I haven�t written a meaningful entry in a very long time. Life started spinning in an endless whirlpool about a month ago and I finally crashed yesterday in a nasty blowout with a parent. I was totally in the wrong and I am sure she will insist on pulling her child out of my class. She came in to ask about why her daughter had fallen off on her report card. I explained as best I could, given that she had not made an appointment. I was in the middle of a project and hurrying to get to the copy machine before the first bell. She began to tell me that I was using a �mean� tone of voice with her daughter, which caught me completely by surprise. I can�t remember a time I have even raised my voice with this class. I tried to reassure her that I would make an effort to solve this problem. But tell me, how do you change the tone of your voice to suit a parent, who is acting on the word of a six year old? The request was fuzzy, at best. The day went fine from there until the very end of the day. The boys were rowdy and noisy after our reading buddies left. I was standing at the front of the room trying to get things calmed down. I finally said something to the affect that a mommy had told me I was mean today and that I didn�t want or intend to be mean. I just wanted things to calm down so we could do show and tell. I knew the moment that came out of my mouth, I had erred. No sooner than 5 minutes after the class was out, did I get a call from the mom, very irate! She was literally yelling at me through the phone lines, calling me unprofessional, and blaming me for her daughter's acid reflux problems. Now I am afraid I might get slapped with some sort of law suit. We have a meeting with the principal and mom on Monday. My principal is very supportive, and assured me that a nice apology will probably do. I really hope so. I honestly don�t think I can face a classroom again if I have to deal with some sort of professional ethics trouble. I am such a chicken when it comes to confrontations. Cross your fingers for me. I feel like these kitties...dangling!
I haven�t written a meaningful entry in a very long time. Life started spinning in an endless whirlpool about a month ago and I finally crashed yesterday in a nasty blowout with a parent. I was totally in the wrong and I am sure she will insist on pulling her child out of my class. She came in to ask about why her daughter had fallen off on her report card. I explained as best I could, given that she had not made an appointment. I was in the middle of a project and hurrying to get to the copy machine before the first bell. She began to tell me that I was using a �mean� tone of voice with her daughter, which caught me completely by surprise. I can�t remember a time I have even raised my voice with this class. I tried to reassure her that I would make an effort to solve this problem. But tell me, how do you change the tone of your voice to suit a parent, who is acting on the word of a six year old? The request was fuzzy, at best. The day went fine from there until the very end of the day. The boys were rowdy and noisy after our reading buddies left. I was standing at the front of the room trying to get things calmed down. I finally said something to the affect that a mommy had told me I was mean today and that I didn�t want or intend to be mean. I just wanted things to calm down so we could do show and tell. I knew the moment that came out of my mouth, I had erred. No sooner than 5 minutes after the class was out, did I get a call from the mom, very irate! She was literally yelling at me through the phone lines, calling me unprofessional, and blaming me for her daughter's acid reflux problems. Now I am afraid I might get slapped with some sort of law suit. We have a meeting with the principal and mom on Monday. My principal is very supportive, and assured me that a nice apology will probably do. I really hope so. I honestly don�t think I can face a classroom again if I have to deal with some sort of professional ethics trouble. I am such a chicken when it comes to confrontations. Cross your fingers for me. I feel like these kitties...dangling!
