Professor Noob's Daily Disquisitions
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
So, today I admit to being a little peeved - and for once, not at my students, but at those who brought them into being.
I've met this student's mother before, and she's actually a friend of Perfect Mentor's. A lovely woman who is thankfully quite involved in her slightly wayward son's life. He hurt himself and had to take time off of school, and she was diligent about coming to school to pick up his homework, which he was equally diligent in at least trying to get it done correctly.
Side note: I don't care how many hours you log in tutoring, or how many homework assignments you make up. There is no substitute for class time. Believe it or not, you miss things when you're gone! Important things, like how to do the assignment properly and why it matters! And if you think I'm going to sit down and re-teach the whole lesson to every single student who has missed my class (of whom there are at least ten per day), you seriously underestimate both my workload and my patience.
Ahem. Sorry, that really had nothing to do with today's story. To continue...
So, everything was pleasant and wonderful. Then the boy comes back, spends a few days in classes, and promptly is suspended for doing...something very bad.
Cue an enraged e-mail from the mother, demanding his assignments and complaining that she has never received a syllabus for the semester. Complaining in the really formalized way that indicates that she might use this e-mail to take legal action.
Um...what?
Look, I'm not saying a syllabus isn't a good idea, it's just not required in high school. And I'm not saying that we haven't been a little disorganized about giving her son every assignment that he's missed (when he's been gone about half the semester, it's easy to overlook these things). But don't you dare take out your pissy mood over your son's misbehavior on me. It's not my fault that he misbehaved shamefully and it's not my fault that they suspended him. If you're going to yell at anyone but your son, at least go yell at the principal. It won't do you much good, but at least you won't be actively alienating the only people who can keep your son from failing.
Her e-mail, though annoying, has alerted me to a much more serious problem: the parent-teacher conferences. It's suddenly hit me that about half my students are failing (not my fault! I swear! Ask the staff, they'll back me up!) and that, most likely, their parents are all going to blame me for it. And accuse. And yell. And threaten me with bodily harm. And...okay, it probably won't be that bad. But my wager is that at least one conference will get ugly. Shall we start a pool? Person closest to the number of shouting matches wins?
I've met this student's mother before, and she's actually a friend of Perfect Mentor's. A lovely woman who is thankfully quite involved in her slightly wayward son's life. He hurt himself and had to take time off of school, and she was diligent about coming to school to pick up his homework, which he was equally diligent in at least trying to get it done correctly.
Side note: I don't care how many hours you log in tutoring, or how many homework assignments you make up. There is no substitute for class time. Believe it or not, you miss things when you're gone! Important things, like how to do the assignment properly and why it matters! And if you think I'm going to sit down and re-teach the whole lesson to every single student who has missed my class (of whom there are at least ten per day), you seriously underestimate both my workload and my patience.
Ahem. Sorry, that really had nothing to do with today's story. To continue...
So, everything was pleasant and wonderful. Then the boy comes back, spends a few days in classes, and promptly is suspended for doing...something very bad.
Cue an enraged e-mail from the mother, demanding his assignments and complaining that she has never received a syllabus for the semester. Complaining in the really formalized way that indicates that she might use this e-mail to take legal action.
Um...what?
Look, I'm not saying a syllabus isn't a good idea, it's just not required in high school. And I'm not saying that we haven't been a little disorganized about giving her son every assignment that he's missed (when he's been gone about half the semester, it's easy to overlook these things). But don't you dare take out your pissy mood over your son's misbehavior on me. It's not my fault that he misbehaved shamefully and it's not my fault that they suspended him. If you're going to yell at anyone but your son, at least go yell at the principal. It won't do you much good, but at least you won't be actively alienating the only people who can keep your son from failing.
Her e-mail, though annoying, has alerted me to a much more serious problem: the parent-teacher conferences. It's suddenly hit me that about half my students are failing (not my fault! I swear! Ask the staff, they'll back me up!) and that, most likely, their parents are all going to blame me for it. And accuse. And yell. And threaten me with bodily harm. And...okay, it probably won't be that bad. But my wager is that at least one conference will get ugly. Shall we start a pool? Person closest to the number of shouting matches wins?
posted by Professor Noob at 9:01 AM
1 Comments:
This is why I say that teachers, particularly at the high school level, are saints. Yes, saints - despite the cursing and bitching and drinking that seems to be the main after-hours activity of almost every teacher I have ever known.
Just keep your cool, and let the parents be ranting assholes - it looks better that way when the cops arrive...
;)
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