At what point do I need to escalate this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Teacher here. I would meet in a conference ASAP and ask these questions. If he is unable to meet in a timely manner (within a week or so) or does not improve his responsiveness, then I would share my concerns with the admin team.

[Anonymous]

You won’t see graded work, so give up on that expectation.

Answers to emails is a reasonable expectation.

[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.

I am not combative. I wrote to him a few times because I had questions about schedules or I had to let him know that my daughter's dismissal routine was changing. I also reached out to ask him if he had an Amazon wishlist or had any extra items he needed to support him. Every time it's crickets. At this point I'm not sure if somehow I've been writing the email wrong despite the email being on the school website or it's going into a spam folder. Because the alternative is that he's just not responding to emails and that speaks to a level of unprofessionalism that is concerning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

In previous years we at least got grades by interims, but we have gotten zero grades from either teacher this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am not combative. I wrote to him a few times because I had questions about schedules or I had to let him know that my daughter's dismissal routine was changing. I also reached out to ask him if he had an Amazon wishlist or had any extra items he needed to support him. Every time it's crickets. At this point I'm not sure if somehow I've been writing the email wrong despite the email being on the school website or it's going into a spam folder. Because the alternative is that he's just not responding to emails and that speaks to a level of unprofessionalism that is concerning

I guess you could go old school and send in a paper note, asking him to verify his email address.

[Anonymous]

A note from a former teacher: While it’s common for new teachers to face some challenges, these are signs this particular teacher is struggling more than he should. To be clear, I don’t entirely blame the teacher. I’ve been there and seen that the underlying issue is often a lack of appropriate support. Older faculty were battle-hardened and brought with them years of resources that they had accumulated from attending professional development courses, working with others, and seeing multiple curricula. A lot of well-regarded schools are leaving teachers without curriculum maps or adequate lesson plans. Nor do they always have coordinated planning time where teachers of the same subjects/grade levels can share lessons and grading policies. Anyway, it stinks for all involved—students, parents, and new teachers—especially as admin’s typical response is just to pressure the teacher to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A note from a former teacher: While it’s common for new teachers to face some challenges, these are signs this particular teacher is struggling more than he should. To be clear, I don’t entirely blame the teacher. I’ve been there and seen that the underlying issue is often a lack of appropriate support. Older faculty were battle-hardened and brought with them years of resources that they had accumulated from attending professional development courses, working with others, and seeing multiple curricula. A lot of well-regarded schools are leaving teachers without curriculum maps or adequate lesson plans. Nor do they always have coordinated planning time where teachers of the same subjects/grade levels can share lessons and grading policies. Anyway, it stinks for all involved—students, parents, and new teachers—especially as admin’s typical response is just to pressure the teacher to do better.

Yeah and that's why I'm sort of left not really sure how to handle it.

[Anonymous]

Update.

The issues continued. My daughter complained to me one day that her teacher would tell the children that if they misbehaved he would take away the recess and make them clean the classroom and he would start calling them the "Cinderellas who never made it to the ball."

I explained to her that it was against district policy to take away kids recess. I also told her I have zero problem with asking children to clean their classroom but it needs to be not framed as a tool of punishment and humiliation.

This morning she went to school late due to a medical appointment. She was told to report to a different teacher's classroom which I thought was a little odd but chalked it up to maybe the teacher being absent. I then get an email saying that the teacher's class was being dissolved. He was going to be reassigned as a co-teacher and all of his students would be reassigned to other teachers.

I think this is ultimately going to be a good move for my kid, but I do feel really sorry that several classroom teachers are going to be assigned extra kids. I'm going to reach out to her new classroom teacher and offer to help buy more supplies for a classroom

[Anonymous]

Is he a traditionally trained teacher? Or going through an alternative program? If he went through a college prep program, he probably wouldn’t have made it to the classroom. Sadly these alternative programs are pretty half assed. They throw new people into the classroom while they take night classes. It would be like your surgeon learning the job at night while bring a surgeon during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he a traditionally trained teacher? Or going through an alternative program? If he went through a college prep program, he probably wouldn’t have made it to the classroom. Sadly these alternative programs are pretty half assed. They throw new people into the classroom while they take night classes. It would be like your surgeon learning the job at night while bring a surgeon during the day.

I think he was part of an alternative program. He mentioned that he used to teach English overseas and this was his first year teaching in an American classroom. I agree that alternative serotification isn't a great path for a lot of people who are new to teaching. I think it can definitely work for people who have had experience being a para educator

[Anonymous]

I’m glad they found a way to put the kids with a qualified teacher.

By and large alternative certification is unhelpful in the elementary setting because traditional training gives teachers the time and experience they need to develop their core knowledge and practical skills in a suitable setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad they found a way to put the kids with a qualified teacher.

By and large alternative certification is unhelpful in the elementary setting because traditional training gives teachers the time and experience they need to develop their core knowledge and practical skills in a suitable setting.

Sadly, the new teacher will be burdened with extra students making it more likely for him/her to burnout.