The Moral Dilemma

Let’s talk yearend reports. How honest do I have to be? It’s a no brainer for the kids that are staying at our school. I’m honest and give ideas for summer enrichment when appropriate. I don’t want to saddle my coworkers with a kid who isn’t prepared. Luckily, most of my parents are already aware of the things I’ve mentioned in their child’s report, so it’s just a formality. I’m also proud to say that most of my students are receiving glowing reports.

But. . .what about Sneaky Kid who isn’t coming back next year? His parents are an incredible pain in the ass. The stop by your room, pull their kid out early a lot, say they are working with him but aren’t kind of parent. Are you familiar with this breed?

Should I be honest about everything and make my conference extremely uncomfortable or do I sugarcoat it with general remarks and coast my way to summer? I’ve met with these parents at least 4 times since Christmas. One meeting included the kid’s educational therapist who I exchange emails with weekly. Both of us are frustrated by the parent’s inability/ lack of desire to help the kid work at home. These are the folks who sent the “this homework is to hard for my son” note.

What would you do?

Mental Health Day

I used to think people who took mental health days were nuts. Can life really be that overwhelming? Apparently I’m growing up because now, I understand. My classroom is one of my favorite places in the world. I love my bulletin boards and all of the color. It is truly a happy place. Every now and then I find myself getting a little snappy with the kids. Yesterday was that kind of day.

I spent my weekend putting out fires between my mom and brother. Thank heavens they live in different cities because I couldn’t possibly do this on a regular basis. I’m pretty sure they are both a little crazy. So, after an extremely stressful weekend, I was a little less than pleasant yesterday. I also ended up sending two kids home sick. My throat hurts and I have report cards to write.

Today is my mental health day and I am embracing it wholeheartedly. I’ve written my assistant two pages on exactly how to conduct the day. Yes, I’m a little anal. She is interviewing for head-teaching positions right now, so the practice is good for her. My husband took me out for a lovely breakfast and now I’m here typing away on my neglected blog.

Three cheers for mental health days!

That doesn’t help

Why do some parents feel the need to question the relevance/importance/difficulty of the homework I send home? In September of every year I tell the parents, “Homework should not be difficult. Students should be able to complete the written portion in less than 15 minutes and feel successful. We struggle in the classroom, not at home by ourselves. “ I feel very strongly about this homework policy and always back it up with research about how over worked our children are.

What ever happened to down time? My students go form after school classes to piano, to Karate and then home to eat dinner and do their homework. They have schedules like this 5 days a week with gymnastics or team sports on the weekends. Anyway, I digress.

This week one of my students sent back a piece of incomplete homework with a note from his mom scrawled across the top, “This is to hard for my son.” It was a crossword puzzle using his spelling words. My assistant thought I should correct the spelling of “to” and send it back. Instead I wrote, “Please help your son complete this homework. All of the other students were able to solve the puzzle. I’m sure, with a little help, your son can do the same.” Sure enough, it came back completed the next day.

I happen to know that this student’s sibling’s teacher, (did you follow that?), gets the same kind of notes on her homework from time to time. Every teacher wants to know when work is overly challenging. If I didn’t teach it well enough the first time, I’d like to try again. In most cases, however, it is just parents trying to get their kids out of doing homework. That doesn’t help at all.