parents

the complaint

June 29, 2010 2 Comments

All of the teachers in the learning center where I work experienced some sort of complaints already and about two months ago, I also got my share.

The complaint was: I don’t have a British accent.

It was coming from a grandmother who sat twice in my class to observe me. Normally, children ages 5 and above are going in the class without their guardians but then one day, this particular grandma asked me if she could sit in my class and being the polite person that I am (*wink), I said okay. After the second time of observing me, she talked to my head teacher and told her that she wants another teacher for this group (where her granddaughter is in). And the reason she said is because I don’t have a British accent.

The bad thing is, this gradma talked to this group’s kids’ parents and told them that the group will be better off with another teacher (Note: This group was previously handled by another teacher before I took over).

Firstly, I never claimed that I have a British accent and secondly, I never even tried to speak with a British accent. So I am quite irked that the complaint is based on such shallow reason.

My head teacher is of course, on my side. She told me, it is not her first time to hear a complaint. She said she got worse already but she said that the learning center is more than just a learning center, it is also a business and therefore; we should give the clients what they want no matter how shallow it is.

I didn’t try to reason out. For me, if they want another teacher then it is fine with me. I have too many classes anyway. So everything’s agreed between me, my head teacher, and the grandma. We agreed that as soon as the LC gets a new teacher, this group will have a new teacher.

So yesterday, the new teacher came and starting next semester, she will teach this group. The sad thing is, not all of the parents agree to have a new teacher for this group because their kids want me as their teacher. So half of the kids would like to stay with me and the other half would be separated and will continue with the new teacher. But the problems are: the LC doesn’t have enough rooms for this particular time. So they don’t know where to do the separated class. They (parents themselves and my head teacher) don’t seem to agree on another schedule so they have to find a way settle that. Another problem is the fact that “half of the group” is not enough to continue a group. 8 is the maximum number of kids in a group, 5-7 is ideal, but 4 is just too less (the LC won’t earn enough). So if things are not settled, this group could be abolished completely just because of one guardian who complained.

Filed Under: teacher's life, teacher's thoughts Tagged With: parents, problems in teaching, teaching

let them take responsibility

November 24, 2009 5 Comments

When I was younger, I often hear older people say “kids are different these days” and that always connotes something negative. Now that I am an adult, I also have the same opinion on children of today– they are quite different from how we were. And yes, I also mean that in a negative way.

Back then, when a child did something bad and teacher says “I want to talk to your parents,” it is enough to make that particular child feel guilty or make him/her think about all the punishments the parents/teachers could do to him/her. Then the child will try to behave better to sort of even out what he’s done.

So if my generation is worse than my mother’s generation and the generation after my generation is worse than mine, then that could only mean that the behavior of children humankind (because they will be adults later) is deteriorating. Why is this so? It is because the times change. Many would blame it to popular culture and media but I don’t like to go into that now.

I have a class in a private Volkschule (primary school) here in Austria. I go there once a week to give them extra English lessons. In one of our lessons, two of the six boys started fighting out of the blue. It turned out that these two kids have a long history of previous fights and of not liking each other in general. It wasn’t easy but I manage to break up the fight and then I told them, with all the calmness that I could muster, that what they did is wrong. I also told them that I would like to speak to their parents. To my surprise, none of them seemed to care. One of them even suggested that he’ll call his mother immediately.

After the class, I managed to have a word with their mothers. I talked to them separately and I am really disappointed on how these mothers see their kids’ behavior. Both mothers claimed that it could not have been the fault of their kid. They told me a lot of things that made me further conclude that they (the mothers) also don’t like each other.

I honestly don’t give importance on who started the fight or whose fault it is because it was obviously both of them. It is bad enough that these kids don’t care what they do in front of a teacher but parents who don’t let their kids take responsibilities for their (kids’) actions could only mean worse. Parents like these are not helping in the positive development of their childrens’ personality.

I am not saying that they should beat their kids until they’re blue or that they make use of grounding or any other form of punishments. I just wanted them to talk to their kids and explain that they did something wrong and that they shouldn’t do it again.

The role of teachers in children’s development is great and some would even claim that the teachers have more influence on children than parents actually have. Still, we could all agree that parents have influence on their children and no matter how big or small that is, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Parents letting their children take responsibility for their actions is directly teaching them discipline, respect and responsibility.

Based on this experience, I hope that these two particular mothers and other parents like them could learn some sense on how to use their influence on their kids.

Filed Under: teacher's learners, teacher's thoughts Tagged With: discipline, parents, personality development, resposibility

teacher and parents team

August 11, 2009 3 Comments

I will be teaching in a private learning center this coming September and I am honestly wondering how it’s going to be because this is unlike any class I’ve handled before. I’ll have four different groups of pupils and each group will only have a maximum of 8 pupils. The pupils are 2 to 4 years old and they will be in the class with their parents. The parents are told to participate so if I ask the pupils to jump, the moms and dads should also do so. They are also told not to interfere with the lesson. They can, of course, participate and assist in activities but that’s all. They are not to tell me what to teach and how to teach and I hope that they will adhere to that because I especially hate it if I am being interrupted while teaching.

she-teaches I somehow know that I’ll do well with the kids but I don’t know if it’ll be the same with the parents. I know for a fact that parents want the best for their children and if they are not satisfied with the way the teacher teaches, they will most certainly complain. I just hope that they will give me a chance by being not so critical in the class. Sure they can be critical because critiques will also help me see the things I need to work on and therefore will eventually make me a better teacher but I hope they will do this after the class and I hope that they will only complain when they really see that their kids are not learning anything. They should give it some time before they give their assessments because learning doesn’t always happen in the span of 45 minutes. I hope they see that in this case of classroom setup, their children’s success will not only depend on me but on their participation too.