Bad Teacher

I changed my mind about what I was going to write about tonight. Last week I got an unusually large number of "You're the best teacher in the world Ms. Gross!!!" cards and signs. I'm not sure why the big increase, since I actually thought I was kind of mean last week, but my only guess is that we had a lot of indoor recess because it was so cold, and the girls got bored and made me pictures. Some of them were good, and flattering (my hair looks awesome in one...) so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites.

But then today happened, and I didn't feel worthy of posting all of the greatest teacher ever pictures.

My class went on a field trip to the science museum with the rest of the 3rd grade. We're only allowed to bring two parent chaperones, which is kind of lousy because I had six parents who wanted to come, and two who took the day off only to find out that I couldn't have them come. It is also kind of lousy because it means that I have to split my class into three groups of 8 kids each, which is a lot to ask a parent to do, especially in a place like the crazy museum. Luckily my kids are pretty well-behaved and I knew I wouldn't have any trying to climb up walls.

Well, shortly before we had to meet for a show with the rest of the 3rd grade, I was waiting for my little group to use the bathroom, when I heard/saw another group from my class screaming and running toward me down the escalator, with no parent in sight. As they got closer I heard, "A. is lost! A. is lost!!" The chaperone finally appeared, and didn't seem at all concerned which made me extremely upset. What made me more angry was that she also had not told any of the museum workers that there was a missing kid, and had no idea where she had actually lost the kid, and couldn't tell me how long ago. She speaks mostly Spanish, so her daughter translated for me when I asked the last place she had seen her, but her daughter told me it was the room with the computers (great, since every exhibit has computers...). It turned into a big hassle where I had 4 museum employees with me talking to the other guys on headphones, and then got her paged. Finally I took my kids to the show, where I found out that another 3rd grade teacher had found her wandering by herself (thank god for my school's uniforms) and took her. It was great that it all worked out, but I was angry for the rest of what had been a nice trip so far, and I was definitely not so nice to my kids for the rest of the time (and counted them every minute for the rest of the day). When I got back to school I had to tell the principal that I lost someone, and then called the student's parents, so it was all not fun since I knew I was the one responsible, but it was a bad chaperone who could have been a little more careful.

Let's see if I get any "Great teacher" posters during tomorrow's rainy indoor recess.