Dealing with teachers

[largepepperoniplease]

Mum to new school starter. I was hoping to blend in to the background with some obligatory niceties with child's teacher. But what happens when you disagree with a teacher or have issues? aibu to wonder whether it was realistic of me to think I can get through child's school life without the odd awkward clash? And to what degree do you sit back and let them and your child get on with it for an easy life?

Do you deal with people be telling them to FU Angela ?

• another teacher who punished the whole class by making them keep arms in the air until they were all quiet - it took 20 mins! *

That tells me more about the kids than the teacher.

• another teacher who punished the whole class by making them keep arms in the air until they were all quiet - it took 20 mins! *

That tells me more about the kids than the teacher.

I did at your comment, Rebelwitch, but then thought about it and 'the kids' in your reply likely referred to one or two children who persistently spoke/ messed around, not the whole class.

I'm not keen on collective punishment. I'm really not sure of the point of it. Is it so that 'the class' put pressure on/ ostracise the 'bad' child? Obviously if more than about 10 kids out of 30 are misbehaving then a class punishment could be appropriate though I'd still rather the teacher could identify the right people and deal with them. If they can't, then fair enough.

MerryMarigold
Time and place for collective responsibility.

E.g. my room has to be tidy & students ready to leave before I dismiss. The longer they take to pack away the more they play roulette with their break. They get the hang of packing away efficiently fairly sharpish (I can't stand wasting lesson time and some people I know start packing away with 10 minutes to go which doesn't help).

I put minutes on for collective fuss and taking too long to be ready. Students know if I see them doing what's needed and then I'll give them a personal nod to leave on time (though collective fuss tends to be by nature collective so it's maybe 1 or 2 who manage not to get drawn in. The fact they know i pay attention to people who keep focus means nobody complains about the collective minutes)

Whole class detentions / keeping the whole class in for 5 minutes etc isn't good classroom management and tends to breed resentment from good kids. After all, why bother behaving if you'll get punished regardless?

My eldest is in Year 10. I've never had an awkward clash with a teacher. If ever I've had a concern I've sent a polite email to ask about it and it's been resolved fine like that.

We are people. Talk to us. Sometimes we make mistakes and that seems to infuriate parents.
Most of us genuinely care about your child. A lot. However we have 30 at a time to care about and sometimes that gets tricky to manage. I’ve been teaching a long while and I’ve not met a teacher who doesn’t care. I’m sure they are out there but I’ve not met them. So just face any real issues head on and ignore the tiny niggles- they don’t matter.