teachers and discipline
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teachers and discipline 
06/10/2010 16:00 - Behaviour / Discipline
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Help I am a little annoyed but should I be? My eldest is just settling in junior infants. 2 days ago she told me she had been naughty, walking about and was given out to.Yesterday she did it again but during lunch break she got a red marker I accidenlty put in her bag and drew all over her face to look like a clown. She was unsupervised and when her teacher returned from her lunch put her in time out and rightly so. At home time she is collected by the manager of the local creche along with others and taken there for afterschool. When she was collected her teacher kept her till last and told this lady what happened.No attempt had been made to clean her face and she was all red. When she got to creche they attempted to clean it but it had dried in. My husband collected her and her face was very pink. She had an appointment and she was very upset at the state of her face. When I took her to school today I couldn´t see her teacher. I met her temp teacher and asked if anything happens again to let us know as I´m not a stay home mum and she doesn´t go straight home and her face was marked all day because it was on left so long. I got a call from the vice to say that this wasn´t punishment but that teacher was too busy with 23 kids to get ready for home and it only happened 30 mins before home time.Don´t buy that as lunch is not 1/2 hour before going home and I think it was to teach her a lesson. Is humiliating a young girl the answer. I know she won´t do it again but her teacher shouln´t have done that
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re... : teachers and discipline
25/11/2010 20:43 - Behaviour / Discipline
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In the context of the OP having already been contacted by the vice principal and the points I outlined in my earlier post, contacting the principal in order to organise a meeting with the teacher, formal or otherwise, is over the top and prolonging a situation that came about largely as a result of a combination of factors that were more associated with home than school..
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re... : teachers and discipline
25/11/2010 19:04 - Behaviour / Discipline
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The same thing actually crossed my mind about the possibility of the teacher scrubbing the little girl´s face and being questioned about/blamed for the condition of her face afterwards. Of all things, marker is incredibly difficult to remove. If the OP had seen her little girl in the evening with her face marked and the teacher was responsible, there would probably be much greater question marks. As it stands, I think the teacher took the wisest course of action.
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re... : teachers and discipline
06/02/2011 18:43 - Behaviour / Discipline
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It is not the teachers job to attend to a childs personal hygiene.
Dont put red markers in her bag.
And you can be fairly sure your child will never do anything so silly again. The burnt hand teachers best.
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re : teachers and discipline
23/11/2010 23:59 - Behaviour / Discipline
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If you are unable to speak with the teacher informally, ask for a formal appointment, if that is refused, as in the case of my daughter, go to the principal and ask them to make the appointment with the teacher for you, if the teacher fails to keep that appointment meet with the principal, have your facts to hand and be specific. Try that and see if it helps.
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re... : teachers and discipline
25/11/2010 19:26 - Behaviour / Discipline
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Hi elliesull,
you say that my suggestion of going to speak with the principal is "absolutely ridiculous" but if you re read what I wrote I did say if you are not able to speak to the teacher informally and you cannot make an appointment to speak with them, then to see if the principal can make an appointment for you with the teacher and if that fails then to speak with the principal.. Why is that ridiculous, it´s going through the proper order of things as recommended by the school my daughters attend.
Obviously you don´t agree and that´s fine, but what would you suggest if you were unable to speak with your childs teacher about something that concerns your child?
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re... : teachers and discipline
31/03/2011 15:13 - Behaviour / Discipline
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I don´t think I had been clear on why I am bothered. The manager who collected my child felt that it was punishment and was concerned as her child had just started in the same school. Her teacher had held her till last then presented her like a show "TA-DA". "Wait till her parents see this tonight". She clearly felt that leaving her face bright red was a punishment. By the way it was a clown smile she drew. When I spoke to sub teacher it was to request that if my child got soiled in any way on purpose or accident that if we can be informed. I don´t think that that is an unreasonable request. I am sure art accidents happen from time to time. I fully accepted it was my fault for putting the pen in and my daughter had misbehaved and had fully deserved punishment but I do not accept the teachers version.
The subsequent phone call from the school vice annoyed me further. She phoned me, I felt the issue was resolved. However she told me that they would always clean kids faces but on this occasion her teacher did not have time as she marked her face just before going home time and she was busy getting kids coats on. This really angered me as we were told she drew on her face during lunch break when there is no teacher in the room. When I pointed this out the vice agreed it had happened at lunch time which is several hours before going home. I stiIll think it was used as punishment and boy she was so upset that night. We had just discovered she had poor eyesight and that evening was her first appointment with a specialist. So having her eyes probed and machines around her face she felt vulnerable and having a pink face didn´t help. Secondly this happened weeks into junior infants. All children take time to adjust to school and new friends and I don´t think a teaher scrubing a childs face is out of the question at that age. Each child had wet wipes in the class room. I am sure they help scrub their hands and arms when doing art. By the schools admission they would normally clean kids faces. It is clear to me that not allowing any chance to clean it for hours was punishment. Since then I´ve learned that a child in her class topped paint on his head and the teacher washed it out with soap and a comb. My child is well behaved normally. So again do you think this was appropriate punishment.
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re : teachers and discipline
08/06/2011 16:47 - Behaviour / Discipline
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I have to say in all of this discussion I am most disturbed that a Junior Infants child would be subjected to punishment for drawing on their face with a marker. Hopefully the teacher will understand that this is normal behaviour and to punish or make a child feel in any way bad or wrong for this would be very bad practice indeed. To say in a friendly way: "[name] oh you have drawn such a lovely smile on your face, but we only use markers here to draw on paper." would surely be better practice. And if the little girl did not like the red on her face, then that is what we call a ´consequence´ of her own action, which is no bad thing, unlike shaming or punishing... This seems to me like a tiny incident blown up out of all proportion.
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re... : teachers and discipline
01/04/2011 20:00 - Behaviour / Discipline
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Not cleaning her face is a punishment?Oh please..One minute lunch was 30 mins before hometime, next post you say it was "hours" before hometime, not very likely in junior infants. YOU let her have the marker,don´t pin responsibility on anyone else.
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re... : teachers and discipline
25/11/2010 14:23 - Behaviour / Discipline
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Hi Galwaygirl. In answer to your question, ´I´m a little annoyed but should I be?´ the answer, I believe, is ´No´.
Perhaps you may be a little annoyed that you put the red marker in the bag and maybe a little annoyed that your DD scribbled over her face with the marker. I honestly think that as the vice said, it was more a time issue and doesn´t sound like a punishment. Getting marker off somebody´s face is not an easy or a fast thing to do (It can be put on in a flash but if only it was the same with taking it off). It dries in seconds so whether it´s five minutes or fives hours later, makes little difference in terms of removing it.
One other element that could have been a factor also. You said that your DD´s face was very pink when she was collected. If the teacher had tried to clean the face, then your DD would have been the same way only it could have been the teacher would have had the finger pointed at her. If I was in the teacher´s position, I think I may have erred on the side of caution and not interfered by scrubbing vigorously at your DD´s face and leaving her marked.
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re... : teachers and discipline
25/11/2010 11:47 - Behaviour / Discipline
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To be fair, it seems that the teacher did her best to wait back and explain the situation to the creche people. The teacher did have a class to teach after coming in after break and if there she spent a long time cleaning your daughter´s face and something happened to another child, or the children didn´t have their school work done, then somebodyelse would be finding fault with the teacher.
You have been very honest in that you have explained clearly that the marker was in the schoolbag and came from home so that had nothing to do with the teacher. Also, the fact that you were not in a position to collect your daughter is totally understandable but certainly not the fault of the school or teacher. This clearly led to the delay in having the face washed and the fact that there was an appointment after the creche is really nothing to do with the school.
We all learn lessons but you could not have been inspired to know that the marker was in the bag or what was going to happen. You shouldn´t beat yourself up over what happened but the teacher should certainly not be beaten up over it either. It seems she did what she could and that most other factors that contributed to the situation were totally outside of her control. The suggestion of going to the principal over this is absolutely ridiculous.
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re : teachers and discipline
07/10/2010 09:54 - Behaviour / Discipline
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How awful for you. She must have been really upset. I think this is one of the hardest parts of starting school - in creche/montessori we parents are very connected and speak to the teaching staff regularly. School is very different - the interaction between teachers and parents is less ´hands on´ - and if you´re not collecting the child from the school gate it´s obviously very hard to get any direct contact with the teacher.
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re... : teachers and discipline
02/04/2011 10:24 - Behaviour / Discipline
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Look - you gave the kid markers. The child made a mess. It is not the teachers job to clean up that mess, or wash your childs face - if you wish your child to have that level of care - send her back to play school - teachers are not babysitters or nursemaids.
You made a mistake. Your child suffered as a result. I can almost guarantee sh wont ever do it again. Maybe the teacher shouldnt have held her back - if she did, because you werent there to collect her were you?
But it was your mistake.
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