Back to School

Aug 20 - Aug 21

Ready or not, school starts tomorrow and I met the parents tonight. Parents scare me. You don't know them and they stare into your soul, slicing it up into pieces with their minds. Also,...

my principal pulled me aside yesterday saying that he pulled several kids that had been here last year because the community's opinion feels I am mean. Say WHAT?! He'd been stopped in the parking lot, at church, and has received phone calls about how their children came home saying I was mean or that I made them cry with something I said or did. My boss didn't feel I was mean and so became very confused. 

VENT: I really dislike the fact that quite a few parents around here feel entitled to run the school at their beckon call. Let the teachers and staff do their jobs. Stop the micro-managing! 

After this conference, naturally, I felt terrible! What did I do? I was going through my first trimester of my pregnancy--I'm going to be moody and miserable. You've had children, don't you understand? When students know the rules and expectations and choose to not follow them, how then is it the teacher's fault that they are in trouble?

I met with a lot of parents that night and quite a few were optimistic and pleasant to coerce with. I was feeling very hopeful about the new school year; much better than last year. I did, however, have a parent that through me off guard. First thing she said was that her daughter doesn't do well with yelling and asked if I was going to yell in the classroom. Not knowing how to respond, I said, "I don't think so. I don't think I yell." She then told me again how they don't do yelling. It was very odd.

First day of school is here. Not only am I nervous, but also excited. I hope my class enjoys what I have in store for them. They were a little chatty all day, but I don't blame them. It was probably the hottest day of the summer and the A/C wasn't working in the school nor was my microphone. A change in weather means a noisy classroom. I had to talk over them quite a bit to get their attention, luckily I know how to be loud. I was quite excited about how the day had gone overall, when I  saw one of my students in the office. I asked her how she was and she didn't respond, just looked down at the floor. I then saw her mom walk out from behind the counter in the office. She had just talked to the principal. I said hello as friendly as I could. She ignored me, stuck her nose in the air and walked out of the school. Then my boss called me into his office. My initial thought was, 'Oh-kay...I wonder what's going on.' He told me that her daughter 'perceived a lot of yelling' (do incoming 2nd grade students even know what the word perceived means?), so as per request, he was going to take her out of my class for my protection. It took everything I had to not cry while the seconds ticked by in his office ever so SLOWLY. I knew he was trying to look out for me, especially with the previous complaints, but I felt like the world was against me. 

I came home in tears. Nate did his best to console me. What started out as great day, became ruined by another's comments on my teaching (she doesn't even know me!)

I found out later that she is a good friend of the aide that hates my guts. What do you think happened?