I confess: I'm that mom. The one who teachers probably hate.

First of all, let me say a big THANK YOU! to everyone who offered support and advice on Aidan's project grade situation from last week. Our conference is on Thursday and I'm nervous because I loathe confrontation, but I'm ready and hopeful. I'll update with how it goes.

Anyway, I've realized that this debacle is not the first time I've had a problem with the way Aidan's teacher grades, so I'm pretty sure I've pissed her off. :(

First, it was Wordly Wise test questions being marked wrong when they weren't. This was on two different tests that I saw, but who knows what else I missed before I knew to look more closely.

Then it was the grade he got on his last project after their unit on The Mouse and the Motorcycle book. It was a cool project--he had to create a house for Ralph the mouse to live in and write a persuasive letter describing why the house, our house and our city would be a good place to live. He accidentally left the date off his letter which I fully accept was irresponsible, but the rest was very well-written and thought out.

Turns out, each of the five parts of a friendly letter (date, greeting, body, closing and signature) were all worth 10 points equally to make up 50% of the project grade (the actual house was another 50, and he got full points for it). Now, a 90 on a project doesn't upset me in and of itself, but the fact that the date was worth as much as the entire body of the letter is just wrong and goes against the entire spirit of the project.

Based on that rubric, someone could have written a totally off-topic/crappy letter (or not written anything!) and gotten the same grade as Aidan. Not cool! I brought it up with the teacher via email and politely requested that she reconsider taking a full 10 points off. She agreed, and ended up only deducting 5pts.

So I guess I have to confess that apparently I'm that mom. The pain in the teacher's ass, the one who's all up in her business making sure my kid is being treated fairly and getting what he needs/deserves with his education. I'm not trying to be difficult on purpose and I don't think my concerns or requests are unreasonable, but I can totally see why I may not be her favorite parent. But if his parents aren't going to be his advocate and champion, who will?

Please tell me I'm not the only one like that? And that it's not a bad thing?




PS. For the record, I never had to say a negative word to Aidan's kindergarten or second grade teacher. Or Logan's kindergarten teacher (yet) for that matter. There was that one issue with Aidan's first grade teacher, but it's not like annoying teachers is my hobby.

Linking up with Heather and Megan: