Today was our first day of school. I thought it went fairly well. Kids were generally well behaved, impressed with my room and my candor, and predominantly friendly and open. Ahh, the bliss of being a veteran teacher. Then, I got the parent phone call. Here’s the conversation:
“Miss Brailey?”
“Yes.”
“Hi, this is (Name). I’m Matt’s mother. Did you tell Matt you wouldn’t call him Matt and would only call him Matthew because he was rude and obnoxious?”
“WHAT?!? No!”
“So you deny this happened?”
(Dawning realization….)”No, I told students when I called roll to tell me if they wanted to be called by something other than the name I had. Matt said he wanted to be called Matt. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll only call you Matthew IF you’re in trouble or annoying…As in Matt…Matt…MATTHEW! I’m so glad you called me…”
“OOOOHHHH, I do that to get his attention too…”
She went on to explain that he is very respectful and an honor student and was crushed to think I thought he was rude and annoying on the first day of school. I offered to speak to him to clear the matter up, but she said she’d explain it. Because and If–who knew subordinating conjunctions could be so important…
A fun side note: While I was preparing to publish this, another parent facebooked me: Hi, Miss Brailey. If you have any problem out of (Student), just kick his butt, okay?
Aaahhh, parents…One of the many joys of teaching.
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