How can you go too fast when you haven't even taught anything yet?

So...I was called in by one of the counselors only to be informed that several students want to switch out of my class because "I'm going too fast."

I think my first reaction when I heard this was, "How can you go to fast when you haven't covered anything yet?"

Usually, I'm pretty open to comments like this because there are times when I step back and think, "okay, I am losing a bunch of kids, time to slow down."

However, I was really irritated this time for a couple reasons.

1) No kids told me they thought I was going too fast. Yes, I realize kids are scared their first week and may not feel comfortable going up to a teacher they don't know. Fine. BUT there is a parent complaining to the counselors that they think I'm going too fast. Uh...hello? Shouldn't this parent be coming to me FIRST? Now it's MY responsibility to contact the parent about a complaint they made to the counseling office without first trying to talk to me?

2) We haven't even covered anything! I really don't know how I can possibly be going too fast when I purposely decided to spend 1 day doing introductions and 3 days on the first section of the book! We've literally only covered ONE section! According to the pacing guide, we were supposed to have covered the first three sections of the book this week. However, due to crazy random meetings, not getting books day 1, and shuffling classes AND due to the fact that based on past experience I KNOW kids struggle with the first chapter, I decided to screw the pacing guide and spend 3 days on one section instead of 1 section per day. I think the fact that I put extra thought into slowing the chapter down made me especially frustrated that I'm actually getting complaints that I'm going too fast.

I mean, seriously? We've covered one section that talks about points, lines and planes. If we go any slower it will literally take the entire quarter to get through chapter 1 and by the end of the year we'll probably only have covered chapters 1-4...we have 12 chapters in the book! I'm all for slowing things down when my class isn't understanding, but there's a limit to how slow I can go. I went through STEP, I KNOW it's not all about JUST covering the material, but at the same time, you can't call it a year long Geometry course if you've only taught 1/4 of the material for a year long Geometry course.

Pitfalls of teaching

Normally, when people ask me what's the worst part about teaching the first thing that comes to mind is either grading or classroom management...

but tonight I'm feeling like the fact that you have to cover your ass all the time is way up there on the list.

What brings about this train of thought you ask?

Already got my first upset parent...sheesh...just wrote a one page, very carefully worded email, which I will probably run by my coworkers before sending it out.

While I've had positive experiences with most parents, there are a few parents who I just don't understand.

Case #1: Parent who asked me to find ways to help her child improve, but when offered FREE tutoring every day from me said, "Oh, but she doesn't want to come to tutoring, can't you think of something else?" And then proceeded to complain about the fact that I don't collect homework every day.

Case #2: Parent who yelled at me for confiscating a phone/following school cell phone policy.

Case #3: Parent who complained that I gave her child a zero for not using pencil on a quiz. They were told the day before they need to do everything in pencil and that they would have a quiz the next day. When I tried to explain that it's better they get a zero on this quiz, which is essentially worth nothing, and get the picture that they need to use pencil than if i let them slide and they end up using pen on a quiz that's worth way more, they parent still didn't think it was fair because it was a bad way to start the school year. sigh...you would rather me let them start the school year NOT following class policies? really?