June 13, 2014

5 things a teacher might tell you

An interesting gift

Now that the school year is over, here are some things for all you parents to ponder over the summer…

1.  Don't send your kid to school with wads of cash.  A kid offered me $10 one day.  Just because.  Later, when I asked, she insisted that she did NOT bring money to school.  Confused?  So was I.  I let that one go.  Then I found out they were buying and selling things from each other.  That's one of those times when I have a "where-do-I-even-go-from-here" moment.
As for necessary money, put it in an envelope and write "Lunch Money" on it for goodness sakes.  Kids hand me money saying, "This is lunch money" and I often wonder what I'm supposed to do with it. Truthfully, the school doesn't give me that kind of power.  I have no control over your child's lunch account.    This kind of thing is above my security clearance (My security clearance begins with a copier code and ends with a building key.)

2.  Label.  Label, label, label.  Everything I give to kids has their name or classroom number on it.  Textbooks, workbooks, notebooks, crayons, etc.  Everything I own that they have access to, like paperbacks, has my name on it.  Trust no one.

3.  Teach your kid your phone number. If you do anything for your children, please do this.  It might save their lives someday.
This is a verbatim conversation, but I have one a lot like it about once a week.
Me: What number do I call?
Kid: My mom's.
Me: What is it?
Kid: …..
Me:…..
Kid: She's at work.
Me: Where does she work?
Kid: (long pause) With my dad.
Me: Where does your dad work?
Kid: (long pause) I don't know.
Me: ……okay.  So what would you do if you were lost somewhere and needed to call someone?  Who would you call?
Kid: My mom.
Me:  What number would you call?
Kid: My sister would call.  She has it in her phone.
Me: There's no sister.  Just you.  What would you do?
Kid: Walk to my mom's work.
Me: Where does mom work?
Kid: With my dad.
Me: Where does dad work?
Kid: …I forget.

4.  Back to the labeling…Write your kid's full name and his/her teacher's name on all correspondence, please.  There were approximately 1,000 students in my last school.  When you send in a note for a bus pass that just has a first name, no bus number, and I can't read it because it's in loopy cursive, I have to rewrite the note so the office will understand it.  That's time I'm not teaching.  You're taking away from your child's education.

5.  Coats are important.  Especially during November, December, January, February, and March.  Also, high heels:  Not a good idea for 8 year olds.

Signed,
A teacher

10 comments:

  1. When my daughter was in kindergarten, I helped her make a beaded bracelet with my phone number on it (found the idea on Pinterest). She wore it to school for awhile and by the time it broke, she had it memorized. Definitely helped her.

    And parents really don't write their kids' full names on things? That makes no sense to me.

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  2. I'm...I'm just shaking my head. My nieces and nephews are taught their parents' ACTUAL NAMES (not just mom and dad), are taught to memorize their addresses and phone numbers before the age of 5. This baffles me. I...I can't even comprehend the idea of sending my child somewhere without them knowing BASIC information. I know for a fact I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends (their parents were taking us somewhere, I don't remember where. The mall maybe?) I was 5. I remember sitting at the kitchen table repeating my zip code because that was the one thing that I just COULDN'T remember. My parents wouldn't let me go until I had it down. SAFETY PEOPLE.

    Still just shaking my head....

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  3. So much has changed since we were in school lol.

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  4. How about no shorts during those coat needed months? Yeah, I like that rule... :)

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  5. LABEL!!! It kills me when a parent comes in to tell me something belonging to their child is missing, but then tell me their name was not on it.

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  6. Yes, yes, yes, and yes! I just wrote down some ideas for a teacher post I'm going to write before school starts back up again. The world needs to understand a lot more about teaching/teachers! lol

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  7. It is really bad that nobody remembers phone numbers anymore! I use to know SO many when I was a kid. Now I know about 3!!!! I have tons of patients that don't know their own number!

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  8. I totally agree about the coat thing! I have a student that wore thin spaghetti strap tanks and short shorts in the coldest months in NY!! and you wonder why they're always sick.

    my biggest pet peeves is the parents not reading emails. because then its all our fault that they didnt understand it when it was EXPLICITLY stated in the email.

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  9. Ugh, the dressing appropriately for the weather really irks my nerves. I had a parent get offended because the school gave her child a coat. Turns out mom just didn't think it was cold enough for a coat. I'm with you on labeling everything!

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