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Be Mad, I Care Not. I'm Right.
Feb. 24th, 2011 06:04 pmSo, yesterday after school a 5th grader comes to my room and asks for a piece of "poster board" so he can work on a time line for his class project. I kinda eyed him, but agreed to ONE sheet.
A few minutes later, another 5th grader comes in and asks for one too. So, I ask him who is sending them here, and he says his classroom teacher told them to ask me for one. I complained a little about them needing to take responsibility for their own projects, but I gave him one.
This afternoon I was in between classes setting up for my last class when ANOTHER 5th grader comes in asking for the same thing. So I said, "WHO SENT YOU?" and she says the same teacher. I get angry and tell her, "Was this homework?! You tell your teacher that I can't keep giving everyone in 5th grade a piece of poster board! I don't have that many!"
A decided to write her an e-mail because I was about to give a lecture on Louis Wain to my 3rd grade and I was NOT going to have 5th graders coming in to bug me during my lecture. Furthermore, there are 42 kids in 5th grade, I'm NOT going to bail out all of them when they come unprepared to school -- and I told her as much. Knowing that two came after school yesterday, tells me that they had at least last night to go out and GET one, so the one who came today should have known what she needed.
Well, after school another teacher came to me to tell me that she heard that the 5th grade teacher was bad mouthing me in the office for "yelling at her" in an e-mail.
First of all, I say BRING IT. If my boss wants to chew me out for saying, "enough is enough" that is fine. I'm ready to tell him MY SIDE.
Secondly, these kids are about 13 weeks from being middle schoolers. I say, "stop coddling them" if they come unprepared, take points off their grade. If they come without a poster board, go to the work room, tear off a sheet of butcher paper and tell them to write on that and take points off for it not being on the correct paper. It's really that simple.
Third, I'm not a heartless bitch. I understand that some kids can't afford the poster boards or their parents are inattentive. HOWEVER, this is not my project. It is seriously, not my problem. I could have said "no," to the first one and left it at that. If she is worried about the kids having the right materials, she can do what I do: go out and buy some out of your own pocket and then claim it on your taxes. JUST this weekend I bought over $30 worth of watercolor paper for my worthless 5th grade... and I didn't bitch about it.
Fourth, how many bets these kids just don't give a damn? I mean, what makes me mad is, I KNOW this group. They DO NOT CARE. It's one thing to help a kid who honestly forgot or didn't have the money. It's another to bail out a bunch of irresponsible, douchebags. My point is, I don't want them to get into a habit of figuring that when they don't do their work, "'The Art Teacher' will bail me out." It's not happening.
The stuff in the art room is for ART CLASS, it is not the school supply closet. Now, I am NORMALLY VERY generous. In fact, both my cooperating teacher and my old partner used to advise against EVER giving anything to ANYONE in the school because they will begin to have that attitude.
I generally try not to make waves and I try to respond to reasonable requests. The problem with this request: I had NO IDEA how many MORE were going to show up or WHEN. I have given a LOT of stuff to people over the course of the year, but usually they give me a NUMBER. There was no "end" to the number of kids who might have come to bug me for more paper. Another problem is I just don't HAVE that much large paper in my room. It is hard to store and I have not had the chance to order any because I'm STILL trying to fix basic supply problems that I inherited when I took this job and the room had not had a supply order in about 5 years. I really, REALLY can't afford to give 42 irresponsible 5th graders a large sheet of anything.
So, she can be pissed all she wants. If my boss calls me in tomorrow to talk to me, I'll tell him exactly what I put here. Maybe she didn't like the fact that I e-mailed her a curt letter about it. But I did not have the time to go down to her room and tell her in person, and I did NOT want kids barging in when I had class.
Hopefully, my boss knows her well enough to know that she bitches about literally everything and he just let her vent and didn't take it too seriously.
A few minutes later, another 5th grader comes in and asks for one too. So, I ask him who is sending them here, and he says his classroom teacher told them to ask me for one. I complained a little about them needing to take responsibility for their own projects, but I gave him one.
This afternoon I was in between classes setting up for my last class when ANOTHER 5th grader comes in asking for the same thing. So I said, "WHO SENT YOU?" and she says the same teacher. I get angry and tell her, "Was this homework?! You tell your teacher that I can't keep giving everyone in 5th grade a piece of poster board! I don't have that many!"
A decided to write her an e-mail because I was about to give a lecture on Louis Wain to my 3rd grade and I was NOT going to have 5th graders coming in to bug me during my lecture. Furthermore, there are 42 kids in 5th grade, I'm NOT going to bail out all of them when they come unprepared to school -- and I told her as much. Knowing that two came after school yesterday, tells me that they had at least last night to go out and GET one, so the one who came today should have known what she needed.
Well, after school another teacher came to me to tell me that she heard that the 5th grade teacher was bad mouthing me in the office for "yelling at her" in an e-mail.
First of all, I say BRING IT. If my boss wants to chew me out for saying, "enough is enough" that is fine. I'm ready to tell him MY SIDE.
Secondly, these kids are about 13 weeks from being middle schoolers. I say, "stop coddling them" if they come unprepared, take points off their grade. If they come without a poster board, go to the work room, tear off a sheet of butcher paper and tell them to write on that and take points off for it not being on the correct paper. It's really that simple.
Third, I'm not a heartless bitch. I understand that some kids can't afford the poster boards or their parents are inattentive. HOWEVER, this is not my project. It is seriously, not my problem. I could have said "no," to the first one and left it at that. If she is worried about the kids having the right materials, she can do what I do: go out and buy some out of your own pocket and then claim it on your taxes. JUST this weekend I bought over $30 worth of watercolor paper for my worthless 5th grade... and I didn't bitch about it.
Fourth, how many bets these kids just don't give a damn? I mean, what makes me mad is, I KNOW this group. They DO NOT CARE. It's one thing to help a kid who honestly forgot or didn't have the money. It's another to bail out a bunch of irresponsible, douchebags. My point is, I don't want them to get into a habit of figuring that when they don't do their work, "'The Art Teacher' will bail me out." It's not happening.
The stuff in the art room is for ART CLASS, it is not the school supply closet. Now, I am NORMALLY VERY generous. In fact, both my cooperating teacher and my old partner used to advise against EVER giving anything to ANYONE in the school because they will begin to have that attitude.
I generally try not to make waves and I try to respond to reasonable requests. The problem with this request: I had NO IDEA how many MORE were going to show up or WHEN. I have given a LOT of stuff to people over the course of the year, but usually they give me a NUMBER. There was no "end" to the number of kids who might have come to bug me for more paper. Another problem is I just don't HAVE that much large paper in my room. It is hard to store and I have not had the chance to order any because I'm STILL trying to fix basic supply problems that I inherited when I took this job and the room had not had a supply order in about 5 years. I really, REALLY can't afford to give 42 irresponsible 5th graders a large sheet of anything.
So, she can be pissed all she wants. If my boss calls me in tomorrow to talk to me, I'll tell him exactly what I put here. Maybe she didn't like the fact that I e-mailed her a curt letter about it. But I did not have the time to go down to her room and tell her in person, and I did NOT want kids barging in when I had class.
Hopefully, my boss knows her well enough to know that she bitches about literally everything and he just let her vent and didn't take it too seriously.
