We leave our children with teachers for a large portion of the day but more goes on in the classroom than you know—sensitive issues crop up in classrooms all the time. I found one teacher who was willing to spill the beans on what some teachers really want you to know, as long as he or she remained anonymous.
Keep Your Kids Clean
We notice when your child is not clean. Whether it is nails, teeth, hair or clothing, these things are noted in our cache of information we collect on your child. We spend eight hours a day with your child, we know when he or she needs a bath. Truth be told, in my classroom I keep an extra hair brush, new tooth brush, wash cloth, and soap because kids know when they are dirty and they are embarrassed as well.
Send In Better Lunches
Lunches are a huge issue. We all have that kid in our class who brings a junk-filled lunch—pop, chips, chocolate bars. How is that feeding your child’s brain? It’s not and your child's behaviour will match the nutritional value of their lunches. Lunchables are not an acceptable lunch. Kool-aid and Sunny D are crap. We notice what your kids are eating and it affects how they learn. So during the parent interview when you are wondering why your child has behaviour issues and how it could not be their fault, someone else must be to blame, I am looking directly at you thinking, “Are you kidding me?”
Also, don't put smelly stuff in your kid’s lunch, it embarrasses them, makes the class smell horrible, and no one wants to sit next to someone who smells like garlic or fish.
Field Trips
Field trips are a lot of work to organize and for the most part, we love our parent volunteers—we couldn’t do a field trip without you. But, if you give everyone in your group gum or take them to the gift shop after you have been told not to, you are blackballed. You will never be asked to come back again. What you will get is a cute little note saying, “Thank you for volunteering again but we would like to give all parents a turn,” or “Sorry, it was first come first serve and all of our volunteer positions are filled for this trip.”
This also applies if you are a pain in the ass volunteer who would rather have a mini-interview about your child as I try to organize 20 other students, or if you wear to much perfume, or if you act like one of kids rather than a parent, or tell me last minute you are not coming...I think you get the picture.
Manners
Talk to your kids about manners...it is your job to teach your child manners, it is my job to enforce them at school. Simply put, children who have manners have an easier time in school than those who do not.
We Hear It All
Are you divorced? Too bad your child is not. Don't act like an ass around the other parent. Don't bad mouth the other parent in front of me, I don't care. Seriously, I care about your kid, not that your husband cheated on you. It's called too much information and I don’t want to know.
When I call you and your ex for a meeting, yes you have to man-up and attend a meeting together because you created this little person, you are responsible. If the two of you bicker and make the other out to be the bad guy all I will be thinking the entire time is, “Poor kid, thank god he can come to school and get away from the fighting at home.”
Your baggage is your own, leave your child out of it.
You can learn even more ways to get organized and transition from summer to school on our Back-To-School 2014 page.
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