) about how her son needed to be challenged. The kid struggles with telling time.

I also took the dismissal time to speak with another parent. Sometimes, it is just a waste of time and breath. I'd spoken to this girl's mother yesterday about how disrespectful, disruptive and playful she can be. I even told the mother that if the daughter would not stop, I wouldn't hesitate to stand in her place of business (hair-braiding business) to talk about the disrespect and disruptive behavior her daughter shows in my classroom. Today, I got more of the same disrespect and disruptive behavior from "little miss sticky fingers".

After dismissal, upon returning to my classroom, I walked passed AP1's office. She stopped me. She wanted to talk to me about a couple of things. "A parent wants to have a meeting tomorrow. The parent feels that the work is too easy for her son." Also, AP1 wanted to tell me that feedback from formal observations are really embedded in the observation itself. However, in the future, feedback would be given after the observation with follow-ups as well.

Where did that come from? :)

I got home about 7:40pm. I was too tired to even zap a frozen dinner. About 8:00pm, I was out like a light...clothes and all. About 9:40pm my phone rang, one of those "wrong number, no response". I wanted to throw the phone against the wall.

The rest of the evening was basically a repeat of previous entries. Sleep. Late. And, procrastinate.


Post Date - Saturday, October 6, 2007 4:21pm