Thanks so much for everyone's comments this week. I am indebted to Rachel who is sending me some copies from her treadle sewing machine book. I am so excited! Also, Caity has sent me a link to a wonderful site about treadle machines that I can't wait to explore! Birgitta asked where I will keep the sewing machine. I have it in my living room and intend to keep it there! I told my husband it was such a good deal because even if it didn't work, we'd pay that much for an end table anyway :-)
Bonny asked about the meeting with the parent. The meeting went well, but I still don't get it. Here were there gripes
1. The little girl has a cast on her arm. She apparently sprayed perfume on her cast because she thought it smelled. She told her parents I told her never to do it again
I don't know where this came from. Never happened. In fact, I didn't even know she had sprayed perfume on her cast.
2. I told the little girl she could not have a Sharpie pen on the playground. True. It is against school rules to have permanent ink pens at school because of Grafitti problems. The principal had already explained this to them.
3. I let students bring a water bottle to class. I told the students they must be clear bottles. This girl was upset because she could not bring her thermos. Although I explained to the parents that they must have clear because some students try to sneak soda in, they weren't satisfied until the principal mentioned that at one school (not in our district) a student had actually put a knife iin his water bottle. OK, they were fine with that.
4. Apparently last year's teacher did not challenge their daughter to their satisfaction (probably true.) I assured them of my rigorous curriculum and differentiated instruction. They seemed OK after that.
Oh, well, you never know what conversations go on between families, but I think this had something to do with another little girl that was pulled out of my class because her parents didn't want me to teach her to hold her pencil correctly.
You can have 29 sets of parents that love you, but it only takes the one set that don't to potentially ruin your day. I did not let this ruin mine.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Update
Posted by Nancy Winningham at 6:01 PM
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6 comments:
I'm glad your meeting went well. I am always trying to remind myself not to dwell on the one unhappy person, but on the 29 happy people - it can be hard to do! (Of course, sometimes you can fix the problem with the unhappy person, then you have 30 happy people, even better :) ).
Yikes! I've seen how tough some parents can be on the teachers and I just don't get it. Shouldn't it be more of a partnership?
PS- I wish someone would have been a little tougher with my son about holding his pencil correctly. They aren't even making him write in cursive!
If i was in trouble from school my parents would have smacked me first then demanded to know what i'd done.Why would people question the rules at school,you either accept them or you don't.We are teaching our kids to disrespect rules and teachers so they feel nothing applies to them.I am all for good self esteem but that has to be balanced with empathy and respect for others and i feel that is missing these days.Sorry if that sounds like a rant but i have a 16 year old and to think that some of these kids will be running the world can be a little scary.
oh Good Lord, what a meeting. I have 2 in public school in our small town and we have not had complaints. I agree with mitch 1066's comment, we would have been in trouble first at home. We just didn't buck the authority.
Glad you were able to get it all straightened out. You DO teach 5th grade right? Seems, a child of that age shouldn't be making up totaly false things, but you never know . . . . I just hope things start to change all over.
Oh, and I like the dress!
I have *so* been there on these types of meetings. My deepest sympathies. You do have the right attitude, though, don't let them rain on your party!
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