At what point do I need to escalate this

[Anonymous]

My daughter has a first year teacher. He does not respond to emails. He doesn't give us any graded work. He apparently doesn't teach one of his core subjects (my daughter said the only time they've had science this year was when they had a sub). At what point do I need to escalate this?

[Anonymous]

Escalate it to what? Teachers are leaving the profession in droves and subs are unavailable.

If your school has a strong adim team, maybe they would be willing to give this new teacher more support but teachers getting support is rare.

[Anonymous]

Depends what you mean by escalate. I think if he’s not answered any emails you can email the next person up, whether that be head of dept or vice principal. Word it that maybe you don’t have the correct email address so wanted to check.
Kids are very unreliable. She may have been doing science without realizing.
Ask the admin what the curriculum entails. What is science in 1st grade?

[Anonymous]

Long time elementary teacher here.
I get your frustration. Emails that need a response (not all do) should be answered within 2 business days. That is a reasonable expectation. If you do not get a response, it is reasonable to cc the administration on your next email.
Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up and I’d ask about graded work coming home then. This is, again, a reasonable expectation.
Not teaching science…let this one go. I don’t know what county you’re in but I can tell you that I have been teaching early elementary for 25 years. During that time I’ve had 5-6 different curricula. Every single one left less and less time for science and social studies. I once had the district Superintendent look me dead in the eye and say he didn’t care about those subjects. Now, I have the experience to be able to make decisions about how to get that content in but that took time. Time, experience and the confidence that a first year teacher is not likely to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends what you mean by escalate. I think if he’s not answered any emails you can email the next person up, whether that be head of dept or vice principal. Word it that maybe you don’t have the correct email address so wanted to check.
Kids are very unreliable. She may have been doing science without realizing.
Ask the admin what the curriculum entails. What is science in 1st grade?
[/quote

4th grade not first

[Anonymous]

Escalate away, OP, but be prepared to chew on your lack of power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends what you mean by escalate. I think if he’s not answered any emails you can email the next person up, whether that be head of dept or vice principal. Word it that maybe you don’t have the correct email address so wanted to check.
Kids are very unreliable. She may have been doing science without realizing.
Ask the admin what the curriculum entails. What is science in 1st grade?
[/quote

4th grade not first

If you're in Virginia the social studies SOL is in 4th grade and that gets nearly all the attention that year. In 5th grade there's a science SOL and the kids do a lot of science that year.

[Anonymous]

The lack of a response might correlate with your combative tone if it’s anything like the one you are using here.

You seem to believe you are in charge or something and are entitled to answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends what you mean by escalate. I think if he’s not answered any emails you can email the next person up, whether that be head of dept or vice principal. Word it that maybe you don’t have the correct email address so wanted to check.
Kids are very unreliable. She may have been doing science without realizing.
Ask the admin what the curriculum entails. What is science in 1st grade?

OP didn’t say anything about first grade? He said it’s a first-year teacher.

[Anonymous]

My child’s 2nd grade teacher shows the class Harry Styles music videos and introduced the kids to the song, Sober Up. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, 4th grade Social Studies SOL takes priority in pretty much every school so Science is neglected. We were lucky, DS was in a language immersion program so math and science were taught in the target language. This meant that he still got Science in 4th grade because it was taught by a different teacher and not in the same blocked time that is split between Social Studies and Science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child’s 2nd grade teacher shows the class Harry Styles music videos and introduced the kids to the song, Sober Up. Thoughts?

My thoughts are she needs better taste in music. Maybe play WAP next time?

[Anonymous]

Is there graded work online?

My kid has had teachers (not first year) who barely sent home any graded work. Welcome to public school 2024.

We're at private now and that's a small piece of why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of a response might correlate with your combative tone if it’s anything like the one you are using here.

You seem to believe you are in charge or something and are entitled to answers.

Parents become combative when they are worried about their kids and can't connect with the school. Too many school staff members shrugging their shoulder about everything which creates bad feelings on both sides. Hopefully you and your attitude are not administration.

[Anonymous]

Veteran teacher here. You need to ask specifically about this at a patent conference. Then from there consider checking in with the principal. This teacher may be overwhelmed and there is often support available through districts, but the principal can’t offer it if they don’t know about it. Most teachers are assigned a fellow teacher as a mentor, too.

It is not okay to not teach a subject. Some schools alternate a quarter of social studies with a quarter of science. If you are in public school you can see the curriculum on the district and state education website, so you know what should be taught.

There should be ready-made lessons that the teacher can use. If you are in a private school, go to the principal.