Notes

- Greeting
Good afternoon Mr.Swanson, Today I am sure you received an email from Ms. Riedel, my Spanish teacher. It was a Concerned Teacher Report to you and my parents, which I am sure you already know, and have read. But I would like to express some of my concerns and opinions about it
- Why i am sending this email
I have not read the actual email that she sent, but I know why she sent it and what she included in the email. I have decided to send this letter to you, since I think a CTR was unfair and that I should be allowed to justify my side and point of view of things.
- what happened
I will explain to you what happened as it was.
I was in my second period class, Spanish, and we were going to present the homework that was assigned to us the day before. It was a short poem. I had done it, and like the rest of my classmates my notebook was on my desk. Ms. Riedel then said "No escriban esto era tarea" (Do not write, this was homework) and everybody who was writing, no more than two students, put their pencils down. Then, she called on a classmate of mine to present his poem. After he was done, Ms Riedel told him "Me gusto mucho su poema, lo deberia ingresar el concurso de poemas. Solo fijese que tenga 8 a 14 estrofas"
(I really liked his poem, You should enter it into the poems contest. Just be sure it has 8 to 14 stanzas) At hearing this, The classmate I was sitting with and I started counting the stanzas in our poems. I happened to do it with a pencil -with out its point-. Ms Riedel then came to my desk, took the pencil out my hands and told me "Dije no lapices" ("I said no pencils") She walked to her desk to leave the pencil and I said "Ms, ni tiene punta" (Ms, It doesnt even have a point) She didn't respond so I said, more to myself than to her, "Ms. No me robe el lapiz" (Ms, don't steal my pencil). At this point I would like to point out that I did not say it with an accusative or aggressive voice, just with a kind of sad, whiny or even amusing tone. Ms Riedel, didn't say anything again and approached another student's desk. After around 5 seconds she turned back to me and asked "Que dijo?" (what did you say?) and I said "Que no tiene punta" (That it didnt even have point), She responded "No lo otro" (No, the other thing) and I repeated what I had said "Ms. No me robe el lapiz" (Ms don't steal my pencil) she stared at me for a second, then went to her desk and grabbed the signature chart and said. "Pilar, firme" (Pilar, sign) I asked why. she said "Dijo que le habia robado el lapiz, cuando yo no lo hice. Me acuso de algo que yo no hice, y voy a mandar un CTR a sus papas y a Mr. Swanson" (You said i had stolen your pencil when I have not. You accused me of something i did not do, and today i will send i CTR to your parents and Mr Swanson) I was very stunned, but did not say anything more, Ms Riedel then continued and said "Cuidense de lo que dicen a las maestras" (Watch out what you tell your teachers) She looked at me and I said "Desearia ir a hablarle a Mr.Swanson ahorita" ( I would like to go and talk to Mr.Swanson right now) since I wanted to go to your office and explain the situation like I had seen my brother do before. Ms. Riedel denied my request and continued with her class.
Now that you have heard what happened, I will explain a few points from my point of view. First I would like to point out, like I did before that i did not say "Ms don't steal my pencil" in an accusative, aggressive or even cocky tone. I said it like a student would say "Please don't make me sign" to a teacher.Quite whiny, since it was my only pencil.
Second of all, when Ms.Riedel asked me to sign i told her "It was a joke Ms.". And i can understand why she wouldn't have taken this as a valid excuse, but it was the truth.
Third Of all, I did not accuse her of stealing my pencil. I simply stated it, I never included the word thief in my sentence, or even raised my voice.
Fourth of all, after saying that she would be sending a CTR and making me sign she said "Watch out what you tell your teachers" to the whole class. In this moment i felt like she was saying it as a warning to the whole class of what your teacher could do to you and to kind of "scare" them.
Fifth of all, I would like to say this as a comment, and in no way an insult to Ms.Riedel, but she does change moods quite quickly, and before I have made joke comments and she has just ignored them which is the reason I made this comment. I did not except her to react , since she hasn't before. I would like to include that I have had problems with Ms.Riedel in the past and that she does not favor me in any way. Recently though, we haven't had any inconveniences. I have done as I am told. I know that she does not enjoy having me in her class and this was probably a biased decision/consequence towards me.I would also like to include that after this incident, when we were presenting memorized lines from a famous poem, we were supposed to have the option to tell Ms.Riedel that we didn't remember the next line and she would tell us the word that it started with.Yet when I was presenting and I forgot my line I asked Ms.Riedel "Ay, no se Ms. Que sigue?" (Ay, I don't know Ms. What comes next?" and she just shrugged and refused to tell me the word.
And finally i would like to include that Ms Riedel made me sign for "Inappropriate Behavior" which in any case, was what my comment was. But a CTR is when the teacher is concerned for a students behavior and I don't think i needed one since my comment,attitude or even tone weren't that severe.

- Despedida
Thank you Mr. Swanson for listening to my point of view and background evidence, I hope we can work something out. If you would prefer for me to come to your office tomorrow so I could explain parts that weren't all that clear in this email, I would really appreciate it. I don't know if the CTR that Ms.Riedel sent was also forwarded with Mr.Belgrave, but if it was and hes included in this situation, I will also send this email to him.
Best Rewards,
Pilar montes