I have told my children's teachers the same thing at the beginning of every school year, "I won't believe everything they tell me about you, and you don't believe everything they tell you about me!" I have had a run in or two over the years with teachers that think they know what is best for our kids,, *que momma bear* for the most part, I'd say 99% of the time, I back a teacher up, if our kids come home and say 'Mr. S said we couldn't go for recess because no one was listening and that's not fair', my question to the kids is 'were you listening',, usually they are part of the problem when this occurs,, kids know they are way more affective in packs, and when 3 or 4 start, it's easy to give in to peer pressure and NOT talk, or NOT play nice, or even *and I in no way condone this behavior* Bully.
Levi came home from school yesterday really upset about something that had transpired in class, with a sub, and the sub told the entire class they had to write lines at home,, 75 times "I will not talk in class"
To me, no big deal, just write the lines, get it over with. whatever. choices = consequences right?
When Levi continues to tell me it was only two kids in his class that were talking and being distruptive,, hmmmm not cool to punish the whole class for this! SORRY!
So I emailed his teacher,, and this was his response!!
Hi Mr. S
Levi came home from school today, March 18, quite upset. He told me there was a boy in class, Dennis, who was behaving while you were in class in the am, and got rewarded with chips, (as levi understood it to be) and as soon as you left Dennis had started to goofing around during writing, and talking with Corey. At the end of the day the substitute then told the entire class that they each had to write 75 times "I will not talk in class".
While I have absolutely no issue with teachers taking action against classes when it is difficult to tell who is acting up or the entire class is being difficult, I do take issue with Levi and the other students being disciplined for something only two students were doing to disrupt the class.
Levi told me that he felt if he said anything to the sub she would just give the class more lines to write.
Bottom line is he came home feeling very unjustly treated, and is rather upset by how the whole thing went down. I certainly do not think nor do I believe that he is perfect,, Levi has his faults, however, this being the first time he has come home, this year, being this upset over how a situation was handled in class, I am believing him. He has come home in the past and told me when he has had to do extra work, or miss recess because of something he participated in that led to misbehavior. Because of this neither his Dad or I felt it was right to have to write out 75 times "I will not talk in class".
I believe that teaching should be done with love and not with fear. This sub then "threatened" the class that she would call you to check to make sure the students have all done the lines. I say threatened because according to what we are being told, she had told Dennis over and over again "strike one, strike two.." with no follow through.
Please feel free to give me a call if there is more to this issue than we are being told. Thank you for taking the time to address this issue with me!! I appreciate it
Mrs. R Johnson
702-816-7636
HI,
I'm
sorry for what ever transpired in class, he certinly does not have to
write anything and I will be dealling with the class tommorrow. I agree,
teaching is not about fear butbringing out the buest of people and
kids. I will also be forwarding your concern to admin as well as the
front office. Please feel free to give me a call and tell Levi no to
worry. To give you a heads up, I would like to read your mssage omiting
any name of who it is from. I would like to prove to the class that
their actions effect everyone else.
In
addition, I was notified by the aid that is in my room that theire was a
problem with the sub. Thank you for bringing this to my attention in
writing, and if you are not comfertale sharinging the content of your
letter then please let me know. I will hold off reading it untill I hear
back from you.
Mr. S
yea he has spelling errors, I'm chalking it up to him being tired and frustrated with what he got feedback on. *my fingers trip over the keyboard plenty* I really am quite happy with his response. The fact that I was not the only one who recognized something wasn't right with this sub, made me feel even better. I'm only sorry that Levi and the other behaved kids had to deal with it.
*it really was quite humorous to hear him say "mum, a bunch of us on the bus said we were going to talk to our parents about this because this is so unfair! the sub knew who was talking, and she kept giving him warnings and warnings and then BOOM, the whole class has to write lines,, it's crap mum!"*
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