Wow!  Some parents should not be allowed to have children.  They send them to school looking like they rolled out of bed, no backpack, no homework, no breakfast or lunch money, nobody to care if they pass or fail.  We have a couple of those in our school.  I feel so bad.  One little girl is so shy that she refuses any help from anyone.  Her pants are way too short.  Her jacket is sized for a first grader, she is in 5th.  She owes so much in lunch money that she has to have PBJ's everyday.

Then there are the parents who care "too" much.  They check their students grades on the computer every single night.  If a new grade isn't posted for every subject, they complain to the principal and want to know why.  I can't even teach Science and Social Studies every day because of the Math and Reading requirements.  I have been teaching them during Reading.  I label it as Content Reading.  But it really isn't enough timel.  I also don't have enought time in the day to post all their work daily.  These parents expect me to do it from home.  After all, Dad works from home. (Except that I also work away from home over 8 hours a day).  I like parent involvement, but not the interfering kind.  I want parents who will work FOR the class and not against it.

Then there are the students everyone wants to get rid of.  I have 3 little boys of whom two of them are adorable.  Just not together.  They take an inordinant amount of time.  Both are ADHD and one can't stop talking and the other can't stop moving.  My third boy is a total spoiled brat.  He is probably Asbergers but Mom refuses to have him tested because she doen't want any lables attached to him.  Really?  Like "spoiled little monster" isn't a label?

In our district, we get part of every Wednesday afternoon off from kids.  They go home 2 hours early.  We, however, have to stay and do things.  We have workshops, inservices, meetings, Special Ed meetings, you name it, they find something for us to do.  We rarely get to stay in our classroom and plan, copy, or prepare.  That was originally what it was supposed to be for.  However, the school board decided several years ago that we were wasting our time so they would fill it for us.  We had teachers who made all their appointments of Wed. afternoon and would take off.  That was not allowed.  They did it, and some still do, anyway.  But, it is what got everything changed.  We hardly get any time in our classrooms anymore.

More to come...I am out of lunch time.