Grumpy teachers - OK or not?

[ASecretLemonadeDrinker]

I went into the cloakroom today to make sure DS (4 - reception) took his lunch money out of his bag and gave it to the teacher and there was one in there 'hurrying them up'. She was really grumpy and I think a little girl was going to put her indoor shoes on and the teacher snapped "you're not going to put those on, are you?" (in a tone that implied the girl was capable therefore she was told off for trying) and took the bag off her and hung it back up (snatched is possibly too strong a word?) and was just generally being snippy and huffy with the children. They had just got in because I came in at the back of the line and there was only about 5 left so IMO) they were being pretty quick for 4-5 year olds! When she snapped at the girl I nearly spoke up, but is it different to pre-school? Is it not all positive encouragement and smiles? THey are supposed to change shoes too but unless they are super fast the teachers tell them not to bother (£40 down the drain) - would 5 mins be too much to help them all learn the morning routine, or at least be encouraged through it? I felt sad DS was going into class with that grumpy woman, she seemed very very pissed off with them all.

sorry should say the girl was incapable of changing shoes, at least quickly anyway

Definitely not okay. It definitely should be positive encouragement and smiles. I would have felt sad as well if my dd (also in reception) was going in to class with your grumpy woman. My middle dd (now in year 2) had a reception teacher who was fun and energizing but was also on a bit of a short fuse and I didn't like that. In fact in the last term of middle dd's reception year it came to a head with dd crying all the way from home to school in the mornings because of the way the teacher was handling the issue of going or not going to the toilet - ie. being too cross about it. My current dd's teacher is firm yes, no one is in any doubt that she means what she says, but she is calm, kind and seems happy to be there.

Indoor shoes??? Is the school in the middle of a bog?

I would have said something like 'are you ok' to the teacher so she knew you'd noticed

DS2 has 2 teachers that job share. Teacher 1 sometimes seems exasperated when she is speaking to DS2, which I admit does annoy me. DS2 has a horrible time remembering her name and has a tendency to call her by Teacher 2's name. Yesterday he did this upon entering the class in the morning, and she just rolled her eyes and corrected him in this "oh good grief" sort of way. Same voice for correcting his pencil grip, and changing his pencil back and forth between hands.

I don't know if she is aware she is doing it and haven't decided yet whether to say anything or not. I don't want to say anything to her about it in front of DS2, because she IS his teacher and I don't want to undermine her. It's tricky, as I'm worried if I speak to her about it that she will be a bit off with him as a result. She just seems to be one of those "perpetually exasperated" teachers so perhaps she is this way with ALL the children.

But out and out grumpy? I would definitely say something then. Agree with bigchris that "are you okay" is a fairly tactful starting point.

I came across several 'perpetually exasperated' maths teachers during my schooling and they are the reason that I used to think I was rubbish at maths. I'm not, but it has taken me years to get over it.

TBH, this sort of behaviour from a teacher would have me immediately saying something to the teacher/head. School is tough enough on little children, without the adults who are meant to be caring for them making them feel shite.

no totally not ok..... approach her about it .... or else take it higher.. positivity breeds positivity so children will suffer if shes breeding negativity.... good luck

To be fair it might just have been a one-off. If it becomes a pattern I'd say something - but one of the biggest banes of my life when I taught lower down the school were heads who didn't anticipate how long it could take to mobilize a class of littlies. I would sigh inwardly when they announced an end of day assembly, or a first thing one where "we have to be in absolutely within 5 minutes of the start of the school day because of x y or z" - because it was a flipping nightmare with the littlies to do this.

Could be that it was one of these sort of occasions so she was hurrying up because of that - hence me mentioning checking if it was a one-off.

As for being called by a different teacher's name - gawd I get called everything under the sun sometimes (I rushed to swap my name when I got married as my maiden one was really hard for younger children to say) - I answer to most variations of Miss/Mrs whoever's the first name that pops into your head, or mum when they slip on occasion. I did, however, collapse into fits of laughter when one kid completely got halfway through my maiden name and couldn't remember how to finish it off, frantically looked around the room for inspiration, and landed upon Mrs GasMask (they were doing WW2 at the time)! It was just a moment of sheer comic perfection with the whole timing of it.

There are some dreadfully grumpy and some downright mean primary school teachers. Makes you wonder why they chose to work with young children.