Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004
Eyes will roll, posted at 10:29 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Things are weird at school right now. Our principal is back from his 6-week absence, and he's new, so we're all still feeling him out. I don't have an opinion either way just yet, but his return has thrown us into a swirl, with policy changes and some clear there's-a-new-sherriff-in-town-now tactics. Rumors and uncertainty reigns, but it's all sort of interesting to see unfold. I have fears more and more of being "found out," so that's all I'll say about that.Overall, it wasn't a great day. I was called "unprofessional" by a mother who decided to sneak up on me today during my planning period for rolling my eyes when a student asked me a question. That was her side of it. The truth is this - the girl had her head down much of the period, and asked something that had just been asked three previous times right in a row. It wasn't an "understanding" question, either; it was just she wasn't paying me any attention. I don't know if I rolled my eyes or not, but I certainly don't think that it's inappropriate. You treat me with respect in my classroom, and I'll do the same. If you don't hold up your end of the bargain, don't allow everyone else to get behind because you choose not to pay attention.
I was made for a bit after the encounter, but I'm okay with it now. It's important for parents to be advocates for their children. However, the complete lack of holding the student accountable at all was disheartening. In addition, I liked the student until that encounter. Sure, she's failing badly, but that's not unlike many other 9th graders their first semester in high school. Now, I don't like her, because she decided to tattle to her mother about a minor issue in the classroom, on top of doing nothing at all all year for me. And the mother doesn't decide to come up to see me in my classroom when I phoned home about her daughter failing, or when she received her progress report saying her daughter is failing, but instead comes up when I allegedly rolled my eyes at her.
Otherwise, things are good right now. My lesson crackled with energy today, and I'm really into this critical analysis stuff I'm teaching right now. Every year, I seem to find something a bit new to focus on while teaching, something to get these kids just a bit higher in skills than the previous. This year, it's critical analysis, and I can see their progress every day.