Attack of the PTCs

Again, that time of the year, the dreaded PTC. It seems that the parents get worse and worse every time. You don't get the parents you really want to talk to, and you end up talking to those who you don't need to.

But something different has been going on for me this year. PTCs aren't until tomorrow and believe me, I'll be writing about all the "details" again (one way to stay sane). But this semester, I've had more parents coming into my room and telling me how to do my job than ever before. Their student is "failing because of you [me]" and they want it fixed. I legally can't tell them that their student is a piece of *$#* and doesn't want to work, so I have to calmly tell them that they don't turn in their work and I don't bug them about their work. They aren't in elementary anymore, they should start being responsible for their work.

For instance: I just had a large project due in one of the elective classes. The deadline has been on their grade for a week, as well as on the board and I've said it at the end of every class for that week. Day of the project turn in--I had 4 students come up and ask if they could use the phone to call their parent to bring them their project. I would tell them that they had to call during their passing time or during lunch. It wasn't their parents responsibility to remember the project. Oh, I had a parent come in after that day and proceed to chew me out because I had told her son that he couldn't turn in the project. How in the world did he get from "you need to call on your own time" to "you can't turn in the project". If the student wants to turn it in late, then that is their choice, but they certainly don't get full points for it.

We'll see how tomorrow goes with PTCs, I'm expecting some hard cases because the parents have already contacted me about being there (and they didn't sound too happy). Oh well.