Teachers—How do you like parents to handle missed days?
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Anonymous
DP. I don’t do worksheets. Because, in DCUMland, worksheets are the mark of the devil. You are welcome to plan and replicate the two days of activities with your child. |
Anonymous
Because school is not as important as your vacation. So those are the consequences. Missing the work. |
Anonymous
Yup. |
Anonymous
NP. You don't make up the work. You miss it. Vacation travel is an unexcused absence and that is what that means. I would let the teacher know that Larla is going to be absent so they don't worry where she is, but I would not ask for any makeup work and just deal with the pile of missed papers (if they have been nice and saved it for you) when you get back. Asking for work in advance that you're not entitled to per the absence policy either makes the teacher feel obligated to go out of their way when they technically don't have to, or puts them in the position of referring you to the policy and telling you no and risking a negative reaction from parents who think they are above the rules. Just inform of the absence, don't ask about work, and let the teacher figure out what they want to do. |
Anonymous
| At some point, public schools became a la carte. |
Anonymous
| Vacations are considered unexcused absences at my high school, so I give students zeroes on any missed assignments or tests. No make-up work. The parents threaten to rake me over hot coals, but I think it teaches their kids a valuable life lesson. Sometimes you're gonna have to make a judgment call on whether or not an opportunity is worth the inevitable consequences. My county doesn't allow us to take off the day before or after a holiday or break. A few teachers take off anyway, and they get disciplinary action when they return. Was the trip to Hawaii worth it? Hell yeah! If you're a great teacher, then the dip in your evaluation score won't matter. The same goes for grades. If you have a straight A student who can afford to get a zero on a test, then go for it! One or two zeroes won't kill their grade with extra credit later in the quarter. If you have a C or D student, however, then you may want to rethink that trip or work damn hard to come out of failing when you get back. C'est la vie |
Anonymous
I teach in an elementary school. The problem is when a student misses days of school for a trip it's more than just worksheets that are missed. The student is missing Morning Meeting, Math Workshop (number sense routines, student discourse, math focus lessons and math tasks), Reading Workshop (Focus lesson, book club discussions with peers), Writing Workshop (focus lesson, the writing process), and whatever we happen to be working on or researching in science and social studies. The students in class aren't simply doing worksheets. I don't expect the work to be made up. |
Anonymous
| I prefer the student handle it with me directly. Even elementary students should be able to handle this. Plus it helps me avoid having to hide my supreme annoyance at the parents for deciding I have to do extra work because they won’t follow the school calendar. (And before anyone chimes in about how maybe they got cheaper flights, are trying to maximize family time with this one trip, etc....no. That is not the case with my students. They’re inevitably spending an extra day at their Kiawah beach house or something along those lines). |
Anonymous
+1. A school day is not worksheets. And while i appreciate that you are obviously trying to be considerate by asking about the best approach here, most parents ARE asking for special concessions, which happen when I spend my planning time administering make up tests and catching students up. It’s a huge pain. Often school breaks are a natural end point to a unit, and the logistics of a quarter of the class being absent on the day school lets out often prompts me to test earlier and then waste a day because I know so many will be missing. It is disrespectful to the other students and the teachers. |
Anonymous
The answer OP is your kid doesn’t make up that work. Furthermore, you seem confused about the purpose of the work. The work isn’t how they learn. Being there for the teaching and practice and reinforcement is how they learn. The work is how they show us whether they mastered the concepts we were teaching them. Even IF your kid got a stack of worksheets when they got back, they missed the learning part. That’s your choice, you have the right to make it, but we the teachers can’t take kids aside every time they choose to miss days and then give them that individual learning they missed. So just understand, yes you have the right to choose to have your child miss days. The gaps that will result because they were not there are your issue to address though and if they exist, that’s not our fault. And handing you work to be done on concepts they weren’t there to learn is pretty pointless. |
Anonymous
| Replace all "vacation" with "sick" and this thread is unbelievable. |
Anonymous
But why would you do that when there’s clearly a difference in the circumstances. If your kid gets sick and CAN’T be at school that is a completely different scenario than you saying “I am choosing not to send my kid but still want you to ensure they get all the material I chose to have them miss.” The sick kid couldn’t help it and there will still be gaps because they weren’t there to get the learning, but it wasn’t their choice. You wanting to go to Disney when it’s cheaper doesn’t mean I need to do extra work for you. |
Anonymous
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Can I show this thread to my MIL? She is annoyed that we won't pull out of school for a couple days before break so that she can visit before the holidays and avoid traffic. I was raised that unless you are ill, you are in school, so it seems offensive to consider.
The only reason that I'm considering it is that sometimes the classes do end up just watching movies a day or two before winter and spring breaks (a whole other issue). But there's no way I can ask the elementary teachers if they plan to do anything substantive, right? |
Anonymous
| OP again. I’ve been thinking about it and I have decided we will all be heading back Sunday. I don’t want to make waves, it’s just not worth it for a couple more days when Christmas is around the corner. I appreciate your honesty. |
Anonymous
This might be the most mature thing I’ve ever seen happen on DCUM. |