My poor Lindsey got herself in trouble today. I happened to walk into the office to ask the secretary (Space Cadet aka Lindsey's mother) a question and saw Lindsey sitting there. She looked so sad. Her mother was on the phone so I asked her what was wrong.
"Nothing," was all she said...barely loud enough for me to hear.
"Did you get in trouble?"
"Uh huh."
She looked like she wanted to cry. She feels badly about something but I don't know what. I didn't stick around because if I had, she would have cried for sure.
Whatever she did, must have been pretty bad...this is only her 2nd trip to the office. She hardly ever acts out at school. When she does it's usually not serious enough to warrant a trip to the office.
I want to hold her and tell her everythings going to be okay, but I can't.
I want to know whats wrong and talk about it, but now's not the time.
*sigh*
*******UPDATED********
It's now 2:30PM. I did some investigating to figure out what happened. Lindsey was in Music class and was asked to play the guitar. She has never played before. She's never even touched one before. Her teacher sat her on a stool in front of the class and "told" her what to do. He didn't demonstrate, or even point to show her where her fingers went.
Lindsey is not good with change. She's still trying to accept her new music teacher. The previous music teacher had been her teacher from Kindergarten through 4th grade. She was comfortable with him and he was good with kids. This teachers new, the guitar is new... it was just overloading her little brain. When he finally did try to actually show her where to put her fingers, she had already felt defeated. She shut down and would not participate.
Part of me wants to sit her down and explain to her that change is a part of life. That teachers, like anybody else, will come and go and it's just something she'll have to learn to deal with. She needs to know that she has to deal with whatever comes along whether she likes it or not. At least as far as school is concerned. (She's stated that she wants her old music teacher back and does not want to go back to music class.)
The other part of me wants to kick the music teacher in the butt for being impatient and insensitive. Sounds like a harsh judgement, but I'm not just going by this one incident. Back in September, Lucione received her very first detention. She got it in band, from the very same music teacher. One of her classmates is completely deaf. She asked a question and it wasn't answered by the teacher so Lucione was answering her question... silently in sign language. They were not gossiping, they were not being obnoxious, she answered the question and that was the end of it. But the teacher gave her a detention for talking in class and causing a disruption. He didn't take into consideration the fact that she would not have been "talking" if he had taken the time to answer the deaf girls question in the first place.
So now he's punished both MY girls for things that were partially his own fault!
I will have the "change is a part of life" talk with her, but not until I've calmed down a bit. It's so upsetting to think a teacher could be so insensitive. He's trying to say she "came in looking unhappy". I think he's just trying to cover his own tracks. Whatever.
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5 comments:
It's got to be hard keeping your mouth shut when you want to take his crummy detention and shove it down his throat.
I'm sorry your girlies are having such a hard time with him. Do have the talk with them, and give them and extra hug when you do.
**hugs** for you
Grrrr... I don't like this guy... not one bit!
Is he from your tribe, or a neighboring tribe, or is he a white guy? I'm wondering how much knowledge he has about how children acculturate and learn in classrooms, especially classrooms that are made up of all the same students since they were 4 yrs old.
He sounds like a pompous jerk. Someone ought to talk to his boss about him.
Jayleigh, it is hard. He's had her for 5 months now. Anybody with eyes would have picked up by now, that Lindsey is shy and sometimes scared to try new things. All of her other teachers figure it out within the first month of school. Why couldn't he? And when 24 5th graders walk into your room, how do you single one out and notice that she's the only one looking unhappy? He claims that's what happened...that she started off in a bad mood and was just being stubborn. She can be stubborn, but only when she's scared.
Aimee, he's white. I didn't really like him even before he gave Lucione the detention. He walks through the building without saying a word to anybody. That's just not natural to me. I always greet people I come across and he's never returned the greeting. That turned me off right away...then he gave Lucione the detention and that was it for me. I don't even try to say hello to him anymore. That's just me being stubborn, but he gets on my nerves. He has no chance with me now that he's punished both of my girls!
Do you know if anyone has talked to his supervisor(s) about him? I mean, it seems really clear to me that he doesn't have a clue how to work within a small, close-knit community, especially one made up of such a different culture than he's obviously used to.
Aimee, I'm not sure if anyone's said anything or not. I only know what has happened with Lucione and Lindsey. I think I'll put my feelers out and see if any other students are finding themselves in similar situations. You're right, though. He's not used to this kind of setting and he hasn't done a whole lot to get to know this community.
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