Caring About Education

I feel like I have been more negative this year about my students than I was my first year teaching. I have a quite a few students who dont want to do anything for me this year. Last year, I didnt struggle nearly as much as I am this year with getting students to do work. It seems that no matter what I try, these students would rather fail and just waste their time taking up space in the classroom. Calling home has not been help to the situation either. Some of the parents I've contacted in this case have told me its better to give up than to try and help. Some parents have gone as far as to tell me "They dont care", "They are in my hands". I know I am supposed to keep my students engaged in learning, but its exhausting when you dont see any results. I've heard many students say that they dont have any future goals to work towards, and other students think that what they want in life will just be handed to them. I wish I knew the answer, but for now I will just continue to keep on these kids who constantly refuse.

Tough situations

I had a very busy December so I missed adding onto my own blog for November and December. Time to get caught back up.
One of my goals this year was to communicate with parents more often and not only call home for negative comments anymore. I can say that the amount of contact I have made with parents/guardians this year has greatly improved. There have been a lot of negative calls home because I've got a tough group of kids on my hands.
I have found it hard to talk with a lot of my students parents this year. I had one situation where I called home and the father started yelling at me because I had given his son a detention for being disrespectful in the classroom and for having too many tardies. I could hear the son in the background claiming that everything I had said was a lie. The father was having a hard time deciding who to believe. The father told me that he trusts that his son wouldn't lie to him and I must be the person who was wrong. This really stumped me at the time and I basically froze on the phone. I couldn't believe what this parent was saying to me. I guess I would like to know how anyone else would respond in this type of situation.

I have made a few postive calls this year as well. Its amazing what a positive call can do to a student. I have seen a few young boys this year start as very immature 8th graders and are now very focused on their grades and doing better in class. I hope to be able to make more positive calls, I just need more time in  a day.