Today I received one of "those" parent emails, telling me what a mean teacher I am. Ugh. I hate those emails, those parent conferences, and those phone calls. No matter how many I get under my belt, they always feel like a sucker punch to the gut. This particular email picked apart a few of my personality traits, teaching styles, and teaching schedule and just felt like one beat down after another. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon second guessing myself....wondering how my attitude, teaching philosphy and sweetly sarcastic tone affects my little darlings. I don't want to send them into lifelong therapy, I really don't...so I have to know.
Am I really that mean?
Bouncing my thoughts off a few people, they tell me that I am not, but, as my friends I guess they are supposed to respond that way. What if I really am that mean of a teacher? What if my students really are needing to save for therapy starting now? That would be horrible. I would hope that they "get" my sarcastic tone, and understand my strict nature as a labor of love, but maybe they don't...maybe I'm just missing the boat on this one?
Tell me about the meanest teacher you ever had...in the history of ever. Do I sound like her?
2 comments:
My meanest teacher ever was actually a sub. She crossed the line when she made fun of our lifelong, special needs, classmate for having problems with her homework. Our classmate had asked another friend and I for help, and the teacher completely "intervened" and dogged her for not being able to tackle her 6th grade level math problem (we were all seniors). So, my friend and I turned into "super b's" and got ourselves purposely sent to the principal's office. Needless to say...we had the coolest principal ever and that lady never subbed again....in any district. I can't see you as a mean teacher :)
You are not. We as teachers have all had those emails and phone calls. You will never please every child and every parent. Take for example, a tutor session I had yesterday. Within an hour, I had two sessions. One of which the student praised me and the site as the best thing ever and the second said I was the worst tutor ever and they should fire me. I actually had a parent tell me how horrible I was in the beginning of the year and by the end of was praising how wonderful a teacher I was. In fact, we ran into her on our honeymoon in Mexico and she ended up sending us LOTS of free drinks at Senor Frogs. You are great teacher and remember this is one parent and one opinion. :)
Post a Comment