Noticing Blog Week 4-Montague

Something that has really been puzzling both my mentor and I since the very first day of school is the contact that we have with one student’s parent. At the beginning of the school year, students were sent to school with stuff such as Kleenex, paper towel, glue, folders, index cards, etc. These items came off of a class list that was sent home before school started. Well on the first day of school, we took supplies out of children’s bags and put them in piles with their names on them so that we could compile everything that we had at the end of the day and have records of who brought what.

            Well the end of the first day of school came and one parent noticed that her child’s supplies were not in her bag. She made a big stink out of it and the teacher told her that we had collected the supplies and would be using them in our learning community throughout the year. Nonetheless, the parent was not happy about this and was persistent about getting her child’s stuff back so that very day, we put her child’s stuff aside (thankfully it had been labeled) and sent it back home with her the very next day.  Every single day that has passed this parent has come up to my mentor teacher complaining that her daughter has had things stolen from her. My teacher has calmly tried to explain that we gave back everything we had and that she was welcome to come check the classroom for anything else. Okay well here it is the 8^th day of school and she still has issues about the supplies. Everyday, she adds something new to the list that she says was in her daughters bag and came up missing on different days. Today she was invited into the classroom to look for a pink clipboard she claimed she sent. We keep all of the clipboards in one spot and the pink clipboard was not there. Then, she started pointing at supplies that my teacher had just bought this weekend insisting that they were her daughters. My mentor teacher told her that but the parent did not believe her so my MT ended up just telling her she could keep the supplies that she thought were hers and from now on to send her daughter to school with only the homework folder.

            Even though this is just a little spat between a parent and teacher, I think it is important to learn from it. As a future teacher, I know that I will send a letter home that specifies if supplies will be SHARED throughout the class because we are a learning community and if they cannot provide supplies, they should not feel obligated. Also, in that letter specify that supplies that are only for that individual child should be left home for the use of homework or other needs at home. The reason why I see this is important is because she is not the only parent to complain about having supplies that are shared as a class, she is just the only one to take it so far.

I can see the parent’s point of view because they may have purchased special items that were meant specifically for the use of their child and not knowing that it would be taken and used by the whole class. I also understand the teacher’s point of view but think that this whole incident is a case of not being clear and organized at the start of the school to prevent things like this happening in the first place. However, for the continued problems that this parent is giving my teacher and now claiming that she had supplies-that were not hers but in fact my teachers-is something I am not sure how to stop. I know that my MT worries that she will be doing this all year long and is trying to put a stop to it now by having her daughter bring ONLY her folder to school so she cannot do this again. Hopefully this works!