Horrible kindergarten teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DOp here I volunteer in the classroom so I saw her lose her shit and have a tantrum over silly little things like talking during a fire drill or getting out of line walking from recess. And I am not talking About raising her voice I am talking a full melt down. The parents who gasp all had boys in her class years prior and their experience has been that admin believes she is great and loves kids tremendously. There are rumors that she will single out a "victim" once a year and try to make that child's life difficult. The reason I am concerned is that she sent me an email that my son did xyz at a pajamas day party. But my son was not in school that day. So she then said that he did it another day. Just makes no sense.

Why aren't we talking about this part? This is very odd to me.

That said my DS has gotten in trouble for things he hasn't done before. What I tell him is that if he weren't often talking when he wasn't supposed to be the teacher wouldn't assume every out of turn whisper was him.
So while it is unfair, he needed to work on being quite and it has helped. Now the teacher has never said anything to me about it so I guess it is not that bad but the DS is his own worst enemy and rats himself out

Just tell the teacher that if the behavior is so bad that she needs to email about it she needs to email you the day it happens. Kids have short memories so if he really is misbehaving it needs to be addressed immediately.
Now if she emails you on a day when your DS is out you will know if she is really just nuts or if she made a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOp here I volunteer in the classroom so I saw her lose her shit and have a tantrum over silly little things like talking during a fire drill or getting out of line walking from recess. And I am not talking About raising her voice I am talking a full melt down. The parents who gasp all had boys in her class years prior and their experience has been that admin believes she is great and loves kids tremendously. There are rumors that she will single out a "victim" once a year and try to make that child's life difficult. [b]The reason I am concerned is that she sent me an email that my son did xyz at a pajamas day party. But my son was not in school that day. So she then said that he did it another day. Just makes no sense.[/b]

Why aren't we talking about this part? This is very odd to me.

That said my DS has gotten in trouble for things he hasn't done before. What I tell him is that if he weren't often talking when he wasn't supposed to be the teacher wouldn't assume every out of turn whisper was him.
So while it is unfair, he needed to work on being quite and it has helped. Now the teacher has never said anything to me about it so I guess it is not that bad but the DS is his own worst enemy and rats himself out

Just tell the teacher that if the behavior is so bad that she needs to email about it she needs to email you the day it happens. Kids have short memories so if he really is misbehaving it needs to be addressed immediately.
Now if she emails you on a day when your DS is out you will know if she is really just nuts or if she made a mistake.

OK, I"ll talk about that part. It sounds as if the teacher, like most teachers, has a huge amount of work to do and honestly confused the day when she wrote the email to the mother. She probably had many other emails to do in a short amount of time. It happens. Last month I sent in email in which I accidentally referred to the student by the wrong NAME. This doesn't make me crazy or a horrible teacher: it just means that I had to write about 20 emails to 20 different people, and had a very short break period in which to do so.

I think you need to be very careful about the "rumors", etc. in cases like this. Your child will pick up on your attitude, and it will make it more difficult to respect his teacher at school, thus limiting his learning and causing him to feel that it is OK to misbehave because Mom will take his side and blame the teacher no matter what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DOp here I volunteer in the classroom so I saw her lose her shit and have a tantrum over silly little things like talking during a fire drill or getting out of line walking from recess. And I am not talking About raising her voice I am talking a full melt down. The parents who gasp all had boys in her class years prior and their experience has been that admin believes she is great and loves kids tremendously. There are rumors that she will single out a "victim" once a year and try to make that child's life difficult. The reason I am concerned is that she sent me an email that my son did xyz at a pajamas day party. But my son was not in school that day. So she then said that he did it another day. Just makes no sense.

Maybe do what everyone's doing with cops these days and record one of the meltdowns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a child deserves to be yelled at for talking during a fire drill? These are not 10 year old, these are kindergartners. No one deserves an adult in position of authority scream in their faces. Especially vulnerable 5 year olds. My son is really hard to get something Out of so I don't know if she is yelling at him I am monitoring it. However my concern is that I am getting these strange emails from her

If the fire alarm is blaring, she probably had to raise her voice at the child so the child can hear. She may have been at the head of the line, and he at the back of the line, and she can't leave her position at the lead. I sometimes "yell" at my kids because it's so loud that they otherwise wouldn't hear me.

Not saying the teacher isn't yelling. But, my DCs have told me of some substitute teachers that yell in class. I have to really drill down to find out if she's screaming at them out of anger, or just because it's too loud in the class and she's just trying to get their attention.

Yes, actually. The children must follow the procedure quietly and quickly, or they endanger others. There is not time in a procedure like this to softly-softly help your child choose to behave: the teacher MUST make all of the children behave in a fire drill procedure. It is especially important with small children because they tend to panic in a "real" fire situation, and the best way to ensure that they follow procedure in that context is to make them behave during the drills.

Teacher here--There is a difference between taking control/speaking firmly and having a total meltdown. I think most parents are able to recognize the difference even if the kids aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOp here I volunteer in the classroom so I saw her lose her shit and have a tantrum over silly little things like talking during a fire drill or getting out of line walking from recess. And I am not talking About raising her voice I am talking a full melt down. The parents who gasp all had boys in her class years prior and their experience has been that admin believes she is great and loves kids tremendously. There are rumors that she will single out a "victim" once a year and try to make that child's life difficult. [b]The reason I am concerned is that she sent me an email that my son did xyz at a pajamas day party. But my son was not in school that day. So she then said that he did it another day. Just makes no sense.[/b]

Why aren't we talking about this part? This is very odd to me.

That said my DS has gotten in trouble for things he hasn't done before. What I tell him is that if he weren't often talking when he wasn't supposed to be the teacher wouldn't assume every out of turn whisper was him.
So while it is unfair, he needed to work on being quite and it has helped. Now the teacher has never said anything to me about it so I guess it is not that bad but the DS is his own worst enemy and rats himself out

Just tell the teacher that if the behavior is so bad that she needs to email about it she needs to email you the day it happens. Kids have short memories so if he really is misbehaving it needs to be addressed immediately.
Now if she emails you on a day when your DS is out you will know if she is really just nuts or if she made a mistake.

OK, I"ll talk about that part. It sounds as if the teacher, like most teachers, has a huge amount of work to do and honestly confused the day when she wrote the email to the mother. She probably had many other emails to do in a short amount of time. It happens. Last month I sent in email in which I accidentally referred to the student by the wrong NAME. This doesn't make me crazy or a horrible teacher: it just means that I had to write about 20 emails to 20 different people, and had a very short break period in which to do so.

I think you need to be very careful about the "rumors", etc. in cases like this. Your child will pick up on your attitude, and it will make it more difficult to respect his teacher at school, thus limiting his learning and causing him to feel that it is OK to misbehave because Mom will take his side and blame the teacher no matter what.

Are you my child's teacher? A few weeks ago, my DC's teacher emailed me about my DC, and wrote the wrong child's name in the email. It happens,.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a child deserves to be yelled at for talking during a fire drill? These are not 10 year old, these are kindergartners. No one deserves an adult in position of authority scream in their faces. Especially vulnerable 5 year olds. My son is really hard to get something Out of so I don't know if she is yelling at him I am monitoring it. However my concern is that I am getting these strange emails from her

If the fire alarm is blaring, she probably had to raise her voice at the child so the child can hear. She may have been at the head of the line, and he at the back of the line, and she can't leave her position at the lead. I sometimes "yell" at my kids because it's so loud that they otherwise wouldn't hear me.

Not saying the teacher isn't yelling. But, my DCs have told me of some substitute teachers that yell in class. I have to really drill down to find out if she's screaming at them out of anger, or just because it's too loud in the class and she's just trying to get their attention.

Yes, actually. The children must follow the procedure quietly and quickly, or they endanger others. There is not time in a procedure like this to softly-softly help your child choose to behave: the teacher MUST make all of the children behave in a fire drill procedure. It is especially important with small children because they tend to panic in a "real" fire situation, and the best way to ensure that they follow procedure in that context is to make them behave during the drills.

Teacher here--There is a difference between taking control/speaking firmly and having a total meltdown. I think most parents are able to recognize the difference even if the kids aren't.

I agree that most parents are able to recognize the difference. The problem is that a few parents can't recognize the difference, and feel that any kind of redirection of their child amounts to the teacher "losing her shit", as the OP so eloquently puts it.

[Anonymous]

OP, first of all people make mistakes. Did your ds do something the day of the pajama party -- whatever day it was? That's what you focus on.

Second, talking during a fire drill. An absolute NO. No need to scream I'm sure but talk loudly -- yes. Were you there, did you witness here screaming at that point?

My ds has had a couple of teachers nobody has any liking for. I still had to take what ds said with a grain of salt. Take what you have personally witnessed to the principal, and if nothing is done there and you feel strongly about it, go above the principal.

[Anonymous]

This is Op. She was not raising her voice she was screaming red in the face wild eyed. She was not screaming at my child if she was screaming at my child Like that I would have moved him to another school. She is very young 28 at most so this label of impatience is puzzling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is Op. She was not raising her voice she was screaming red in the face wild eyed. She was not screaming at my child if she was screaming at my child Like that I would have moved him to another school. She is very young 28 at most so this label of impatience is puzzling.

Your "red in the face wild eyed" might be another person's calm-and-cold reprimanding tone. "Wild eyed" and "red in the face" makes it sound as if you are taking this to a personal level; true or not, such phrases undermine your credibility. Also, 28 isn't "very young", and her age isn't relevant here.

Did you speak about this to the principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My eldest had a terrible kindergarten teacher. She was a LTS after his teacher went out three weeks into the year on maternity leave. There was nothing we could do- she just truly sucked- had a room of 12 boys out of 14 kids and couldn't manage them at all. We worked with him at home and grinned and dealt with it. It was a shame and set him up poorly for first grade but by third grade he's fine. I'm sorry, OP

Why did admin/the counselor do this? It was unfair to everyone (the teacher, 12 boys, and 2 girls) involved!

[Anonymous]

Op here. I did not speak to the principal. And for the record I can discern between a tantrum and a reprimanding tone. The reason I did not speak to the principal is because my son was not involved. From what I gathered at the playground is that every year there multiple requests for classroom change and that requests are never granted. There was also talk of kids from other classrooms hearing her yell through the walls. Basically she has a reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did not speak to the principal. And for the record I can discern between a tantrum and a reprimanding tone. The reason I did not speak to the principal is because my son was not involved. From what I gathered at the playground is that every year there multiple requests for classroom change and that requests are never granted. There was also talk of kids from other classrooms hearing her yell through the walls. Basically she has a reputation.

OK. So you didn't see the incident as serious enough to report to the principal, BUT you posted on an anonymous online forum asking, "Is there anything parents can do about this teacher?" By "do", you mean other than speak directly to the principal? Well, if you aren't going to speak directly to the principal, then I guess the only thing left for you to do is to continue to regurgitate gossip you "gathered at the playground" about a teacher you assure us "has a reputation." Since you didn't speak to the principal "because my son was not involved", what exactly were you hoping we would advise? Also, if the situation you report is not one that involves your son to an extent that you would speak to the principal, why are you gossiping about it at all?

You won't speak directly to the principal about your concerns, or try to schedule a conference with the teacher to discuss your concerns, but you freely admit that you gather information "at the playground every year" about this teacher who "has a reputation". OP, can you not grasp the idea that sometimes playground gossip is just idle prattle that has grown legs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You won't speak directly to the principal about your concerns, or try to schedule a conference with the teacher to discuss your concerns, but you freely admit that you gather information "at the playground every year" about this teacher who "has a reputation". OP, can you not grasp the idea that sometimes playground gossip is just idle prattle that has grown legs?

Or maybe every word of the playground gossip is rock-solid truth. But if OP doesn't want to do anything about it, it doesn't matter either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did not speak to the principal. And for the record I can discern between a tantrum and a reprimanding tone. The reason I did not speak to the principal is because my son was not involved. From what I gathered at the playground is that every year there multiple requests for classroom change and that requests are never granted. There was also talk of kids from other classrooms hearing her yell through the walls. Basically she has a reputation.

If you are so concerned I think you would have gone to the principal. You know, for the sake of the other kids. Would you want Johnny's mom to just stay aside and whisper rumors as your child was being berated?

[Anonymous]

Maybe I was not clear. Concerns have been brought up to the admin in the past. If the teacher yells in front of me, it means that she knows that this behavior is tolerated by the principal and she can continue with impunity. I want to know what can parents do if the outcome of speaking with the principal is not satisfactory. What is the next step? From reading some of the posts it seems that the principal's power is absolute?