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- Sep 23, 2012
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I'm a new part time teacher at a private school I attended when I was younger. This is my first teaching job and we're just now entering the 4th week of school. Well I teach religion to 6th graders and a few of the students happen to be my coworkers kids. I am somewhat following the plan from the previous school year which worked well for the teacher that taught it, so with this being my first job I figured I would somewhat follow the plan if it worked and tweak it a bit.
The chapters in the book I use are super short and recommend a test each friday (its more of a quiz really). Well thats what the last teacher did without issue, so thats what I planned on doing. Well due to memorial day we lost a day of school so a test had to be pushed back to the next monday. The test didn't take the whole class as excepted so we jumped right in and started the next chapter to stay on track, which would mean yes we would have another test on Friday.
Well Friday morning rolls around and I check my emails when I first wake up and I see I have one from another teacher at the school from the previous night. I read it and it is a massively long email that starts out with my name… which to start out with I found rude for a grown adult and then she goes on about how she doesn't understand how we cover a chapter a week and a bunch of other stuff and her daughter tells her I didn't give a study guide till Thursday, which was a lie it was given out earlier, and that we didn't review for the test. I dedicated the majority of the Thursday class to reviewing and studying. I made an online game for them to review and play, offered to ask questions, gave extra study guides. I'm not sure what else I could have done better! She goes on to say her daughter is soooo stressed out about this test ( which she gets 100% on) and how me giving 2 tests is excessive!
I mean I know she's probably just taking her frustrations out on me, but as a first time teacher I thought she as a teacher as well would A) be a little more understanding and B) address her concerns in a more professional way. I feel like I now have to tailor my class to keep her daughter happy. I also quite frankly am uncomfortable to run into her at school now. I was almost in tears after I read the email because of how incompetent she made me feel.
I sent her an email back apologizing telling her it would never be a regular occurrence that we have 2 tests in a week, but it was just to keep on track and we started the chapter right away on monday and that our chapters are really short and we had time for review, and that I didn't want her daughter stressed out about school. Since its a school email system I can see when people read the emails I send, and she read it shortly after I replied and never sent anything back. Most parents or other people usually reply back thanking the teacher for explaining things, but from her I got nothing. Which leads me to believe she was frustrated her daughter was "throwing a fit most likely from what someone else has told me" and decided to take her frustrations out on me.
This happened Friday and I'm still really annoyed/upset/confused about all of this. Should I just brush it off my shoulders and keep soldiering on? Should I talk to my principal? I feel like I handled the situation with more grace and class than my coworker did. I just need some advice as to what someone else would do in that situation. Like i said this is my first teacher job, I'm still learning.
The chapters in the book I use are super short and recommend a test each friday (its more of a quiz really). Well thats what the last teacher did without issue, so thats what I planned on doing. Well due to memorial day we lost a day of school so a test had to be pushed back to the next monday. The test didn't take the whole class as excepted so we jumped right in and started the next chapter to stay on track, which would mean yes we would have another test on Friday.
Well Friday morning rolls around and I check my emails when I first wake up and I see I have one from another teacher at the school from the previous night. I read it and it is a massively long email that starts out with my name… which to start out with I found rude for a grown adult and then she goes on about how she doesn't understand how we cover a chapter a week and a bunch of other stuff and her daughter tells her I didn't give a study guide till Thursday, which was a lie it was given out earlier, and that we didn't review for the test. I dedicated the majority of the Thursday class to reviewing and studying. I made an online game for them to review and play, offered to ask questions, gave extra study guides. I'm not sure what else I could have done better! She goes on to say her daughter is soooo stressed out about this test ( which she gets 100% on) and how me giving 2 tests is excessive!
I mean I know she's probably just taking her frustrations out on me, but as a first time teacher I thought she as a teacher as well would A) be a little more understanding and B) address her concerns in a more professional way. I feel like I now have to tailor my class to keep her daughter happy. I also quite frankly am uncomfortable to run into her at school now. I was almost in tears after I read the email because of how incompetent she made me feel.
I sent her an email back apologizing telling her it would never be a regular occurrence that we have 2 tests in a week, but it was just to keep on track and we started the chapter right away on monday and that our chapters are really short and we had time for review, and that I didn't want her daughter stressed out about school. Since its a school email system I can see when people read the emails I send, and she read it shortly after I replied and never sent anything back. Most parents or other people usually reply back thanking the teacher for explaining things, but from her I got nothing. Which leads me to believe she was frustrated her daughter was "throwing a fit most likely from what someone else has told me" and decided to take her frustrations out on me.
This happened Friday and I'm still really annoyed/upset/confused about all of this. Should I just brush it off my shoulders and keep soldiering on? Should I talk to my principal? I feel like I handled the situation with more grace and class than my coworker did. I just need some advice as to what someone else would do in that situation. Like i said this is my first teacher job, I'm still learning.
