This site is a class blog space for new Career and Technical Specializations and Heathcare Science teachers enrolled in the New Teacher Institute (NTI) at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
If I could turn back time....
If I could turn back time, (can't you hear the music in the background?) I would not have had a melt down Wednesday after a parent meeting. Thankfully, the meltdown occurred AFTER the meeting. I had an incident in my classroom with two sisters (they should not be in the same class period if you ask me, but nobody asked). Eighth period is my rowdiest group. They are sometimes hard to wrangle, and often very vocal; for those reasons, they are my favorite intro class. Anywhoo, on a normal day, ONE of the two sisters is usually off task, or distracting others, or both. Wednesday was my lucky day and they were both off the chain. I used the tactics we learned over the summer with no avail. I decided a phone call was in order to "nip it in the bud" as Barney was famous for saying. I called mom and had an excellent conversation, hung up the phone very proud of myself for how I handled the situation. I explained the problem AND told her positive things about the girls. All was well in my world (for 5 minutes), and the phone rang. It was mom. She said one of the daughters was hysterical and she wanted to meet with me. I let her know I was on my way to a meeting, but I would find her child and talk to her. I searched for the little darling and found her. She went OFF, said she was getting out of my class, and she was done with me. I was fine with that and walked out of the building. As I walked to my car, I saw a lady stepping out of hers. I knew it had to be mom so I walked over and introduced myself. The student followed me over and proceeded to call me a liar; blah, blah, blah. Then the student got in a yelling match with her mom. What an amazing day! Got in my car and cried. You may be asking what I would have done differently. I am not really sure in this situation. I handled it professionally and according to school policy. Funny thing is, on Friday when I had the student again, she was very subdued in class. I asked her if we were good and she said yes, she was just mad Wednesday and now she is fine. Suggestions???
Hey Cher, I mean Cortney!! Yes! I could hear the music playing! LOL!! Your post made me smile, even though you had a breakdown in the car. Your writing is so descriptive, I felt like I was right there with you the whole time!! I think that you did handle the situation very professionally. Teen agers have very fickle emotions and they change with the wind. Even the parents that we deal with, who sometimes are barely out of their teens themselves, can have fickle emotions. I am not sure that this is the right attitude to have, but sometimes I feel like kids are just "apples" and apples usually don't fall far from the tree. During my first week of school, I had a student curse at me. When she came with her mom later on that night to Open House, her mother totally justified the tongue lashing that I got. She said that the more I got to know her daughter, the easier it would be to overlook her attitude! WHAT?!?! ARE YOU SERIOUS, LADY?!?!?!?! What can I really expect from the student, when the parent is equally as misguided?!? Good luck with your situation, though... I am sure that time will help!
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me like the student’s issue might have been with mom. I think we often underestimate the amount of drama some of these students harbor towards one person and then vent onto others. If you watch them as they interact in the halls or in the lunchroom, they are constantly swimming in one of two pools. They are either in the kiddie pool where drama is minor or doesn’t/isn’t allowed to affect them or they are in the adult pool with real life drama to deal with. This student might have had major issues in her home life; brief or ongoing. You just happened to get caught up in the venting out. If her issue were really with you then you likely would not have been “good” the next time you talked. It sounds like you handled it the best way you could have so………..
ReplyDeleteWell, Cortney, it goes with adolescent behavior. Some of the inconsistencies we talked about this past summer. Like the story about the girl crying her eyes out and then coming back 15 minutes later like nothing ever happened (the story about the boyfriend).
ReplyDeleteAwful to live through, but I for one think you did great!