Thursday, November 6, 2008

I Think The Phrase Is, 'I TOLD You So'

Parent-Teacher conferences were the other day, and I was right - Josie is going to get her come-uppance very soon. She talks too much in class, doesn't listen to directions enough, and goes too quickly, thus her grades have slipped. I'm not talking Bad, bad grades, just slipped ones, like from straight-A's to mostly B's with a few A's. I'm not mad, obviously, because those are still fine grades, and actually, I'm a little GLAD. AS you all know, I've been talking to her regularly about working on those things, and have been getting the Big Pfft from her. Well, you should've seen the look on her face when I told her that her teacher said the Exact Same Thing!!!! AND that her grades have gone down!!!!!! She stared at me like I was Swamp Thing coming out of the sewer! 'Wha-wha-whaaaaaa?' I didn't even talk much about it to her that night; she asked what Ms. Miller had said, and I told her casually, and left her to stew in her own juices.

The next morning, though, after breakfast, we did talk to her about it a little, and I told her that I understand why she does those things, because I used to do them, too. You think something is easy, so you do it quickly, and only later find out that those words you skimmed included the word IMPROPER fraction for a change, so you screwed the whole section on the test, which is exactly what she just did. I told her that it would be a good idea to take a breath after she reads directions, and then read them again. She was looking kind of peevish, of course, but I could also see that she was genuinely disturbed, so I told her to cheer up, that it's better to be told, 'You're too smart - go slower!' than 'Hey! Stupid! Go faster!', so that in the grand scheme of things, her problem isn't a terrible one to have. I also reminded her that those enrichment classes that she likes so much at school are there for kids who already understand all the material in class and are ready for more, so if she does poorly on the classroom work she may find herself pulled out of enrichment, regardless of whether she got things wrong out of carelessness or not. That sobered her up, too. I know she would HATE to watch other kids go ahead of her. She's very competitive (dunno where THAT came from).

Patrick did fine on his conference, of course. He's in K, so there really isn't much to say, since he's not a hitter or a biter or a rampant nose-picker. His reading and math are the top of the class, and he's getting the hang of not being so hard on himself / embarrassed when he does something wrong and gets called on it.

Volunteering is going much the same, except get THIS. The weekend before Halloween, when my mother was here, Josie's teacher emailed me to ask if I could 'do the class party' for her, ie bring in the cupcakes, juices, etc. Oh, sure. So, on Thursday, I brought in the juices when I went in to volunteer, since I knew I wouldn't be able to carry three boxes of juices AND the cupcakes as well the next day. I noticed that the principal was in the teacher's seat, and that the kids had some papers on their desks, but things didn't seem *too* out of the ordinary, especially since I know the P has been in and out of there recently in an effort to prevent total class mutiny. I put down the boxes and my purse, and looked around. Finally, one of the *kids* said, 'Um, we're doing testing today.' Had Ms. Miller said anything? NO. Had she even acknowledged me? NO. The principal was staring at me, though. I finally had to call over to the teacher and ASK if she didn't need me, then? All I got was, 'Oh, no, not today, thanks. Sorry.' before she turned her back to me again! I stared at her, and then called over again to tell her that I had put juice in the room, to which she said, 'Oh, OK, that's fine.' That was it. Patrick's teacher was walking past at the same time, and she was Shocked. I ended up going back to her room to do a few things instead.

The next day, Halloween, I went in with my costume, Josie's AND Patricks on my arm, two big platters of cupcakes, my purse, and a bag of apples for Patrick's class. Josie's class is first in the hallway, so I stopped there, and while Ms. Miller watched, struggled to unload the cupcakes. I had to ask where to put them, and she actually tried to STACK them on top of each other!!! Seriously!!! I had made the cutest things, little mummies and spiders and webs, too. She finally threw one set on top of some inboxes and another one on the counter in front of it and walked away. No thank you, nothing. As I left, I called out, 'you're welcome!' in a cheery voice, but I wanted to smack her. I heard one of the girls asking her what her costume was going to be, and she said, 'No, I don't DO Halloween.' I wanted to turn around and tell the girl that this IS her costume - she's a witch dressed as a teacher!

8 comments:

Kristi said...

That teacher sounds absolutely awful. I pray that my daughter never has to have a teacher like that!!

Kelsey said...

All things considered, it sounds like conferences went well. I'm sorry about your Halloween experiences. It would be so frustrating to get a teacher that seemed to do poorly in many areas. Last year I didn't much care for Harper's preschool teacher and how she interacted with me, but she was great with the kids and Harper was happy at school so that was fine. But man, Josie's teacher sounds like she doesn't have much going for her.

LoriD said...

That teacher sounds brutal! My dad (a retired principal) once told me that in your whole school career (kindergarten through high school) you're likely to get 2 or 3 great teachers and 1 or 2 godawful teachers. The rest will just be "good enough". It looks like Josie is getting one of the godawfuls out of the way.

Cherish said...

What a horrible teacher! Did the principle do anything? Rayden's teacher isnt all that great this year but I couldnt imagine her acting as bad as Josie's

Not Your Aunt B said...

Really, seriously, can't something be done about the teacher? Her attitude and lack of control in the classroom needs to be corrected. Poor you! At least the kids enjoyed their Halloween thanks to your efforts.

creative kerfuffle said...

omg josie isn't even my kid and this pisses me off. seriously, something needs to be done about that teacher. i'm passive agressive so i probably would never do another damn thing for that teacher. what a rude, rude witch!
and, i'm glad josie "stewed in her juices" and has started seeing the light. why does it take other people telling them the exact same thing we tell them for them to listen????

Deleted said...

Hehehe Witch dressed as a teacher! lol,

But seriously though what a wench! I can't believe her sometimes, who talks to a kid like that...meanie, so what if you don't do Halloween no need to carry on like that! (who does a career in teaching if you aren't into those things) I am so not looking forward to teachers and school and stuff. Seems that a lot of people have troubles with teachers a couple of times throughout school. I mean I did when I was in school, Guess there's a for sure thing that Violet will have a few.
If that is seriously the way she treats you in front of the principal and the kids imagine what she's like when you or the principal isn't there =/

..just don't get why people get into those types of career's if they don't care. (eg. Nurses, Teachers, Government)

Sherendipity said...

That teacher's a snot face.