The Midterms

Many parents don't understand the whole concept of the midterm. This week the midterms went home and I got quite a few notes back that read, "Call me immediately if he/she has missing work in the future." I need to get these folk into the huddle and explain to them that the midterm IS the way I contact them about missing work. One sixer's parent was upset with me that I hadn't called her about two missing assignments. I told the sixer to come to my classroom every Friday afternoon from now on so that she can call her mom and let her know if she has missing work or not. She didn't look thrilled, but what am I supposed to do about it? Another mom was screaming at me on the phone that she didn't want to be angry with me, but she wanted to be "transparent." She kept repeating that phrase. I thanked her and added that I wanted to be transparent as well, and I told her, "I've been teaching for over twenty years and I have every confidence that I know what I'm doing." Not sure I have EVERY confidence, but it seemed important to communicate that at the time. This hasn't been the greatest day. After the slew of notes, I ended up getting a paper cut in third period. I kept calling kids over to look at it, but they didn't think it looked so bad.