The Parent From Hell.

In every class you always have a parent or two who believes their child walks on water when they can't even swim!   However, what's even worse, there is always the parent from hell who believes their child is perfect and deserves high scores when the reality is the student's work is mediocre at best.   That is the case today as I was pulled out of my grading assignment to document the grade I gave a child.

The grade I gave the child was based upon four different factors, tests, labs, assignments, and participation.  When I added up the entire package the final grade was a touch below what I gave the student, so I rounded up the grade to the higher value.  I didn't penalize the student for missing days or arriving late to school, which I should have done.  Finally, on the days the student didn't show up to my class, the student could come in the next day and pick up and make up the assignment.  The same goes for the student's missing labs.

Naturally, the student never bothered to make up the missing labs or take the previous assignments.to do Therefore, the blame was placed not upon the student, who's failure to make up the assigned work but was placed squarely on me by the parent since I didn't inform the parent of every assignment she did not complete.  Moreover, I failed to have an online grading book so the parent could closely follow on the internet her child's progress.  I also was at fault for not getting back to the parent about the student;s grade, despite the fact I had not calculated the grade at the time since I was still marking labs and did not finish grading the last test given that day.

Reading this you would think I failed the student?  The grade the student received was a "B" average and I was being generous!  Unfortunately,   for some reason this parent believes her student is an "A" student and her grade would have been higher, except its because I'm a lousy teacher and I don't appreciate the student. The parent of course,  ignores the six days that her child missed my class in the last two months or the problematic behavior her child exhibits far too many times as well as the student's lack of focus.

I would like to say the school administration had my back but I spent the entire morning being made to justify my grade for the student and being threatened with going to the Superintendent's Office to micromanage my grading policy and organization.  Having my back?  It felt like I was being stabbed in the back!  I felt quite disrespected and people want to know why there is a looming teacher shortage?

In the next semester, to protect myself from both the school administration and helicopter parents, including  the parent from hell, I will make every effort to document everything daily but I will not use an online grading book and have big brother watching my every entry. Furthermore,  I never use an online grading book until and unless the union contract requires it.  To me that is too much work and I have a life after school even if other people don't think I should..