Upset in Arizona.

I feel so terrible right now. I broke down on one of my fellow teachers, crying and upset.

This is the situation:
AIMS starts next Tuesday. NEXT TUESDAY. I've been working hard on multiplication and Division. Get them to know it, to own it. Half of them use the traditional algorithm. The other half use the extended algorithm. I prefer the second because I can catch my errors better (which is better for the kids.) I gave a quiz today and 3/4 couldn't get 2/2 multiplication problems correct.

This scared me, badly. After school I asked the teacher in the room next to me for advice. He did give it, but in the middle I just fell appart. I started crying and couldn't get a hold of myself, threw the pile of quizzes onto the floor and just... ouch. If I had been one of my kids I'd have sent myself out to the hallway to calm down. But Professionals don't leave the person that you asked to help you so you can calm down. You just do it. And I did eventually put myself back together, but now I have a sick stomach and am crying even harder because I repressed it.

And now I'm a little ticked off at one of my students. He didn't do his reading group reading and didn't do the assignment. Dad asked that I email when this happened, so I did. He told mom he had done it, so mom was confused and emailed me. I said, "You know, I might have gotten it wrong, I know he didn't write it but I'll ask if he had read it." Asked the child, "Did you read it." Student-"I had a little left to do." Me- "So you didn't finish it." Student- "No." So I wrote back and said, "I talked to him, and he said no, he hadn't finished either." Child went home to mom today and she talked with him. "Did you finish the book?" she says, "Yes, just not the assignment." says he. Email to me from mom, "I'm very confused and want to just let this drop." Me- *fumes*

Lets count up the power that has shifted here.
-1 point from Mom because child now knows she won't keep after him for the truth.
-1 point from Teacher because he thinks that Mom will believe him over the teacher.
+2 points to child who still isn't going to do the assignment and can now lie whenever he wants to to Mom.

ARGHAOIUREALEKJ~! My ideal of every child can learn (maybe not on grade level... but they can learn!) and that every child is good and only taught badly is suffering. BADLY. AREOIAUJGLKAJPERUOIAE. I don't know if I should cry or scream right now.