“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
― Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Let's imagine the following scenario: It's 7:46 and Mrs. Smith is in a massive battle with the copy machine - which is all too familiar because the dang machine is a dinosaur. She checks her watch and sees that she has six minutes to get to her class before the bell rings. It's time to give up the battle and accept defeat for the nine billionth time. Mrs. Smith keeps calm and positive and reminds herself she doesn't need the papers until fourth period which starts at 10:45 and that she can make them during her conference period which is third. While no one is looking she kicks the machine and starts her trek to her class. On her way back to her classroom she starts making a mental note of all the things she needs to accomplish during her conference period: submit lesson plans for next week, continue grading Monday's test, run off copies, reply to her department head's email, run to her car to get the checkbook to buy something out of the outrageoulsy expensive band's fundraiser catalog, check her box and there just might be enough time to go to the bathroom and ALL of this must be done in 45 minutes. Mrs. Smith makes it back to her clasroom in just the knick of time. She's ready to battle her first two classes of the day. How they have so much energy this early in the morning, she doesn't know, but she manages to get through these two classes without any incidents. As she sits down at her desk to begin her list of things to do, Ms. Lu, the school secretary, comes over the intercom and asks Mrs. Smith if she's avaible for a parent conference. Mrs. Smith thinks to herself, "Am I available? Physically, yes? Do I have time ? N- " Ms. Lu comes back over and says that Dillion Scott's mom is here to talk to her. Mrs. Smith thinks, "SOS. Where's the fire alarm? Not this parent's student. Not today of all days. My list needs to be tackled and oh my!" Mrs. Smith lets Mrs. Lu know she's on her way to the office and will be there shortly. Before Mrs. Smith heads out, she grabs her classroom bible that contains her grades, attendance, behavior, restroom pass, and anything else a teacher keeps track of. As Mrs. Smith heads to the office she prays to God that the parent isn't near as bad as her child is. Sad to say this scenario isn't imaginary. This quite often happens to teachers. Now what am I trying to get at here? Is it that teachers only get forty-five minutes for a confernece period ? No, I'll save that for a later date. Is it that kids have all this new technology for the classroom but the copy machine is jank ? No. Notice the last sentence in our scenario: As Mrs. Smith heads to the office she prays to God that the parent isn't near as bad as her child is. Too often parents want to talk to teachers about why they (the teacher) is failing their perfect son/ daughter who has never made a bad grade before. Alright this is for all you middle and high school parents and/or soon to be middle and high school parents. Are you ready? 1. Your child is no longer in elementary school and they are no longer as sweet and innocent as they once were. They're beginning to lie and manipulate and they will do anything it takes to stay on mommy and daddy's good side. 2. When your child comes home to you and says, "Mrs. Cindy hates me and she's failing me😩," chances are that's a straight up lie. Your child is probably not Mrs. Cindy's favorite but that's probably because everyday they ask to go to the bathroom, show up late, don't turn in work, refuse to do work, talk back, are distracted in class, or my favorite - disrupting class. 3. Your child is using that nice little handy dandy cell phone during class. They're texting, listening to music, looking up answers, and cheating on tests. Cell phones are a teacher's worst nightmare. A little off topic - in recent news there was an incident about a girl refusing to leave the classroom as she was asked to do and it led to her being drugged out of her chair. This supposedly started over a cell phone! As she continued to disrupt class, an administrator and then a security officer was called to escort her out and when she refused (big shocker that she refused) things got rough. Parents you are allowing your child to control you when you believe EVERYTHING that he or she says. When you came home from school with a bad grade did your parents assume it was your fault or did they automatically drive down to the school and demand to talk to the teacher? Your child chooses to do homework, chooses to not pay attention, chooses to not study, chooses to sleep in class and chooses to be disrespectful. When your child chooses to do those actions s/he is not giving the teacher much to work with. Teachers hate failing students...a part of them dies. They want all of their students to be successful. So parents, next time before you go down and demand to know why Mrs. Cindy is failing your child, turn around and ask your student to show you their COMPLETED homework, their class assignments, the notes they took in class and ask them when their next test is. It's not the teachers fault that your child is failing. It's your child's fault. Here's a little something for all you teachers out there. Is this relatable? XOXO,
A Future Gearle In Education
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Abby & AndreaA college student trying to figure out the world with her mom by herside. Life through my lens (Abby). We all have different stories and these are only some of mine. Some funny, some adventurous, some hard. Sit back and relax. Enjoy. Archives
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