Not a banner day in the neighborhood here. Not saying that everything turned out bad today, in fact there were a lot of positives today, but stuff just seems to be weighing heavily on me today.
K, due to illness, has missed 10 days of school since the beginning of January. Unlike a lot of parents, I refuse to send her to school when she is sick, because she would end up getting sicker, and then bring it home and infect me, with my compromised immunity, and I would end up being down for six weeks. This is the reality of being a lymphoma survivor, catch every damned thing that goes around, and be sick much longer than everyone else when I do get sick.
Well today K came home from school, and in her folder was a math test that she had taken today. She had only gotten 4 problems out of 3o done. ADHD strikes again. Apparently the kids at her "table" were talking a lot and she was distracted by that. The whole table set up, while good for group projects, is not really good for taking tests, and doing one's own work. What the heck is wrong with setting the kids up in rows like they did when we were kids?
I signed the test paper and made K complete it this afternoon. That part was really no big deal. The big deal for me right now is K's teacher. It is a well known fact that both 4th grade teachers at K's school are less than desirable. Neither of them would win any awards for communication, and they are both so standoffiish with the parents that one could make the argument that both are stuck-up b-words.
There were two things that were in K's "communication" folder that have me furious. The first one is the assignment handout for the book reports. I read through the packet, and it is unclear whether she has to read two books or four books to do the reports, because she has to do two oral presentations and two written reports, but because the due dates on these reports are each like 3 weeks apart, I am unsure whether it is two or four books. Plus the handout was not spell checked, and basic proofreading was completely neglected. Is our children learning?
The second thing that was in the folder (and this is what I am most livid about), was a "progress report". Progress reports (mid term) are only sent home when there are "issues". Included in the report are what the students current grades for each subject are thus far in the term. So far this term K has all As and Bs. But there was a note on the report about her "falling behind" because of her attendance. I understand that there are things she missed because she was not in class, however, I am also very open to getting her caught up at home, and have stated that to the teacher emphatically earlier this year when she missed due to illness. And quite frankly, as earlier stated, I am not a parent that will send my kids to school when they are sick. And K had strep throat and her absence could NOT be helped. So I signed the damned report and wrote a note stating that if there was something she was not up to speed on, that Mrs. K should send it home so I can catch K up. I know I am being a thorny bitch about it, but I think the progress report, when K is getting all As and Bs is way out of line. Mrs. K is a condescending and pompous ass, in my opinion, and I can hardly wait to be done with her. She should have retired 10 years ago, and I am unimpressed with her attitude that things should run for her convenience and not the students. I really wish I could give her a piece of my mind without fear of negative consequences raining down on K. I can't. And I am getting tired of clamping down on my normally outspoken tongue. So I am blogging about it instead.
