So tired of hearing about the mean teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your school advertise itself as a "Responsive Classroom" school? Not all FCPS schools are, and at my school only a handful of teachers have Responsive Classroom training. If it is an RC school, you may want to ask about the methods being used.

Yes, it does advertise as a responsive classroom school. Maybe the teacher isn't trained...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child comes home everyday telling us how mean the teacher is. Today she yelled at the class for not getting some work done. My child hates school because of the mean teachers. The nice ones can really make all the difference and my child loves them and appreciates them and actually learns from them. The teacher seems to have poor classroom management skills, doesn't follow the responsive classroom model, and I'm told that she uses the clip behavior chart in excess to the point where students don't even know why they had to move their clips down to the "bad" colors. I don't even know what to say to my child that would be helpful. Anyone else dealing with the mean teacher? Any advice on how to encourage my child after the looooonnnngg day in her class?

Ugh, I hear you, OP, about the mean teacher.

Some make you wonder why they even chose a career where they'd have to deal with children, since the only children they seem to enjoy are those who can manage to act like adults.

But I find the best approach to take with my children is just to ask questions and listen with my empathy/give support and encouragement. Also, frequently reminding kids of the teachers they DID love and their good school experiences seems to be a good method for combating the "I hate school because of this bad teacher" mentality. And asking what they think their beloved teachers would do in the kind of situations that their "mean" teachers respond to with a lack of self-control...

Thanks for the advice. It's gotten so bad at times that I ask my child to limit the venting to once daily because I feel like there is so much negativity that it's becoming unhealthy. The typical day consists of venting about the mean teacher before school and after school. I feel terrible because I don't know how to help my child feel better about school, so I try to keep the venting out of the mornings and try to keep a positive attitude going into the day, but listen to the venting freely after school is over.

I'm hoping the nice weather will put everyone (especially the teacher) in a better mood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think your child has the teacher mine had 2 years ago. She wasted so much time tracking bad behavior. I agree with the advice. You need to gather data from teacher, other parents, etc and decide if your child is overly sensitive or this teacher needs some serious remediation when in comes to classroom management 101.

What grade? I had never heard of someone tracking bad behavior on a chart the whole class and any parents could see until we experienced it. I am hoping this is the same teacher (unlikely) because otherwise there are other idiots using this method.

Hi, it's op, my child is in 4th. I don't ever agree that using a behavior chart is a good method, but I especially hate it at the fourth grade level. They're too old for that.

Do you have a girl?

Fourth grade tends to be when the girls start getting challenging and oversensitive, and the boys start getting easy and fun.

My mom taught fourth for several decades, and the girls would often start to have struggles by around second semester.

I think of how my own kids and kids of my friends define "yelling" at that age. Usually anything not positive or anything said directly or with a stern voice is perceived as "yelling" by tweens...even if it isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think your child has the teacher mine had 2 years ago. She wasted so much time tracking bad behavior. I agree with the advice. You need to gather data from teacher, other parents, etc and decide if your child is overly sensitive or this teacher needs some serious remediation when in comes to classroom management 101.

What grade? I had never heard of someone tracking bad behavior on a chart the whole class and any parents could see until we experienced it. I am hoping this is the same teacher (unlikely) because otherwise there are other idiots using this method.

Hi, it's op, my child is in 4th. I don't ever agree that using a behavior chart is a good method, but I especially hate it at the fourth grade level. They're too old for that.

Do you have a girl?

Fourth grade tends to be when the girls start getting challenging and oversensitive, and the boys start getting easy and fun.

My mom taught fourth for several decades, and the girls would often start to have struggles by around second semester.

I think of how my own kids and kids of my friends define "yelling" at that age. Usually anything not positive or anything said directly or with a stern voice is perceived as "yelling" by tweens...even if it isn't.

As far as I know, my child isn't getting in trouble for misbehaving. The clip isn't moving, my child tells me that the same kids are lowering their clips everyday. Reducing some of them to tears. Causing fights between friends because they blame each other for being asked to clip down the chart. So it's not helping these kids to improve their behavior or remind themselves to keep their behavior in check. It's just a very negative thing that is creating stress for many of the students. My child tells me that when students are told to move their clip they will exclaim "what did I do?" and aren't given an explanation. Yes, I realize that this is only one side of the story, but it doesn't sound good, does it? The school also claims to be a responsive classroom and PBIS school, but this doesn't sound very positive.