Teachers I need your opinion please

t Posted: Mar 10, 2005 10:27 PM

Teachers I need your opinion please

would you ever tell one of your students that their picture was ugly. or that their story wasnt good enough? My sons teacher was out of school on Wednesday cause she couldnt get in and the sub told my son his picture wasnt good enough. That it was ugly. I am furious. My son is exeptionally sensitive and with all the family tradegy we have had this past year we try to give and say ONLY positive things. Being that it is thursday evening right now, I wanted to see what my sons teacher would do / say when I sent her a note. ( I am one of those annoying parents who sends notes in all the time cause I work to much and have very little time to take off from work, but want as much of an active part of my childrens school) Anyway, the sub wasnt in school today and my son was really upset that he didnt sleep last night. What would you suggest I do? If there is anything I can do, please let me know other then talk to the principal cause sometimes I feel like that falls on deaf ears. She is very busy ALL the time.

DebsNY Posted: Mar 10, 2005 10:32 PM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

Wow - I can't believe that would be said! I would mention something to the teacher - and hope that she says something to this particular sub. Saying something like that can really discourage a child - which is not what being a teacher is all about.

Encouraging him to do something a little different would have been one thing, as long as it was constructive critizim, but saying that was out of line - especially in a primary setting (i think i remember you saying your son was 7, right?_

for him!

ETA: the more i think about it, the more i wonder what nerve the sub had to say that... s/he likely has no concept of a child's ability levels - or how hard they have to try to get something done in comparison to another child - that just really su*ks...

swags1016 Posted: Mar 10, 2005 10:34 PM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

Well if the sub is a permanent sub assigned to the building I would call and leave a message for the sub and find out what exactly she meant by those comments. I can't excuse the ugly comment that is just wrong, but the other one could have been poor phrasing on her part meaning that your son hadn't fufilled all the requirements.

Have you asked the teacher to call you at work to discuss this?

Some teachers can be very proactive to subs. I was just out and a sub left me a bad report on 3 of my classes! In almost 10 years this has NEVER happened I was livid at my kids I was like an exploding volcano. Long story short, I found out from another teacher that the sub started with my kids and that 2 of the boys did nothing more than ask for a pen Needless to say, she is no longer allowed to step foot into my classroom EVER again-- dumb azz because she was up for my maternity leave position too!
Good luck I hope I made some sense there.

t Posted: Mar 10, 2005 10:44 PM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

So pretty much I am handling this exactly the same way you guys are suggesting. Which at least means I am doing the right thing and not stepping on any ones toes which in this school you have to be careful of. Not only does this burn me cause of it was said to my son but cause I was an art major in school and I always encourage him to draw even if I thought it was ugly. I always told him 'Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder' But I would tell him flat out what I thought of it but then again I am his mother. And yes DebsNY, he is 7, with alot of emotional baggage.

katieshope Posted: Mar 10, 2005 10:48 PM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

Can I ask how old is your son? Because maybe he took what the sub said the wrong way. I would never tell a child that their work was bad, but I always encourage/or ask them if they tried their best, because I teach second grade and some of my students rush through their work and I know that they can do better. So I will ask them when they ask me if their work is good. If they say they tried their best, then I will tell them that its great, but if they say they didn't, I'll tell them to go back and try their best. BUT I would never say it was ugly or bad!!

cocoa Posted: Mar 11, 2005 06:12 AM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

i have 10 year olds and my class is basically the gifted class. so although many may not be artists. which is fine, i will say that i will not accept something that basically took them 5 minutes to do and that i want to see effort. sounds tought, but what i'm saying is that while i will never say 'ewww, that is ugly', i will tell them that they did a nice job but that i know they can do more and i'd like to see that. in the case of my kids, a lot of them test what they can get away with, meaning what is the least amount of work needed to get by and i will not stand for handing in something without effort, whether it be a gifted kid or not. and maybe the effort may result in a picture that is not exactly the most beautiful picture ever, but if that child put in 100% of himself, then i will be happy.

however, sorry, telling a child that his or her picture is ugly is downright mean, especially if he's 7!!!

Deb_n_Rob Posted: Mar 11, 2005 06:56 AM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

I teach seven year olds and I NEVER would tell a student their picture was ugly. If I received a note from you saying what the sub did, I'd march right into my prinicpals office and let her know. I think that is horrible. I always encourage their creative side. I can't believe a teacher would do that to a child. I feel so bad.

cjb88 Posted: Mar 11, 2005 02:48 PM

Re: Teachers I need your opinion please

as an art teacher, when i critique my students work... I ALWAYS start with a positive statement... they need to feel good about them selves... then I will say... hmm... how about you add a background... or... can we make this more colorful, and i try to be really encouraging... the little ones,as well as the big ones respond very well to that... that sub had no business saying any picture was ugly or anything was not good enough... no teacher should say something like that to a young child! Your choice of words is SO important when teaching!