I'm so irritated today . . . I could SCREAM!!! It is one thing to have a child who's parents are upset because their grades are low. Especially if they did not do the assignments correctly nor ontime. When you have given numorous instructions, time to follow them. Opportunities for students to ask for help. Offered to help. Set out a definate plan of when things are due, etc . . . I'm frustrated about thier grades too. How can someone say, their child didn't know what to do. "You never told them." "He can barely ask me for help, so him asking you is impossible" "You can't write things on kids papers, you should never write anything negative on their papers" (negative? "You can do better. I expect you to put more of an effort to get things done ontime and to follow the directions." on a paper that they have failed because they refused to follow directions) "There is nothing wrong with this paper, he answered the questions." Yeah, he answered the questions, as minimally as possible on a paper that was a 'research' paper, and only one sentence per page! He asked how long it needed to be, I said it needed to be complete. I'm soooo . . . how many times did I ask him if he needed any help? "NO" or remind him he needed to get busy on his project and don't forget the visual. "ok" "I don't care" AHHHHHH!
And then, I set up a website/blog so that parents can see what thier students have been assigned for that day, because I am tired of kids saying, I didn't know, you never told me. Or a parent saying, you never told him, how is he suppose to know. And I get reemed about that! Apparently they don't want their child to have any part of it. Hello? I'm not going to be posting students names or pictures without prior permission from the parents! I very nicely told the mother this. "well, just pretend he isn't one of your students when you are doing this". ?huh? It's for his and their benifit, and it is giving absolutely NO personal information about the students. I've several parents who've mentioned they like this. I don't have anything set up yet so that they can also get online and check thier childs grades, but eventually we will. OH well!
I guess all those years of education, teaching, and studying under some of the best teachers I know, is all bunk. Well I know that is not true, but to hear this parent talk, I don't know how to grade, I grade wrong, the principal teaches wrong, and because the child has up untill now always been an A/B student then it is all our doing. Wait, so, his refusal to take responsibility, and the parent insists that he be spoonfed all he is supposed to do . . . HE'S IN SEVENTH GRADE!!! He is supposed to think for himself, and start being responsible for his own work!
AHHHHHH!!!!! ok, calm down . . . the rest of the day has been going rather well. Only one crazy 'fight' with 3rd and 4th graders who just misinterpreted each other. Off to upper grades PE.
2 comments:
wow sounds tough. Hang in there katie.
So frustrating! I personally think that parents are the number 1 reason kids get bad grades, whether in grade school or high school. If you're not raising your child to be responsible and then are allowing him to get away with being IRRESPONSIBLE, who's fault is it?! Carlos Mencia, the comic, has a great sketch about it. He said that if he was kept after school, or the teacher sent a note home, or he got a bad grade, his parents never took his side. Instead, they smacked him in the head and said "what did you DO?".... obviously a bit extreme, but the CONCEPT is true! A child will say whatever they want to get out of being in trouble... if you let them do that and take control? You're the one at fault when things go wrong.
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