Son's science teacher is a real witch with a capital B!

keista

New Member
OMW! I just got back from parent teacher conferences. Met with 3 teachers. Two absolutely gushed over how AWESOME son is. The third.......NOT SO MUCH.

Firstly, son had a bad day in science today because yesterday he missed most of the class due to a dr's appointment. He was told he could come in this morning for extra help. I got him to school early, but apparently the teacher wasn't there yet, so he made good use of his time by going to get his laptop. When he returned, she was "finishing up" the extra help session, but agreed to give him 20 minutes. This did not go well because apparently she was going over info he already knew, and since he was pressured for time, well he felt pressured for time.

Once he got to class, he was supposed to do classwork based on the lecture. He was immediately stuck and went into shutdown mode and did not do much. When he tried handing in the partial work, she refused to accept it.

I had high hopes that the conference would go better than it did. Of course, I was under the impression that this was a caring educator. I reminded her that he gets extended time to hand in assignments. *Well! If that's the case she'll give me a copy of the classwork and he can have all the time in the world to complete it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* Ah, no, he's supposed to get one extra class period. *Oh! He can have until the cows come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* I explained to her the importance of giving him partial credit for partial work. She seemed to genuinely agree that a 20% was indeed better than a zero, but then added that *if he so much as spits on a piece of paper from now on, she'll be sure to give him partial credit*

She had also told me that he' bangs on his desk and disrupts the class and that one kid is actually afraid of him. I asked her if she ever consulted with the sped teacher. *So I'm just supposed to call Mr Q EVERY TIME Son bangs on the desk????????????* I told her I didn't know because I didn't know what was triggering this and that's why she should consult with Mr Q.

I then asked her about homework, and currently there is none except to read/keep up with the current chapter. This was mentioned ONCE on the first day. Certainly explains why son hasn't done any science homework. She also said it was in the syllabus (had me second guessing myself, but I knew I could check it because I hung them ALL on the fridge, and guess what? Son NEVER got one! GRRRRRRRRR)

So anyway, soon there will be homework assigned and I discussed the difficulties son has with getting HW assignments. *What do you want me to do?* Well, I'm not sure, I don't even know if it will be a problem for him in this class, but if he misses the first one could you please contact me so I know it's not done. I was about to continue to tell her that some sort of structured homework accommodation was going into his IEP at the very next meeting when she cut me off saying *You want me to email you EVERY DAY??????????????????* then later, *OK, you just email me what you want me to do and I'll do it* I tried to explain that that's not what I was looking for, that what I was looking for was for her class to work for son with the least amount of disruption to her and the class.

She just was NOT getting it. I got so upset with this woman that I want to say she just doesn't give a rat's patootie, but it's more like she had NEVER had a student with an IEP. EVER.

She closed by stating *So, when son bangs on a desk he gets sent to Mr Q, he's got all the time in the world to do his work and anything else you want you email me.*

OY! by the way if you didn't get it from the italics and *'s she was being snarky and combative and plain rude. This may have been her attempt at assertive, I'm not sure, but if it was, she fell WAY short.

I'm thinking this is not a fight worth fighting and trying to get his class changed tomorrow. I wish I had stuck on that path a few weeks ago when we were discussing the whole lab/group work thing.

I'm hoping I can get him switched simply on the basis of this "not being a good fit" for him and avoid going into the details. I still have two more kids that have to go through this HS and don't feel like making waves with a teacher that they may get. Especially one who in my opinion is an obvious witch with a capital B.
 
yikes! I think you're taking the route I'd try to take. I agree it doesn't seem worth the time and energy to try and 'work' with a teacher who clearly needs a major attitude adjustment (to say the least). Hopefully you can get his class switched and you won't even have to go there. Good luck.
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Poor difficult child.Was he with you when all of this was said? I know both of mine like going with to conferences. Definitely get it changed. He doesn't deserve that attitude. If she's like that with a parent, imagine how she is with the kids. If there is ANY resistance to change his class, I would politely tell them about what was said at conferences and I would hope that would be enough.

{{{{(((HUGS)))}}}} to you both.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
If they won't change classes? Drop the class - and replace it with an on-line class instead. Anything except staying in that class.
 
L

Liahona

Guest
I hate teachers like this. There is nothing you can do about them either except get out of the class as fast as possible.
 

keista

New Member
Insane, great idea. Hadn't thought of that option.

Thanks for the support. Ironic thing was that I thought I was going to go into the meeting all riled up from the email she sent, and son's side of the story. Took me almost two hours to get viable information out of him (he talks in circles as if I can read his mind). Son had therapy this evening BEFORE the meeting, and I brought it up and as we discussed, I calmed down, and by the time I entered the meeting, I was very positive and optimistic that we'd be able to figure out a good plan. Guess not. :sigh:

And no, son did not come with me. I prefer meeting alone with the teachers so we can be more open about his issues. That goes for all the kids. There's a reason it's called a parent-teacher conference.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Whew. We had one nearly that bad.
It's amazing there are still teachers like that around.
I would definitely switch him out.
Not sure if you feel close enough to admin to tell them what's going on with-her, but you know that other kids will suffer, so you may want to risk it. Or, wait until he's finished this yr and then tell the admin, just to be on the safe side.
 

crazymama30

Active Member
Wow. My first question is why did she become a teacher? She does not seem to enjoy the job at all.


I hope you can get him out of there.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
O had a science teacher like this, her 8th grade year. If J gets her? I'll be throwing a FIT.

Walked into conference - husband and I were splitting things up, because we had too many different things to do.

First thing the woman said was that she had NEVER had a student refuse to do something she had asked them to (she told O she could not take her purse on the bus for a field trip... O refused to leave it behind). I wondered silently just how long she'd been teaching...

Everything in that conference was negative. She did not have one single positive thing to say. Then she looked at O and told her, "YOU are going to FAIL." Not - fail if you don't do homework, etc. - you would have had to have heard it. I stood up, grabbed O's hand and told the teacher, "this conference is OVER." We left. 5 minutes... We were scheduled for 15.I was so angry I couldn't drive.

I agree with changing the teacher. Normally I would say the kid's gotta learn to deal with oppositional people, but that's beyond the pale in my opinion.
 
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