Freedom

I have to learn to embed youtube onto my blog...it can't be that complicated.

So here is the song that I would post for you to see...just imagine you can see it as you listen & read. When that is done you can go to this song, I often play this one for my parapro from Monkey's blog because it seems my parapro is always stressed to the max.

Anyway, the point.

Today I am giving myself the freedom to do what I want how I want and not worry about other people. This year has been a constant struggle between select parents & myself in how I teach, what I teach, and my expectations for their children. What I expect is for your student to come to my room ready to learn, to become responsible for their learning, to want to grow & work to make it all possible. Last week I actually had a parent question what I just finished teaching in science..this is as close as I can get to a quote: "I was at a friend's school store looking for an agenda and she had a poster displayed. It was her daughter's S.S. project, her daughter is older than J. Her project was what J studied earlier this year, but the stuff that J was required to do was much more detailed than what (the other student) had to do. My son who is very gifted and in middle school is just now studying rocks, soil, & minerals, but he is required to know almost the exact same thing J was required to know. I just question what we are asking of 3rd graders. Are we teaching 3rd grade material?" I took great pleasure in getting out my GEORGIA STATE STANDARDS and the STUDY GUIDE I made and showing this parent just how right on target we are in this 3rd grade classroom. Later she said she was tempted to pull her daughter out of my room to put her in a public school to lighten her workload. WHAT?!?! Seriously? Today, she wrote TWO notes that said the same thing in two different locations about how I should review how to answer questions before asking the students to do the work. Yeah, you know I often make it a habit just to hand out work and say, "Hey, you are on your own, figure it out...and no I will not answer any questions." Craziness!

So today, I am giving myself the freedom to teach and teach like I have always taught, and I will try to inspire and reach my students and challenge them (my goodness what am I thinking with that one) so that they will grow as learners and become independent self sufficient thinking productive citizens of this nation. I think THAT is the real problem, these parents see their children thinking for themselves and wanting to do things for themselves and it scares them shitless to think that their child is capable and is doing things on their own. What a concept! So I will continue to work under pressure to have the freedom to do what I KNOW is right.