Parents - A Very Important Part of Being a Teacher

Wednesday was good for the most part. It was my first day teaching all day long without the teacher in the room. Everything went well. The kids learned and had fun, and I didn't loose my cool. I pulled out a couple management skills that I have seen other teachers use, and they worked wonderfully. The kids have had trouble walking in the hall lately, they've been all over the place, so I picked one person for a reward for how they were walking in the hall and then let that person choose the next person who was walking the best in the hall. This technique awarded the class 2 compliments within 1 minute of walking in the hall, and one of those was the assistant principal.

So the day was going great until after school when an angry parent called up with "A problem with something that happened in the class today." While my teacher was talking to the parent and repeated that sentence I searched all through my head and couldn't figure out what they were complaining about until the conversation went further. The day before one of the boys was absent and came in with a note from mom saying, "If ___ feels the slightest ill let him go to the nurse." I got it when he walked in the door, read it, stuck it on the desk, and never saw it again 'til after school. After the phone call was over I remembered him coming up to me and telling me that his throat was hurting, and remembering telling him, "I'm sorry, but theres nothing I can do about it." We have a few kids in the class who come up with every excuse in the book to get out of doing work. So I have had to screen the kids and treat them all equally with their excuses and see if there is anything I can do first, forgetting about the note from a mom that morning.

My mind was so busy with trying to figure out what my management would be for each lesson and making sure that the day would go smoothly that I completely forgot about the note and never went to sit down at the desk with the chance of seeing the note. The students weren't even in the class for half the day because of computer lab, library, recess, and specials. I felt horrible about what happened and my teacher getting griped at by a parent. She told me the best thing to do is learn from my mistakes. I'm thinking from now on when I get a letter from a parent, if it's instructions for something during the day to keep it with me at all times so I can't forget.

2 comments:

  1. That's rediculous. That note gives the kid a free out from class! All he has to do is fake an illness and he misses out on what is probably a great lesson. if he really felt ill, then the parent should not have let hime come to school. Unexcusable. Completely the parents fault. Parents like that make me mad.

    I hope that make you feel better. I feel great now!

     
  2. I was surprised to see the kid at school the next day and never complained about feeling bad after his mom said he was bawling because he felt so bad when he got in the car. He also brought in a note the next day saying that he couldn't do his homework because he felt too bad the night before. I asked him throughout the day how he was feeling and always told me he was good with a huge smile on his face. Who knows. This is a part of being a teacher I will get to know very well.