If Nicholas could only do just one of these things listed above. He's a fidgety little boy who lacks self control sometimes. He doesn't fit her mold and therefore she doesn't have a lot of patience with him.
She sent home this letter to the parents...
Dear Parents,
With spring around the corner and second grade rules well established, I feel there is a need to institute a behavior alert system. I find we are losing too much instruction time because students choose to be silly, chat or ignore directions. If this happens twice in the same day, your child will lose a recess. You will receive a behavior alert to sign and return. Your child will highlight a sentence or sentences to explain to you why you are receiving the alert.
Much love, (OK...I improvised a little)
Mrs. XXXXX
Like the pink? I thought I'd add the pretty color to soften the nastiness of the letter.
Back in November, his teacher got angry with him, took him aside and really let him have it. Whatever she said to him must have been so upsetting that he didn't want to go to school after that, had trouble falling asleep at night and was physically ill in the morning before school. One day, I couldn't even get him on the bus. Turns out it was report card day and she had told him he wasn't getting a good grade in behavior because of this one incident in class.
Another day, he accidentally spilled his water bottle (which I had filled with lemonade...a violation of her classroom policy) and again she let him have it in front of the whole class. She made him clean up the spill and took away THREE recesses. I spoke to her and told her this was excessive and unacceptable. The conversation didn't go well at first but then I knew I had to play nice or else his remaining days in her classroom wouldn't be good.
Let me try to explain what it's like sending my little boy off to school each day knowing he really dislikes his teacher, who has in turn made him dislike school.
It feels like I'm taking my heart out of my chest every day and reluctantly handing it over to this teacher I don’t know. I feel like saying to her, “Here is my heart. Please take care of it. It’s so precious and special to me. Please, please don’t let it get hurt."
Nicholas is such a sweet, sensitive, little soul. It physically hurts me to know that he has to spend his days with this woman who doesn't know his heart the way I do. She hasn't taken the time to get to know him and honestly doesn't care to.
Why is she still there? After years and years of parents complaining about her, she is still teaching these precious 2nd graders. I thought 2nd grade was supposed to be fun. If I had only known about her before hand, I never would have allowed Nicholas to be in her classroom.
