Ode To Our 3rd Grade Teacher

As my daughter advances through grade school, I have less access to the teacher (not that we had that much access before third grade.) This year, our 3rd grade teacher was new to the school and I did not have high hopes for her given she was “slapped” by the parents in the first week. You see, the first week, a few parents complained that she was too strict. I have no idea what that meant since all their complaints were from their own children and let’s face it, yes we want to believe our children but it’s all in comparison. My daughter on the other hand refuted everyone’s complaints and in fact none of her own.

Because of the complaints, she went in the other direction and I felt lost control of the class, especially with the boys and for me that is inexcusable. The make up was made up of number of boys who shall we say are unfocused, chatty and apparently don’t care that they distract everyone from doing their work. Now my daughter can be focused but if faced with distractions of this nature, she can go off kilter.

Which is why I was always requesting she be moved from all the chatty cathys (I have no idea what the boy equivalent is).  Somewhere in the middle of the year, I think she found her footing because I think most of the parents were quite happy with her performance.

Personally, I found her to be engaging, thoughtful and really cared about the kids. She had some great ideas (like Rockstar of the week) to keep the kids motivated. And not until the end of the year when they were collecting for the class gift did I find out that she was paying for supplies and extras out of her own pocket to enhance our kids classroom education.

My daughter wrote her a thank you note about being the best teacher she has ever had and boy that is quite some endorsement, I thought her second grade teacher was the best she ever had.