Letters of Recommendation

[Anonymous]

thx to the teachers sharing your thoughts on this.

My kid applied to private high school last year and i wrote thank you notes after acceptance were out and the teachers responded enthusiastically but I still felt a little weird (like I was taking up their time to write yet another email about a kid that only I really care about since he's my kid). But it's great to know that teachers actually do like the follow-up! I will have my kid write these after applying to college (I wrote them last time because my middle school son was mid quarantine and being a general slug about most things)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:thx to the teachers sharing your thoughts on this.

My kid applied to private high school last year and i wrote thank you notes after acceptance were out and the teachers responded enthusiastically but I still felt a little weird (like I was taking up their time to write yet another email about a kid that only I really care about since he's my kid). But it's great to know that teachers actually do like the follow-up! I will have my kid write these after applying to college (I wrote them last time because my middle school son was mid quarantine and being a general slug about most things)

Thank you notes are always welcome and teachers love to hear follow ups on students. We get very attached to the kids we teach

[Anonymous]

high schoolers are often unaware of the effort involved (and your many other time commitments). but you should still try to feel proud to be helping them.

[Anonymous]

Early Childhood/Elementary Teachers have to complete recommendations too! Parents need to acknowledge the time it takes! I had to complete the Ravenna private school applications too! They aren’t short either. Generally what happens is that parents don’t get the financial aide they think they deserve and stay at their current public school which equals a waste of time!!! And for a elementary application parents need to say thank you.

And let’s not get into these research projects that parents select their kids to participate in without prior school or teacher notice and expect teachers to complete packets of surveys and questionnaires for 1 kid!! Completely unacceptable!!!

[Anonymous]

^^ seriously, where do you teach? I’ve been in DCPS ES for over a decade and never had any of the situations you just described

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:high schoolers are often unaware of the effort involved (and your many other time commitments). but you should still try to feel proud to be helping them.

Has a teacher here said they are not? I posted above about spending 1.5 hours writing each letter. I spent over 40 hours… a whole work week… writing letters during my unpaid summer last year. I’m happy to do it, but I will definitely acknowledge that the rare “thank you” follow-up is greatly appreciated.

At our school, the counseling department suggests to students that they should do it. It still rarely happens. I suspect it’s an “out of sight / out of mind” feeling students get once their applications are finally submitted. I get it. I think that’s why it’s a good idea to also reinforce this idea at home. They’ll need to know the same thing is appropriate when they are adults (after interviews, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Early Childhood/Elementary Teachers have to complete recommendations too! Parents need to acknowledge the time it takes! I had to complete the Ravenna private school applications too! They aren’t short either. Generally what happens is that parents don’t get the financial aide they think they deserve and stay at their current public school which equals a waste of time!!! And for a elementary application parents need to say thank you.

And let’s not get into these research projects that parents select their kids to participate in without prior school or teacher notice and expect teachers to complete packets of surveys and questionnaires for 1 kid!! Completely unacceptable!!!

I have never heard of kids participating in research projects that require teacher participation. Are you sure you don't mean evaluations when a child is struggling and the public school refuses to help?