Wow... Just Wow.

This is a little different from my normal postings. I normally stick to just what goes on in the classroom, but it's relevant to my blog, and also highly annoying (at least to me) so I had to mention it.

I was wandering around the Internet today, and I noticed something very interesting... Someone was sending traffic to my blog! Wow, I thought, how kind. The nice person saw something in my blog and linked to me.

Then I noticed how they were describing me. They linked to one of my posts about Open House, where I was mentioning I was working really hard to get my desk cleaned off. I tossed out the overused, but still humorous (in my opinion), phrase about a clean desk being a sign of a diseased mind.

They said that this was just a sign of someone who doesn't "want to bother with coming up with a system for taking control of their environment."

As I mentioned above... Wow... just wow. That someone could read just that sentence and decide they know everything about me... They obviously didn't read the rest of my post, because I go on to say how I am going to really strive to keep it clean, and how I, strangely, put more emphasis on working with my students rather than being a neat freak.

They obviously didn't know about my library, (in which I have over 1,000 books that I have purchased with my own money to allow the kids to check them out, since I think reading is really important) which has a great system to allow them to check it out without me having to drop what I'm doing and go over to get a library sheet. It's super-organized, and countless teachers have come in my room just to see the library and have copied my idea.

And something else that really got me... the next thing they wrote was, "I notice that those people who have cluttered desks often end up being the ones who are late to submit their grades or who don’t respond to ARD input forms or whatever."

That really burns me up! I have never, not even once submitted my grades late, even though in our county we had a horrible gradebook program which routinely lost grades and would not work so we couldn't input grades. I also am not late in submitting any of the thousands of paperwork that needs submitting.

(I do miss meetings, but that's a different story. I can't, for some reason, remember to attend meetings. I have alarms set on my computer now, to remind me, so I will not miss them. See? I am working on improving myself.)

Now, you might be thinking I am annoyed because it's true. I have carefully thought about it, too, to make sure that's not it... but it's not! I am annoyed that this person linked to me in a negative way, using me as a negative example, when I am pretty sure they did not look at any of my other posts to see if I am an effective teacher. Because honestly, still in my own opinion, of course, I think what matters most is that I am an effective teacher.

Besides, my desk drawers are currently very clean and organized. I have what I need within reach of when I'm sitting. The top of my desk is not pristine right now, but grades are due this week, and I am currently in the process of inputting grades, so all of that is all over my desk. Before I started putting in grades, it was still clean!

I don't spend a lot of time at my desk. I am up, or in my chair in the front of the room, working individually with the kids. When my desk is cluttered, it's not a nice, calm place to work, but I don't really do work there, even when it is cleaned off. I do most of my actual grading of papers at home, not at school, because I don't find the time to do it at school. During the day, there are a million other things to do, like attend meetings (which I have not even missed one this year... yet...) and do lesson plans, and all those endless things that must happen right then, or dire consequences will befall us all.

Suffice to say, this really disturbed me. Oh, well. I can't really hold a grudge, I guess. I need to move on. I guess I should say at least people are coming to my blog because of it.

But it still wasn't very nice.

Open House... Survived

Well, I did survive Open House, but just barely. It was a CRAZY day. I firmly believe in the philosophy that a clean desk is a sign of a diseased mind, so because I was aiming to impress the parents (or at least not shock them), I had to sort through the junk that has appeared on it, almost magically, since the beginning of the school year. There was stuff from last year on it, which I still don't get, since it's not the same desk, or even the same classroom. But it was there, so I had to deal with it. Plus, I had to... you know... teach.

So I kept dashing at it throughout the day, while the kids were doing bellwork (the work they must do as they come in), while the kids were having a minute to think about the question I'd just asked them, and while the kids were answering, I was throwing things away and nodding to show I was still listening.

Now that it's clean, I am going to try my best to keep in clean. My co-teacher is always making fun of me for the state of my desk... but I do know what's there, and even a general direction if you want something. Plus, when you've got 100+ kids coming through your doors every day, somehow cleaning off your desk isn't much of a priority.

Anyway, Open House went well. I didn't fall off my heels, which is always a plus, since I don't generally wear heels because I might actually fall off my heels. Only one parent attempted to attack, but was actually pretty easy to head off, because I was so open to the idea of a parent conference. Just not right then. I found out later from my team that he had cornered all of them, too, but I was the only one lucky enough to require a conference. At least in middle school it is required that you have a conference with all of your child's teachers, so I won't be alone.

Several parents came up to me and told me their child loved my class, and me, and that always makes a teacher feel so good, because you do never know how your teaching is being received.

So, hooray! I survived, I have a clean desk, and it's only 2 days until the weekend!

Open House is Coming!

In the next week, my school will be having Open House, which is a time for parents to come and meet their child's teachers, if they didn't come during Meet Your Teacher. Of course, it's also a chance for some parents to attack the teacher, if their child received a grade they feel was in error on the progress report that went home last week.

I am honestly afraid to check my school email, knowing there will be at least some emails from parents, complaining that I "gave" their child a bad grade.

Grrrr... It really bothers me when they ask why I gave their child a bad grade. I don't give grades! I only reflect what was earned. And in our school district, they really have no excuse for not knowing a bad grade is coming, because we have an online grade system that allows them to check their child's grade 24/7.

But I digress.

Anyway, some parents expect different things from Open House than we plan (or even are able) to give them, including the chance to dialogue one-on-one about their child. With 100+ students, this is just not possible. I guess in elementary school, it might work that way, giving each parent a chance to have a brief chat with the teacher, while the other parents view the classroom and the stuff posted around the room. But if I spent just one minute with each set of parents, that's coming up on 2 hours, and that's how long the entire thing lasts.

What Open House essentially is supposed to be is a chance for the parents to see the classrooms now that the kids are in them and hear the teacher go through what the students do on a daily basis. They can see where their child sits, check out the textbooks, and see the teacher that their child has been praising or condemning for the past 5 weeks.

Previous years have seen crazy things done by parents (and their children as they watch).

Examples:

• Last year, a mom brought all of her children to Open House. There were many of them. (Which is fine; I understand you don't want to get a babysitter for this time, and big families are fun, and I'm not complaining about the size). Most noticeable, however, was the smallest one, who was right around 1 year old. She was bored, so she screamed and cried through my entire presentation. I am not talking little baby-noises; I'm talking five-alarm fire-type noises. The other parents were glaring at her something fierce, but she just smiled indulgently at the baby.
• A parent told me that I was not helping her child with his writing, and I needed to be working harder. Then she told me she was checking over everything I grade and hand back, so I need to be careful. Then she told me that she doesn't see how my reading logs (the homework my kids do every single night) are helping with his writing. I told her that reading logs are to help improve reading, not writing. At this point, I was supposed to have started my presentation. I was feeling quite freaked out, when one of the dads (not her husband, either) made the woman sit down and be quiet. On his way out, he apologized for her behavior. I was so grateful.
• One parent sat through my entire presentation, then asked if I was the math teacher. To make it worse, they then tell me their child is on a different team. Were you not listening to anything I said?? I also have our team name posted everywhere.
• One of my students apparently forgot that I have rules, and climbed on top of my of my desks. I usually don't like to correct students in front of their parents, because I feel when they're with them, it's their job, and I don't want to overstep my boundaries. Not this time.

It is fun, though, now that I am no longer completely freaked out at the thought of meeting parents. I get to see the kids in a different setting, usually as they're being proud to be the ones who know what's going on, since they are the ones who know where their classes are, and how the school day works, etc.

Well, here's hoping it all goes well!