Hate mail.

So I got my first nasty letter from a parent today. To preface: yesterday, my mentor and I decided to give the students who did not get their homework done a behavior plan. A behavior plan, in my room, is what the students fill out when they break a rule consistently. It asks them what rule they broke, why, how they feel about their decision to break it, and what they can do in the future. Since rules #2 and #3 are Be prepared and Be productive, it follows that not doing homework violates both.

Anyway, I had an angry mother (whose daughters are both in my class for some reason) write me the following (in its original format for emphasis):

“We need to talk I donot [sic] agree with this written nottice [sic]!!
[initials]
This is uncalled for and I will complain to school if school dont [sic] take action I will remove both children from school! They did their work a sub put the pages on board you are telling them they didn’t do it and they did you could have at least praised my children for trying a simple mistake dont deserve this kind of action I have a grade school average of 9th grade if I don’t know how to do home work you should at least sit down with my children and show them that is your job!! but my children say that you wont [sic] show them again correctly and you make them figure it out by themselves. Well your [sic] getting paid to teach my children if they need to be told again well I think they should- I am very unhappy with your performance as a teacher I dont [sic] know if it’s miscommunication or what but I’m very unhappy Patricia was honor Roll last year because her teacher took time with her she was doing so good until now!!”

Joy. I guess this mother also called the school office today, asking to talk about “that bitch” who teaches her daughters. Mmmm, I feel the love. Since I know I’m not really in the wrong here, I’ll just leave the letter undisputed above. Bleh. After reading the letter this morning, I was considering just walking out the door and saying, “Screw this.” I mean, really, I’m doing ALL I can, and I still am seen as incompetent and evil. Heh.

I had a decent morning with the class, actually; they were great. Maybe it’s because I had two of the worst boys kicked out for the time being. This afternoon was off to a good start, but it all came crashing down during a quiz-show-style game for a review of our math test tomorrow. I warned the class that if it got too out of control, we’d switch to bookwork. I gave them two chances (and warnings!), and we still ended up with bookwork and no recess. Bummer, guys. Two girls put their heads down and cried for 20 minutes. I love my job.

Finally, the day ended with one girl having a lighter confiscated from her backpack (she’s in fourth grade!). I guess someone was playing with a lighter in the girls’ bathroom during recess, and it was one of my students. Awesome. Another girl (who had her head down once we switched to bookwork) started tearing up paper. Soon, she had a sharp rock from the playground and was slicing through the pages in her book. Sweet. I also managed to piss off one daughter of the woman who wrote the aforementioned letter, all because the girl wouldn’t do her work. Best day ever?

Right now, I’m seriously ready to never come back. Last night, I wondered what would happen if I just stayed at home, comatose on the couch for a few days. I’m sure people would frantically call or stop by, and then they’d have to find a sub for me to take over, then they’d have to hire a teacher. I’d probably be either jailed or just have my certification revoked. Either of those sounds better to me than going to school at this point. :P One of the ONLY ways I was able to get through today was by keeping in mind that the superintendent pretty much told me I can leave in December without too much hassle. A lot of other teachers/staff are still telling me that they’ve been there, that they’ve felt this way. While I don’t doubt that, I do doubt that this is for me. It seems to be for them, but this is an extremely challenging profession for which all people are not made. I don’t know if I’m a non-teacher or teacher at heart, but these next few months will tell me for sure. I just don’t want the students (and their parents!) to have to deal with a teacher who despises being in school every day. That’s not fair to anyone.

Finally, I’ll end on a good note. I think I did two good instructional things today… 1.) The class really struggles with organization in their writing, so I had the students web (brainstorm) what their lives would be like if they lived underwater. Then, I had them put their web on a transparency, and I shared the webs with the whole class. With each web, we determined topics for 3 body paragraphs to help them organize their ideas. Tomorrow, we’ll try the brainstorm to draft process. 2.) After lunch, I read to the class as usual. However, today I had them each draw along with the story. That is, they each got a piece of paper on which to draw anything from the story. I was really impressed by their work! I think it’s a good, quick check on comprehension, and it mixes things up a bit for all of us. After reading the chapter, I had volunteers show their pictures with the class. Everyone was impressed and interested; it was my first true “teaching moment” all week. It felt good. Presently, I leave you to copy tomorrow’s spelling, math, and vocab tests. Peace.