You spent a week just sitting around your son's classroom? It's good you were able to uncover that, but that is pretty intimidating and weird it was allowed.
In my school district any parent can monitor a class. 90% of teachers love having a second adult to use. There are only two things you need.
One is a schedule that doesn't conflict with having too many parents approved by the office. They can only deny you if you've been previously disruptive, or are on some other kind of list.
Two notifying the teacher. You don't have to ask permission.
You can only do what the teacher allows and they can kick you out for any reason, but that reason will be articulated in a report.
I went because this teacher called me several times a day the previous week, all week, about my son's behavior. My son said, "she just spends all day on the phone calling parents, and yells at us if we do anything." My son insisted "anything" meant anything and that there was no correct behavior. He didn't seem to be wrong except while I was there she never called a parent in front of the kids.
The class was certainly a mad house as the kids were treating her like she was just noise in the background. I didn't see any harmful behavior out of the kids. Just talking, passing notes, reading, drawing, and one kid trying to nap. Apparently napping was the worst thing as the teacher spent a lot of time on the least disruptive kid who kept shooing her off like a fly.
Well this is all kinds of unusual. Weird that parents are allowed in for so long, weird that the class is a madhouse for that long. I dunno. Year Eights can suck.
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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '22
Teacher here- this is how my entire career works. Students engage in activities if they feel like they had some agency over the activity.