language quality of teacher emails/speech ?

[Anonymous]

OP I’m a DCPS teacher and parent and this kind of sloppiness drives me nuts too. But I will say that it’s probably not imperative to have teachers with perfect writing every year as long as you have a few with those high standards and expectations along the way to model what it looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I’m a DCPS teacher and parent and this kind of sloppiness drives me nuts too. But I will say that it’s probably not imperative to have teachers with perfect writing every year as long as you have a few with those high standards and expectations along the way to model what it looks like.

Ditto

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- Thanks for all the suggestions and commiseration.
The subject is not ELA(big sigh of relief) and heartily agree that many subjects can be taught effectively regardless of teacher's style of speaking or writing.
Not a new teacher, ESL case or AAVE in the writing.
I'm counting on the teacher's enthusiasm and dedication to win the day.
To her credit, she is reaching out. I've not seen emails from any of the other teachers yet.
Staying positive

If not ELA - let it ride. Do you really want to create conflict with the teacher over something like this? At this point in the year? Really? That will not further your child's education.

[Anonymous]

OP, you deserve credit for mentioning the dirty little secret that everyone knows. More than a few DCPS educators, including administrators, have not mastered standard English grammar and conventions. And no, it's not asking for too much.

Licensed teachers are required to pass a writing test on the Pre-PRAXIS, but apparently the threshold for grammar and usage is fairly low.

As a former DCPS teacher I had to listen to colleagues (including ELA teachers and coaches) make painful and frequent grammatical and usage errors during mandatory meetings.

But I wouldn't go to the principal. Talk to the teacher directly. Suggest that she use grammarly.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but if you are a teacher, you should speak and write well. Why should teachers get a pass on this? They are the ones teaching our children. There are plenty of jobs where this isn't important but teaching simply isn't one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but if you are a teacher, you should speak and write well. Why should teachers get a pass on this? They are the ones teaching our children. There are plenty of jobs where this isn't important but teaching simply isn't one of them.

Of course. And if you were a principal deciding who to hire, writing skills should be important. But what is complaining as a parent going to do? It won't teach the teacher how to write. It won't get the teacher fired (and if it did, you think DCPS substitutes are going to all write better?). It won't get the teacher or principal to like you or your kid any better.

I think I'd only bring it up to the teacher if you were willing to buy her a Grammarly subscription or offer to proofread her materials. She'll either take you up on it or be so embarrassed she gets help some other way. It isn't going to endear your family to the teacher, though.

[Anonymous]

I think context is important and pattern. My son’s special ed teacher was very talented and a wonderful educator, but several of her reports had grammar errors and typos. It was a little strange to read, but I also know that she had to quickly write a ton of them and I didn’t doubt that she knew grammatical rules and construction. I am a strong writer and communicator but I make typos all the time. Even professional writers and well financed organizations with proof readers have errors in public documents. If it’s simple typos and errors in an email, I’d say it’s not a big deal. We write things quickly and I’m very guilty of making mistakes when I go back and erase and change things (and the sentence ends up not getting changed the way I intended in my head and makes no sense on the page). Same for homophones and that type of thing. Mistakes that are easy to make but doesn’t mean they don’t know the difference. However, if it’s clear they don’t understand the grammatical rules and it’s a pattern than appears in oral and written communication, it’s more of a problem. I agree that there’s probably not a great way to address it that isn’t going to be awkward or cause conflict, though.

I am a little disturbed that so many parents think it is no big deal that a teacher might not have a solid grasp of the English language especially if they are a native speaker, though. Communicating well plays a major factor in getting a good job and being taken seriously in professional settings throughout your life. I would definitely want my kids to have teachers that were modeling proper English grammar and pronunciation in class and in personal interaction consistently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the teacher using AAVE?

Do you mean Appalachian American Vernacular English?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know, sometimes I make grammatical errors as a teacher. Sometimes I see them but I’m in a hurry and I choose to ignore it.
Sometimes my work is overwhelming and I let these little things slide but this is good to know, I will just take more time responding to parents, instead of getting back to them ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but if you are a teacher, you should speak and write well. Why should teachers get a pass on this? They are the ones teaching our children. There are plenty of jobs where this isn't important but teaching simply isn't one of them.

Of course. And if you were a principal deciding who to hire, writing skills should be important. But what is complaining as a parent going to do? It won't teach the teacher how to write. It won't get the teacher fired (and if it did, you think DCPS substitutes are going to all write better?). It won't get the teacher or principal to like you or your kid any better.

I think I'd only bring it up to the teacher if you were willing to buy her a Grammarly subscription or offer to proofread her materials. She'll either take you up on it or be so embarrassed she gets help some other way. It isn't going to endear your family to the teacher, though.

I use the free Grammarly version. I don't really need it, but it does save time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, sometimes I make grammatical errors as a teacher. Sometimes I see them but I’m in a hurry and I choose to ignore it.
Sometimes my work is overwhelming and I let these little things slide but this is good to know, I will just take more time responding to parents, instead of getting back to them ASAP.

good idea

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, you scare me. I have studied 7 languages, but I still make grammar mistakes in English, and probably in my mother tongue. Never mind the languages, I'm very good at making math concepts easy for elementary kids.
I just entered MA program in ECE and at times I think about parent like you. Is you child's teacher a good teacher?
My English teacher was an historian and a linguist who spoke 8 languages. I see his writing on Facebook sometimes and wonder if there is something wrong with him based on the way he writes. He was just voted the best teacher in the country (back in the old country). When I heard it, I wondered, what took them so long!

I think this all the time about my children’s most engaging teachers! Including an amazing teacher who was British and spoke the Queen’s English, but had horrific spelling.

[Anonymous]

Wait until you get class t-shirts that say

Mrs. Lee’s Lion’s

and then your child’s yearbook will have headings like

Patrol’s

Class Officer’s

and the classroom will have a labeled Tresure Box

-FCPS parent who’s DC had went to a landed and vaulted AAP/GT alimentary school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, sometimes I make grammatical errors as a teacher. Sometimes I see them but I’m in a hurry and I choose to ignore it.
Sometimes my work is overwhelming and I let these little things slide but this is good to know, I will just take more time responding to parents, instead of getting back to them ASAP.

DCPS teacher here. This is weak. I know how much pressure we are under. Even so, don’t let it slide while still replying ASAP. You don’t need to hire a proofreader, but take a moment to fix your errors. We have a responsibility to set a good example and set the bar high for our students. We all make the occasional mistake, just try not to!!

[Anonymous]

You should of went to the principle I dont halve thyme to right down or correct awl the grammer an useage errirs than sent back two the teacher b-sides won secret is dat yore kids ain’t gonna learn to write an I mean hand write or cominicate cuz this isnot manditory bit call me a snob