8 minute e-mail

I woke up today to an e-mail from a parent with the line, "While I still set the blame for (my child)'s grade squarely on both your shoulders, I will not dwell on it."

I rattled off a bemused and somewhat angry, yet still professional, e-mail back to the parent in which I told her that teaching her daughter not to accept responsibility for her lack of success is not a good lesson, then reminded her that her daught attended zero coach classes and zero extra credit opportunities. In addition, I had not heard back from said parent after the student was failing on the progress report. I tried to stay as nice as humanly possible, because I know these parents who get mad are doing so out of love for their child, but it still pissed me right off. Oh well. I try and I try but I can't please everyone. Her daughter will be fine.

The rest of the day was a swirl. 3:15 was the project due time and date today. I heard a few excuses, but mostly all the kids did their thing. I got lots of good ones and a fair amount of crappy ones, and graded fifty this afternoon.

I'm very much amused by my colleagues' perceptions of me. Now that I'm floating around from classroom to classroom, they get to see me teach more and more. At the bar tonight, L. said that she never would have imagined me to be such a disciplinarian, that I get away with saying really biting remarks but the kids don't even notice because I'm so mellow about it. She cited an example. A kid who comes in late everyday and misses a fair amount of time was taking a quiz. He raised his hand and said, "I don't understand what XYZ is, Mr. E. I don't get it." I sauntered over to his quiz, read what little he had written down, and said, "Yup, that's about what I'd expect someone who has been in my classroom as infrequently as you to know," and walked away. The kid couldn't believe what I'd said. But he came to coach class that day after school and now "gets" XYZ, even though he still hasn't cured himself of his attendance/tardiness issues.

In other news, my friend wants me to sign up to do 8 Minute Dating tomorrow with him. While I think the spectacle of it would be amusing, being involved in something like that would probably be like being in the inner circle of hell for little old shy me. Or maybe not - the prospect of doing something clearly just for the purpose of dating would probably make things easier for someone like me. However, I don't even really feel like dating right now. Weird, I guess, because I complain about being lonely so much, but I'm still in self-repair and friend-repair mode right now. I need me time and friend time at this juncture more than anything.