Ugh sorry for the rant, but I just had such a frustrating morning with the owner... that women is usually barely here, she is a business owner of multiple locations and has no background in education. She kept interrupting my small group with things like “so-and-so doesn’t have a mailbox for his papers!” I’d reply “oh he does, it’s up there” and she’d look annoyed and insist he didn’t. I had to stop my group and get up to point it out to her. At another point, I told her she didn’t need to be cleaning up the center and that I’d like the kids to do it. She told me it was fine. Plus during circle time she kept interrupting to give attention to children who were misbehaving ever so slightly, even though it wasn’t distracting any other kids (or me).

Then I got some comments like “I’m really not used to your teaching style...” and I feel like she wasn’t happy with how I run my room. She mentioned that she’s used to people having most things closed instead of the children having more freedom. I tried to explain the philosophy and as soon as I mentioned my Montessori influence she was like “well these kids aren’t going to Montessori schools.” I’ve never had anyone act so critical of my room honestly, normally people (including the parents and director) talk about how they can tell such a difference in how calm it is and student engagement and progress. She mentioned being worried about safety issues with kids having more choices. In my experience behavior is better when children get to take initiative and self-direct, therefore safety hazards don’t happen as often.

Like I know I bitched to admin about having 15 kids alone, but the top boss being in my room (specifically at times that are easier for me) is not what I had in mind.