Hi Everyone,
I’m really not feeling good about myself at the moment. I mentioned that I had yelled at a couple of little girls last week about calling another little girl ‘fat’. Well, lo and behold, the little girl who was supposedly being called ‘fat’ had made it up. I have NO idea why she did that, although I feel that it may have just been to get them into trouble. I am going to have to speak to that girl on Monday.
I am particularly disappointed at the parent of the supposed ‘victim’. She is a teacher in our school and we have taught together for many years. She told me about her daughter’s victimization the other day and I took her word for gospel and didn’t believe the girls when they said that they hadn’t said anything. I had spoken to them a couple of weeks earlier about picking on another little girl, so I just didn’t give them a chance to explain this time. I feel SO awful! I should have known that something was different this time, because they didn’t deny the first incident, but they vehemently denied saying anything to the teacher’s daughter. I did say at the time that if I found out that they were telling me the truth then I would give them a huge apology. Well, that is certainly coming now.
I am friends with one of the girls’ parents, and the mother called me today to see how I was after being off for a few days. She also told me that the incident had been sorted out because the teacher/mother had told her that her daughter had made the story up. She (the teacher) then went and gave my two students hugs and told them that she KNEW that they wouldn’t have done anything like that. But hang on!!!! SHE was the one who told me that this was JUST like them and they always did things like that. She knew about this during the week and she didn’t even call me (I know that she has my home phone number) to let me know about the mistake so I could at least find some way to rectify it. Now I have to wait till Monday to sort it out with one of the girls. Hopefully we are seeing the other girl at the zoo tomorrow, so I should be able to apologise to her then.
I just feel so bad because I SHOULD have taken the time to look into it more, before taking the teacher’s word for it and letting rip at the girls in my class.
I can’t wait to give these two girls a huge hug and simply hope that they can find it in their hearts to forgive me for not giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I also kind of gathered from the conversation with my friend that this other teacher has a ‘problem’ with the fact that we seem to have too much of a focus on exercise and nutrition in my classroom. Now, I’m not sure where that comes from. We do Daily Fitness every morning, because that is school policy. I have not had ANY nutrition lessons, but they will be starting this week with my dietician friend. The WHOLE school will be having Nutrition lessons at some stage as we got a grant to do so. Other than that, we have only been discussing food as part of our Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games programs when we talked about what athletes would have to eat. I’m not sure where she got the impression that we are doing too much on these things. She has a weight problem herself and I am wondering whether her problem is with ME, seeing as I have lost weight, and I am VERY conscious of my food and exercise, and she feels that this is having some kind of effect in the classroom. Obviously I need to talk with her, but that will have to wait until Monday too. I don’t want to call her over the weekend in case I say something that I might regret. I think I need to cool down first.
Oh well… that is my news for the day. I didn’t really need this after the week I’ve had. I know that my friend just wanted me to know that things were OK with the girls now, and I don’t think she wanted to make me feel bad, but I still do. I haven’t been happy about yelling at them since the moment it happened, but I have been consoling myself with the fact that they deserved it. Now I can’t console myself with much, except the fact that at the time, I BELIEVED that they deserved it. That doesn’t help those two 7 year old girls much though.
I’ll get onto the individuals a little later when I have had time to cool down and can gather my thoughts.
Take care,
Zelma
the words JEALOUSY, JEALOUSY and ENVY spring to mind, she is jealous of your weight-loss, popularity with students & envious of your lovely figure and healthy lifestyle. I don't know what you should do though, but cooling off, as you said, is a really good idea.
TOM always takes it out of me and causes food cravings AND water-weight/swelling.
