Teacher issue

[Anonymous]

We are having an issue with a teacher that seems targeted to our child. The teacher will send notes telling us DC didn’t turn in work. We can see online that the work is turned in. At first we thought it was an IT issue. We involved the school IT support etc. and out of an abundance of caution had child email
work along with a screen shot showing that child turned in work on time. Here we are a month later, and teacher telling us the same thing even though we have documentary proof that the child turned in the work - and we can see that the teacher looked at it! (Google docs). We escalated. The next person in line just tells us that our kid clearly isn’t following the rules about how the teacher wanted the work turned in for that assignment. (This is untrue.). It’s getting to a point of lunacy and my kid now wants me to review the instructions to make sure there are no issues. I escalated again and was told that clearly my kid is not understanding the instructions. The school is protecting this teacher at all costs. My kid isn’t perfect but he can read and he knows how to submit his homework and he can see the teacher looked at it. Of course, this results in much lower grades due to “late” work that never was late. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

You sound kind of dramatic.

Protect the teacher at all costs?

Try dialing back a bit and you may get a better reception.

[Anonymous]

Have you communicated directly to the teacher? "From our end, it looks like Larlo has submitted at his assignments. Can you explain the problem? What are your continuing concerns?"

[Anonymous]

We had a lunatic like this in the 1st grade. There’s no winning. Ask to transfer to another teacher. You don’t want to deal with some frustrated resentful teacup dictator

[Anonymous]

It sounds to me like neither your child nor you are aware of or understanding the rules for how to turn in work.

[Anonymous]

Trust me, I feel dramatic. This is a ridiculous situation and I’ve never experienced anything like this before. First, kid made an appt to see teacher during free period. I try really hard not to get involved. When that didn’t work, we tried the IT solution. We tried a nice email. The reality is that the teacher is getting and seeing the documents - and grading them (but telling us they are late). This makes no sense at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds to me like neither your child nor you are aware of or understanding the rules for how to turn in work.

And if this is the case then the instructions aren’t clear.

[Anonymous]

The teacher sounds like a bully. I would ask for an in-person meeting and be ready to discuss specific assignments with notes, screenshots, etc so that she knows I’m involved and watching/documenting.

[Anonymous]

I would meet with head of school. There is no way that you, as a tuition paying parent, should have to tolerate the teacher intentionally being difficult. I would meet with the teacher, head of school and your child to go over the instructions and then point out each instance when your child compolied and then I would challenge the grade.

I believe you that it's the teacher because if your son was doing it incorrectly, as the parent, naturally, you would done whatever is necessary to make sure he was completing it on time and submitting it correctly.

Do you think the teacher just doesn't like him?

[Anonymous]

What grade?

Normally I’m not an escalate to the HoS kind of person, but you need to escalate to a division head at the very least because this is bonkers.

[Anonymous]

When you escalated, who did that escalate to? Is there a person above that one?

Consider asking for an in-person meeting with you, your son, teacher, and teacher’s supervisor and ask the teacher to clearly explain AND demonstrate the turn-in process to everyone. Bring in the documentation you have showing what your child has been doing and as teacher/supervisor to explicitly point out where what kid has been doing deviates from what the teacher wants.

If you can get this meeting, it will either be incontrovertible proof that your child is already doing what he is supposed to or will clear up whatever minor hoop he hasn’t actually jumped through.

[Anonymous]

Ask for an in person meeting . Bring child’s laptop so you can show what you’re looking at and discuss the discrepancy.
If that doesn’t work and you still think you’re right request a meeting with Principal or HOS.

[Anonymous]

Get the students advisor to figure out what the submission issue is. Your kid put a Google doc in the drop box or whatever - is it the right assignment? Did it need to be submitted as a pdf? Is your child in 10th grade or above? Clearly there is a disconnect - figure out what the actual issue is. It might actually be your kid not the teacher. It also could definitely be the teacher being a jerk over some sort of technicality, but really try to figure out what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the teacher doesn't know your child's name and sends home someone else's notes with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would meet with head of school. There is no way that you, as a tuition paying parent, should have to tolerate the teacher intentionally being difficult. I would meet with the teacher, head of school and your child to go over the instructions and then point out each instance when your child compolied and then I would challenge the grade.

I believe you that it's the teacher because if your son was doing it incorrectly, as the parent, naturally, you would done whatever is necessary to make sure he was completing it on time and submitting it correctly.

Do you think the teacher just doesn't like him?

Something about this story doesn’t add up. My students regularly submit assignments via Google docs. When students share docs properly, I can see the version history, when docs were viewed or changed, who changed them, etc. Sometimes students don’t share docs the way I’ve outlined in the syllabus. When that occurs, I don’t have access to that version history and I can’t verify it’s the student’s own work because it can easily be a copy.

When this happens, I require the student send me the original doc before I’ll grade the work. I’m wondering if that’s what occurred here. This fully explains the OP’s story (why the teacher viewed it but didn’t grade it, why the school says it wasn’t shared properly, etc). And if that’s the case, then no… the student didn’t follow instructions.