What Do You Think About What My Daughter's First Grade Teacher Did?

Having a student correct their own paper is vey appropriate in first grade. It teaches them to find their mistakes and that it is okay to make mistakes. Your child seems to have made a mistake and will learn from the error. I'm sure other children have done this throughout the year and your daughter may have not noticed or remembered. First graders are learning how school works and making mistakes is part of the learning process. We put our children in school to learn and "getting in trouble" is part of learning. Children get tempted with things and have to learn to "do the right thing". It's all in the growing up. BTW: Teachers do not pick on kids. They have better things to do! :) It was very responsible of your daughter to write the letter to her teacher. You are raising a very nice young lady! As far as the blood, you need to call the nurse and ask her about the school policy.

I think what the teacher did with the assignment/consequence was appropriate. And, you shouldn't feel embarrassed or that it was over the line that she contacted you and asked you to discuss the incident with your daughter and also talk about the topic of honesty.

Taking the paper away and receiving a zero on it is, in my opinion, appropriate. The teacher also did the right thing by telling your daughter that she would be contacting you - in my opinion, I think it is more fair to notify students that a teacher would be talking to the parents rather than blindsiding the kid and calling their parent behind their back.

Calling you, even if it is over something that is mild/minimal, is also the right thing to do. You are a huge part of a support team that helps students become successful as they grow into good citizens. Her request to reaffirm the importance of honesty at home is her way of keeping all of you on the same page and reinforcing a unified message of acceptable behavior.

I see this sort of thing as a high school teacher all the time. Not saying you are doing this, but it is so obvious which parents are trying to cover for their kids (which results in the students thinking cheating or other dishonest behavior is completely acceptable). And, it's really sad because the student learns that it is okay to cheat and lie.

that teacher was completely inappropriate! raise hell!

Hi there-

After reading your story, I think the following:

*First Grade is probably too young to have such extreme consequences and your friend is probably right. Putting a first grader in the position to grade their own papers is probably not age appropriate.

*Your daughter made a mistake, she is human and some consequences are extreme, even in life. You don't always know how extreme the consequences are going to be and so perhaps, your daughter has learned an important lesson...the hard way. This is probably okay and she will likely NEVER do this again.

*I wouldn't be so hard on the teacher with regard to her comment of asking you to talk with your daughter. She has a lot of kids and some parents are more attentive than others. In order to make sure that there is follow-up at home, I think that she did the right thing and let's face it. There are a lot of single Mom's out there who don't have the time, energy or focus to think things like this through. So, the teacher can't assume.

*The nose bleed. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The school nurse should have notified you. Any problem could be a symptom of something much worse and so proper follow-up at home is equally as important as proper follow-up after an in-class incident like cheating.

I would have a talk with the teacher and let her know that you appreciate her call and have discussed this issue with your daughter but that you don't feel like her policy is age-appropriate and that putting your daughter in the position to potentially cheat is not right. Mention that your daughter was wrong but that she gave your daughter the outlet and that first grade was too young. I would also talk with her about the nose-bleed and stress the importance of proper follow-up at home.

If you don't get anywhere, I would set a meeting up with the Principal. I know it's hard but you aren't going to like all of her teachers and unfortunately, this teacher may have something against our daughter. If so, let her know that you are involved and that her behavior is not going to be tolerated.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
N.

I don't think teachers always think about what they are doing, just like the rest of us. Once she made a decision, age appropriate or otherwise, now she knew she had to back herself on it. It is really ridiculous to have kids mark their own papers and very hard and confusing and it takes too much class time.
The school should have called. It is required by law I believe if there is blood involved.
Just keep loving your daughter. Teachers aren't always right, some do even pick on our kids ( am sure of that )for whatever reason.

I teach first grade and have never asked my students to grade their own papers, not so much because of cheating but just because it's almost more of a hassle for them to do it than for me, and who knows-- kids can be so dazed sometimes thinking about recess rather than the task at hand, that they grade incorrectly or something. However, I wouldn't say it's horribly inappropriate on a minor assignment like a homework assignment. It does teach them to find their own errors, and it's actually much more appropriate than what I remember of my own first grade experience in which other classmates graded each other's papers so they knew what everyone else got!

In terms of how it was handled, please don't feel awkward about her calling you and asking you to explain honesty to your child. You would be so surprised at how many parents are just completely out of touch with their children's lives and really send them from school to after-school enrichment, sports, and daycare, nanny... really you'd be surprised at how many parents really WOULDN'T talk to their child about something like this! They expect the teacher to do it and don't realize that as parents, the value of what a mommy says makes a huge impact on their kid-- moreso than the teacher's! Don't take it personally. The teacher has probably dealt with a lot of uninvolved parents before and didn't mean to lump you into the group but has just learned to be safe rather than sorry and send off a reminder.

In terms of picking on your daughter, well yeah my niece gets picked on by her teacher, no doubt, and I try so hard as a teacher never to pick on specific students but I'm sure sometimes I do without even realizing it if they catch me on a bad day and push all my wrong buttons. Just like anything in life, you don't usually get anywhere by complaining so if I were you I'd hope for the best and give the teacher the benefit of the doubt, but you can always say point blank to the teacher "hey do you mean to tell me that all year my kid is the only one who's been caught cheating?" and mention the 2 other episodes that make you think she's being picked on, and see what the teacher says. If there's a really big deal, bring it up with the principal. If not, let it slide and just let your child learn that some supervisors in life are nice and some are not and she will learn to get by just as you have.

regarding the nosebleed, i'm surprised they didn't send home a slip of paper that said "your child was in the nurse's office today for a nosebleed." or something. Yes it's worth mentioning to the school office. Maybe it's not a policy at that school for them to mention things like nosebleeds, but it wouldn't hurt them to do so. At my school I think I would tell the parent personally as the teacher if that happened in my class.