4.5 Week Progress Reports Bring Out The Angry Parents!

I survived my 5th week of teaching! Whoo Hoo! I’m learning waaaaay more than I ever thought possible. Some days I love teaching, and there are a few days I question my carreer choice. I’m seriously hoping that’s normal for newbies.

I had a roller coaster ride of a week. Let’s start with Monday: after consulting with the 7th grade gifted LA teacher, I have decided to implement a Writer’s Notebook in my classes. They work well in her class, and she’s seeing some really great work. Now, my students are as far from gifted as I am from — I don’t know — a great singer, but I liked the concept of the notebook, and I was willing to give it a try.

Tuesday was uneventful, and then Wednesday emerged it’s ugle little head. When they came to class, all my students had their little composition books, ready to convert them into Writer’s Notebooks. I introduced the Writer’s Notebook concept and tried to get the kids really excited about this year-long project. I started passing out materials for the students to use to personalize the covers of their Notebooks when my principal entered my room. As fate would have it, she had picked that day to conduct my formal observation (1 of 3 for the year). Great. My principal observes me while I am conducting art class.

I’m still awaiting my report. She’s been in my classroom twice before for 5 minute observations, so I know she knows I actually teach content, but I’m still bummed. If she could have only come on Thursday. I had a great lesson planned on Thursday. Then, after the students had finally left, and I was just getting ready to settle into my classroom for a few hours of planning, my mentor teacher yells out, “Go home, Strangenewteacher! It’s 5:00!”

Seriously? I just got started. I told her I was going to stay a few hours to try to plan for next week. This sends her and another teacher into a 20 minute lecture on how I cannot stay at school until 6:30. The way I’m doing things is totally wrong. She comes in a 6 AM, and I need to do so as well. She doesn’t care that I’m not a morning person and it’s a struggle enough to make it to school by 8. Then my AP enters the conversation. He agrees that I’m working too hard. I am wrong by planning for next week — I should have the next 4 weeks planned by now. 

At that point, I shut down. I have been teaching for 4.5 weeks, but I’m supposed to already have the rest of the quarter planned out? There’s no way. I was feeling so attacked by being yelled at by 3 people at once that I cried. Yup. Because apparently I’m not as strong and prefessional as I wanted to be. I guess they realized I was overwhelmed because they left. Gone in 3.5 seconds. I swear I saw smoke trailing them. The next morning, there was a card on my desk: “Sorry we were so pushy. We were wrong.”

4.5 week progress reports also went out on Wednesday. I am amazed at these parents. I send home electronic progress reports every week, and I hear nothing. I send home the big deal, and I get 73 emails the next day: enraged parents demanding to know why Little Johnny got a 0 for three classwork grades, and why I won’t let him make up those grades? Ummmm … because this work was completed in class, and Little Johnny refused to do the work because he was way too concerned with throwing paper balls across the room?

Then, yesterday, my AP calls me into his office to tell me a parent complained about me because I refused to let students make up classwork grade they had received 0s for. She said it is obvious I don’t care about her son. AP told me he was on my side, but that complaint has to go into my file. Well, isn’t that just freaking fabulous.