A Little Discouraged

As soon as I finished blogging last night, I got a phone call from S.N.K.'s mother.
I had been expecting them to call, but I was quite shocked that I got a call so soon after the PTA.
Mrs. K. began attacking me about her daughter's C in literature. I insisted that the mark was what her daughter earned. I even opened up my roll book to compare her marks to the class' and I informed her that her daughter had gotten the lowest score in the class on out literature quizzes.
The mother had the nerve to ask me why it wasn't raised. I told her honestly that had her daughter participated more in class she would have gotten a better mark, but because I never heard anything from her, I had to settle for the mark I had in my roll book.
She insisted I change the mark, as she was afraid of her daughter not getting accepted into high school.
I told her that we don't change our marks for that, and that if her daughter was really concerned about high school, she should begin showing more responsibility in class.
She had S.N.K. standing behind her the entire time listening to the conversation, and S.N.K. kept insisting that she didn't even remember taking literature quizzes.
I felt it was unfair to put me on the spot in front of a student, but the mother didn't seem to care. I opened my blog, and told her the exact date of the quiz. S.N.K. had nothing more to say.
I told the mother that I would talk to the principal to see what I could do about the mark, and the mother told me that the principal did not like her and that she would not be accommodating. I can totally understand why the principal would not like her!
Then the father came onto the phone to ask me what exercises his daughter should be doing to prepare for the entrance exams next year for high school.
If I wasn't so pissed, I would've laughed. I told him that he had nothing to worry about as the tests were way too easy to think about.
He insisted though, and I told him that I was planning to prepare the class anyway on how to sit through and interview etc.
He sounded relieved.
Today I met with the principal to talk about S.N.K.'s parents, and she told me not to worry, as these parents had been urged to go and to send their daughter to therapy for years, but hadn't listened. She said that Mr. K. was coming down to school to talk to her about the exercises he wanted his daughter to do for high school.
I laughed and told her what he had been telling me the night before and she said, "Oh! I was wondering what he meant!" She was just as confused by them as I was.
I spoke to her about R.A.'s mother and about T.B.N.'s mother and about 7th grade in general. She sighed and told me that all the mothers I'd had a problem with were the ones who were told to go to therapy years ago but never did. She reassured me that this was in no way my fault, and that the mothers and some of the daughters in the class were really kind of strange.
She told me not to change S.N.K.'s mark and that she'd discuss it with her father when he came. It's such a relief to work in a school where the principal takes your side!
In class today we pretty much just did regular history and some geography, and then I went to 7th grade where we got busy.
I came in late because the principal wanted to talk with me about the next writing assignment for seventh grade, but as soon as I came in, I started the girls off rewriting their persuasive essays.
I gave them about half an hour to do it in, and I was so upset when certain girls kept raising their hands to tell me they had nothing to write. I mean, I gave them two weeks already to finish their drafts...what were they thinking?
After that, I began some history, and that went really well. I hope to be finished this chapter before Chanukah, that way we can focus on more interesting things then. I also have this great story about George Washington and a Jewish soldier in his army, and I want to get to read that with them next week too.
As soon as I got home I began marking the essays they had handed in. If possible, they were worse than the ones they had handed in before.
I did not curve their marks this time, and I gave them all what they deserved. I'm kind of discouraged, but I know that it's not about me. I know that it has to do with the element of the class, not with how I taught it. The smarter girls did well, but the slower ones did the same or worse.
I'm almost embarrassed to show them to the principal. I hope she doesn't blame it all on me!