Does FCPS have any requirements for instructors regarding posting grades in timely fashion

[Anonymous]

I don’t get why there is an obsession to give so many activities and assignments that count towards the final grade. Adults cannot be continuously *on* for so many hours a day, why do we expect that from kids? Assign less, then you will have less grading. On the other hand, if an assignment is so important for learning that it has to be given and has to count toward their final grades, then teachers clearly need to grade it on time, so students can learn from their mistakes in timely fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why there is an obsession to give so many activities and assignments that count towards the final grade. Adults cannot be continuously *on* for so many hours a day, why do we expect that from kids? Assign less, then you will have less grading. On the other hand, if an assignment is so important for learning that it has to be given and has to count toward their final grades, then teachers clearly need to grade it on time, so students can learn from their mistakes in timely fashion.

Because if you don't grade it, they don't do it. And if they don't do it, they don't learn it. Not every kid is an intrinsically motivated AP student. At the higher levels, I grade less. At the lower levels, kids need immediate, daily feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why there is an obsession to give so many activities and assignments that count towards the final grade. Adults cannot be continuously *on* for so many hours a day, why do we expect that from kids? Assign less, then you will have less grading. On the other hand, if an assignment is so important for learning that it has to be given and has to count toward their final grades, then teachers clearly need to grade it on time, so students can learn from their mistakes in timely fashion.

Teachers are *on* for the whole day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why there is an obsession to give so many activities and assignments that count towards the final grade. Adults cannot be continuously *on* for so many hours a day, why do we expect that from kids? Assign less, then you will have less grading. On the other hand, if an assignment is so important for learning that it has to be given and has to count toward their final grades, then teachers clearly need to grade it on time, so students can learn from their mistakes in timely fashion.

Because if you don't grade it, they don't do it. And if they don't do it, they don't learn it. Not every kid is an intrinsically motivated AP student. At the higher levels, I grade less. At the lower levels, kids need immediate, daily feedback.

It would certainly be nice if they got that. This thread is about classes where kids do not get immediate feedback or timely feedback at all. As the parent of a 7th grader, I can say that some of his teachers give immediate timely feedback and others haven't given any feedback at all yet.

[Anonymous]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1079069.page

This thread is barely cold and another has begun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why there is an obsession to give so many activities and assignments that count towards the final grade. Adults cannot be continuously *on* for so many hours a day, why do we expect that from kids? Assign less, then you will have less grading. On the other hand, if an assignment is so important for learning that it has to be given and has to count toward their final grades, then teachers clearly need to grade it on time, so students can learn from their mistakes in timely fashion.

Because if you don't grade it, they don't do it. And if they don't do it, they don't learn it. Not every kid is an intrinsically motivated AP student. At the higher levels, I grade less. At the lower levels, kids need immediate, daily feedback.

It would certainly be nice if they got that. This thread is about classes where kids do not get immediate feedback or timely feedback at all. As the parent of a 7th grader, I can say that some of his teachers give immediate timely feedback and others haven't given any feedback at all yet.

I understand that, but my response was to the person who didn't get why I assign so much and put it all in the gradebook. I assure you, all my papers are handed back by the next block.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stand up for the teachers. The reason they aren’t grassing work quickly is because they have to cover other teacher’s classes during their planning periods.

The ones who can't do their jobs had other excuses when they weren't covering other teachers' classes. It's really quite ridiculous and just breeds cynicism and a lack of respect on the part of students when teachers can't get their act together to post grades on a timely basis.

Do some math.
Let’s say Teacher has 125 students.
It takes him, on average, 4 meninges to grade each assignment and enter that student’s grade online.
125x4=500

For one assignment, we are already talking about about 8 hours of work.

So the teacher gets 2 45 minute planning periods per day, but is covering another teacher’s class (sub shortage) leaving 45 minutes per day of planning time. That time, of course, is only useful for practical matters: answering parent emails, reading all the emails that come in from the county and administration, tidying up the classroom, making copies, etc. actual lesson planning is more time intensive; maybe it’s done for a couple of hours after school a couple of times a week, or for 5-6 hours on Sundays.

So when is all this grading happening? For 2-3 hours a night a few nights a week. On weekends. Or over long weekends and teacher workdays. Maybe, like me, a teacher has been fighting a nasty virus for the last 10 days and doesn’t have the energy or brain power to spend a few hours grading at night. We get backed up. We do our best.

Maybe what “breeds cynicism” among students is not the fact that their teachers attend working 60 hour weeks and grossly overtaxed and over stressed, but the fact that parents like you are accusing them of not “getting their act together” rather than understanding that our class sizes are unreasonably large, our requirements to cover other people’s classes due to the teacher and sub shortage is leaving us with no time to plan or grade, and our colleagues are leaving the profession in droves because it all feels close to impossible right now?

Maybe you could reach out to the teacher and see if they need any support. Maybe you could be patient. Maybe you could be kind. Maybe you could stop speaking so derisively of the people who are trying their best to help your kid.

Let’s be real. Teachers assign work or projects for kids to do in class. That actually gives the teacher time to get work done while the kids are working. Generally in middle and high school kids can work without a teacher hovering. The teacher can sit at his/her desk to check emails and grade.

Lol that's not how teaching works.

That being said, OP have you approached the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stand up for the teachers. The reason they aren’t grassing work quickly is because they have to cover other teacher’s classes during their planning periods.

The ones who can't do their jobs had other excuses when they weren't covering other teachers' classes. It's really quite ridiculous and just breeds cynicism and a lack of respect on the part of students when teachers can't get their act together to post grades on a timely basis.

Do some math.
Let’s say Teacher has 125 students.
It takes him, on average, 4 meninges to grade each assignment and enter that student’s grade online.
125x4=500

For one assignment, we are already talking about about 8 hours of work.

So the teacher gets 2 45 minute planning periods per day, but is covering another teacher’s class (sub shortage) leaving 45 minutes per day of planning time. That time, of course, is only useful for practical matters: answering parent emails, reading all the emails that come in from the county and administration, tidying up the classroom, making copies, etc. actual lesson planning is more time intensive; maybe it’s done for a couple of hours after school a couple of times a week, or for 5-6 hours on Sundays.

So when is all this grading happening? For 2-3 hours a night a few nights a week. On weekends. Or over long weekends and teacher workdays. Maybe, like me, a teacher has been fighting a nasty virus for the last 10 days and doesn’t have the energy or brain power to spend a few hours grading at night. We get backed up. We do our best.

Maybe what “breeds cynicism” among students is not the fact that their teachers attend working 60 hour weeks and grossly overtaxed and over stressed, but the fact that parents like you are accusing them of not “getting their act together” rather than understanding that our class sizes are unreasonably large, our requirements to cover other people’s classes due to the teacher and sub shortage is leaving us with no time to plan or grade, and our colleagues are leaving the profession in droves because it all feels close to impossible right now?

Maybe you could reach out to the teacher and see if they need any support. Maybe you could be patient. Maybe you could be kind. Maybe you could stop speaking so derisively of the people who are trying their best to help your kid.

Let’s be real. Teachers assign work or projects for kids to do in class. That actually gives the teacher time to get work done while the kids are working. Generally in middle and high school kids can work without a teacher hovering. The teacher can sit at his/her desk to check emails and grade.

Are you a teacher? I don’t do that. My 90 minute math block is:
5 minutes: attendance, warm up
25 minutes: notes/lecture
10-15 minutes: activity (quick game to practice a basic new skill, mini Kahoot! to check in how they’re doing, white board check ins)
10-15 minutes: remainder of notes/examples
30 minutes: activity 2 (usually some sort of problem set where it self checks) This is where I pull the 5-10 kids who bombed that first check in activity to a small group at the back table or hallway or just rotate and check in with each of them repeatedly while others work.
5 minutes: exit ticket, monitor to make sure kids are doing their own work.

The only time I’m not talking or helping kids directly is on test days, and then I’m walking around monitoring like a hawk because holy hell your adorable, funny children turn into sneaky, cheating cell phone users with drifting eyeballs on test days, lol

But seriously, I’ve never just sat while kids worked. I don’t think my peers do either. Maybe we are doing it wrong. School is basically a complete 180 from when I was in high school 20 years ago though. I remember my math teacher doing 30 minutes of lecture and 15 minutes free time to “start our homework” each day. That would never fly now.

NP. This is certainly true! School is very different now for my kids than when I was in school, and this is also what I hear from my friends who are teachers. I wonder though, if it's the right way to do school. Is it better for the students? Maybe, hopefully it is. Is it better for the teachers? It's a lot harder. Is the result for the students worth it, for the teachers or students? I'm not sure about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stand up for the teachers. The reason they aren’t grassing work quickly is because they have to cover other teacher’s classes during their planning periods.

The ones who can't do their jobs had other excuses when they weren't covering other teachers' classes. It's really quite ridiculous and just breeds cynicism and a lack of respect on the part of students when teachers can't get their act together to post grades on a timely basis.

Do some math.
Let’s say Teacher has 125 students.
It takes him, on average, 4 meninges to grade each assignment and enter that student’s grade online.
125x4=500

For one assignment, we are already talking about about 8 hours of work.

So the teacher gets 2 45 minute planning periods per day, but is covering another teacher’s class (sub shortage) leaving 45 minutes per day of planning time. That time, of course, is only useful for practical matters: answering parent emails, reading all the emails that come in from the county and administration, tidying up the classroom, making copies, etc. actual lesson planning is more time intensive; maybe it’s done for a couple of hours after school a couple of times a week, or for 5-6 hours on Sundays.

So when is all this grading happening? For 2-3 hours a night a few nights a week. On weekends. Or over long weekends and teacher workdays. Maybe, like me, a teacher has been fighting a nasty virus for the last 10 days and doesn’t have the energy or brain power to spend a few hours grading at night. We get backed up. We do our best.

Maybe what “breeds cynicism” among students is not the fact that their teachers attend working 60 hour weeks and grossly overtaxed and over stressed, but the fact that parents like you are accusing them of not “getting their act together” rather than understanding that our class sizes are unreasonably large, our requirements to cover other people’s classes due to the teacher and sub shortage is leaving us with no time to plan or grade, and our colleagues are leaving the profession in droves because it all feels close to impossible right now?

Maybe you could reach out to the teacher and see if they need any support. Maybe you could be patient. Maybe you could be kind. Maybe you could stop speaking so derisively of the people who are trying their best to help your kid.

Let’s be real. Teachers assign work or projects for kids to do in class. That actually gives the teacher time to get work done while the kids are working. Generally in middle and high school kids can work without a teacher hovering. The teacher can sit at his/her desk to check emails and grade.

Are you a teacher? I don’t do that. My 90 minute math block is:
5 minutes: attendance, warm up
25 minutes: notes/lecture
10-15 minutes: activity (quick game to practice a basic new skill, mini Kahoot! to check in how they’re doing, white board check ins)
10-15 minutes: remainder of notes/examples
30 minutes: activity 2 (usually some sort of problem set where it self checks) This is where I pull the 5-10 kids who bombed that first check in activity to a small group at the back table or hallway or just rotate and check in with each of them repeatedly while others work.
5 minutes: exit ticket, monitor to make sure kids are doing their own work.

The only time I’m not talking or helping kids directly is on test days, and then I’m walking around monitoring like a hawk because holy hell your adorable, funny children turn into sneaky, cheating cell phone users with drifting eyeballs on test days, lol

But seriously, I’ve never just sat while kids worked. I don’t think my peers do either. Maybe we are doing it wrong. School is basically a complete 180 from when I was in high school 20 years ago though. I remember my math teacher doing 30 minutes of lecture and 15 minutes free time to “start our homework” each day. That would never fly now.

NP. This is certainly true! School is very different now for my kids than when I was in school, and this is also what I hear from my friends who are teachers. I wonder though, if it's the right way to do school. Is it better for the students? Maybe, hopefully it is. Is it better for the teachers? It's a lot harder. Is the result for the students worth it, for the teachers or students? I'm not sure about that.

Research shows yes, that children's brains are literally different than they were 20-30 years ago. Studies also show that kids need no more than 10-15 minute segments of instruction before getting an opportunity to engage with the material collaboratively, that direct instruction followed by independent practice results in less effective retention of material.

But yeah, in order to do it well like I'd like to, I need class sizes of 15, not 32 like I have now.

[Anonymous]

Is your child getting the scores back but they just aren't updated in SIS? I would have a problem with this if there is no feedback at all on assignments, but if the student is seeing the results but the teacher is just behind on putting it in the gradebook, I think you should let it go.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler had subs for two of her classes for just over the first two weeks of school. She’s only received grades on assignments from two teachers so far. Assignments for all other classes are listed as “not graded” which I assume means they don’t count for a grade? Honestly at this point I’m just glad she now has all her teachers.

[Anonymous]

There may be some standard, but the teacher execution is all over the place, and as a parent not much that can be done. For DCs freshman year, two of the teachers were on top of everything and kept SIS up to date regularly. With one teacher almost everything appeared in SIS after quarter end. Others were somewhere in between.

The slowest teacher taught one of the easier classes that did not have that many assignments and tests. The two fastest teachers taught the two hardest classes that DC had with a lot of different types of graded work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD has an elective with multiple time consuming assignments a week and the teacher has not posted any grades. There is no way she is going to be able to keep up with grading if she is struggling so much the first month. Plus, they have no idea if they are doing assignments properly and she avoids helping for the part they get done in class. Are there any requirements for posting? This is not like grading English assignments which is labor intensive.

If your kid is struggling, you and your kid need to communicate with the teacher. Stop posting “customer service complaints” on anonymous boards. FCPS schools can have many expectations and requirements of their teachers… and most of those have nothing to do with teaching. We are security guards, therapists, monitors, babysitters and behavioral managers. Be polite, respectful, and gracious when you communicate with your teacher, by the way, or you’ll poison the well for the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your child getting the scores back but they just aren't updated in SIS? I would have a problem with this if there is no feedback at all on assignments, but if the student is seeing the results but the teacher is just behind on putting it in the gradebook, I think you should let it go.

No feedback at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD has an elective with multiple time consuming assignments a week and the teacher has not posted any grades. There is no way she is going to be able to keep up with grading if she is struggling so much the first month. Plus, they have no idea if they are doing assignments properly and she avoids helping for the part they get done in class. Are there any requirements for posting? This is not like grading English assignments which is labor intensive.

If your kid is struggling, you and your kid need to communicate with the teacher. Stop posting “customer service complaints” on anonymous boards. FCPS schools can have many expectations and requirements of their teachers… and most of those have nothing to do with teaching. We are security guards, therapists, monitors, babysitters and behavioral managers. Be polite, respectful, and gracious when you communicate with your teacher, by the way, or you’ll poison the well for the rest of the year.

Already done graciously. Teacher said would appear over a week ago. Nada.