Similarities and Differences

Parents

Tuesday, August 29

Wow, 700 views. Geez.

I'm sorry I made that many of you suffer through reading my blog.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read what I have to say. I never really thought anyone would voluntarily take the time to read these entries. It's been something I've learned to enjoy writing, and I'll be sad when it comes to an end, regardless of the time consumption that comes with it.

Today was the fifth day with students, which means that we are 1/36 of the way done of this year. Yay. This also means we have 35/36 of the way to go.

I guess I just wanna get through this school year because teaching here is completely different. I'm not used to how they run things here, and I just wanna know how this year is gonna go. I also wanna see if they're gonna hire me back next year. I'm kidding. Kind of.

I don't know if I'm even going to wanna stay in this district. If I went to a rougher school, at least I would feel more at home.

This evening we had this thing called Back To School Night, which is basically a time for parents to come in and meet their kids' teachers, which is quite interesting because even though I don't know who all of my students are yet, I still get a sense of why some of these kids are the way they are. And then there are always the exceptions. There some wild kids with the nicest parents. There are some nasty parents with the nicest kids. 

I was very open with the parents about my disciplining methods. I told them if their child does not get their work done by the due date, the only way they can get credit is if they go to detention after school that day until 4:15. I was kind of worried to see how parents would react to that.

"I work during that time period," one parent said to me.

"Well, then make sure Devin gets his work done on time," I told her. "I don't have that rule to make it harder on people. I made that rule, so people would be less likely to forget, considering the consequences." 

"Do you really think that is the right way to go about things?" this parent questioned.

I shrugged. "I think that it would be different if I gave an overwhelming amount of homework every night, but I don't. A lot of the time, I give students a few days to get things done, as well."

"This district's policy is to avoid having behavior reflect on academics."

I was getting annoyed, but this parent had a point. 

"Ma'am," I said, "I understand that, but the point of my class is to teach kids how to live life, which means getting things done on time. That's academic enough for me."

There was another parent standing near her, waiting to officially meet me, and he said, "Well said."

The angry parent rolled her eyes a little. "Well, Devin doesn't always get his homework in on time, and the policy of this district doesn't support punishing kids for not getting work turned in late." 

"That's not exactly true." I paused. "And homework is only worth ten percent of the grade in this class. If it's that big of a deal, then Devin can get his work done on time. He'll be fine."

"Whatever," she said. "I'm going to talk to the principal about this one." Then she just walked out.

I asked Jen if this would be okay for me to have this policy a few weeks back, and she supported my decision to give detention if students failed to complete their homework on time or failed the assignment. I don't like the word detention when it comes to failing an assignment because then I'm just requiring extra help.

 I looked at the next parent after she left as if nothing happened, but he said, "I support your decision."

"Thank you."

"Are a lot of parents like that?" he asked.

I shook my head a little. "Nah, not really."

Most of the parents were really nice tonight, but some of them were not supportive at all.