A Teacher's Thought of the New Year

To select parents whom this may concern:

Please do not yell at me and tell me I'm not doing my job.  Please do not email me and threaten to tell my boss I am not doing my job.  Please do not be upset about the amount of homework your child gets-it's out of my control, we need "grades" for gradebooks and you would yell at me if your child failed their tests and they had no way of IMPROVING their grade.  Please do not tell me I don't care about your child, when I am spending more time helping YOUR child become a thoughtful individual, responsible citizen, and independent thinker, then spending time with my own amazing kids.  (You make it very tempting to quit and be a stay at home mom).  Please understand that I already put 50 hours a week in my classroom and as much as I would love to get more grading done during my few hours a night at home, I just sit and watch tv for an hour before I go to bed.  I will have you know though that I do spend some of my weekend doing work, as well.  Please understand that although I may seem tough, I am a very sensitive person who has a huge heart and feelings.  Please try to picture trying to keep the attention of 28 children for 8 hours a day when you get mad that I haven't responded to your email from this morning or late last night. Please understand that although bullying seems like a bigger problem now then in the past, it is because we don't teach our children how to COPE with issues.  Being somewhat lovingly tough on kids is good for them. It builds backbones.  Please understand that although these are ranty statements, I truly love my job, hence I still go every day, smile, and greet my students with a huge hug.  I teach every lesson with excitement and encourage my kiddos to do their absolute best in all they do! I just want to make sure everyone understands who teachers are.  Although many teachers wouldn't say this out loud, or even type it in a babbly post, all teachers feel this way.  We are not your punching bag.  We want the same things you want for your child and more!  I understand there are some extremely terrible teachers out there and that stinks, but please understand that we are not all that way.  Have faith in us.  And think before you yell at us or send us nasty emails.  Some of us will go home and cry because of your words.  Thank you for understanding where I am coming from and not getting offended by this rant.

Sincerely,
Any good teacher that gets reamed by a parent