Indeed, and it's the teacher's job to educate them during school hours. |
They are educating. Support is parenting. |
During the school day, its the teacher's job. I'm happy to help with homework at night. That's parenting support. I'm not a paid teacher aide all day long. |
| How old are the kids? |
5, 7, 9 |
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Work with your kids. Why are they needing so much support at this point? If they are misplacing materials, help them organize themselves each night as homework. Are they having trouble turning things in? Make sure they know that you will help after work. Reward them for being independent. They can get a special reward if they do not bother you all day.
Teachers are not reaching out unless there are large problems. If they are constantly reaching out- you have an issue that needs to be solved. You might also consider a parent- teacher conference to discuss how to make your children more independent. You can’t ignore young children, but you can help them gain the skills they need to fend for themselves for a few hours. |
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Hi, OP, I'm a teacher and I'm really sorry that you are having to deal with all these emails.
I really think we teachers need to not bother parents as much as possible now. In the first few weeks maybe parents were needed because the technology was all so new, but at this point we should just stick to activities that our kids can accomplish independently -- even if that means less variety or less interesting work for the kids. Asking parents to upload student work is no good. Kids need some way of turning in their work without requiring parent help. You have a valid reason to contact the principal and ask that this be made a priority. |
| I have a 4 and 8 yo who are nowhere near self sufficient at DL, so I’m not surprised you’re constantly being interrupted. I empathize, but I think your younger two are probably too young to be expected to navigate the day on their own. Is there another parent in the house that can share DL duty, or can you hire a part time sitter? |
Wrong. Your kid. Your responsibility. Always. |
They are educating them. The kids are physically in your home and may require your PARENTAL assistance. Whether you're snotty about them not being in buildings or not is irrelevant. Parent your kids. Figure it out. |
Nope. LOl.! |
| Either teach your kids to be more self sufficient, ignore the emails until lunch or after work, or hire a sitter. Most people I know with elementary kids and two working parents have at least a part time sitter to help with distance learning. One of my kids (5yo) is in a pod with a couple neighbor kids in the same grade and we hired a sitter to basically sit in the room with them and troubleshoot the issues you describe. Especially in K, there are a lot of tech issues the kids can’t figure out because they can’t really read - they accidentally leave a meeting or can’t find the right app or don’t know how to save something, it was constant interruptions. We have the sitter 20 hours a week and it is amazing. |
If they need a sandwich for lunch, I'll get them a sandwich. If they're having trouble with school work during school hours, that's the teacher's job to deal with. |
I know, right?!?! Why doesn't everyone have the money to hire a sitter/nanny for 20 hours a week? It's so obvious. |
NP, thank you! My 4th-grader has a good 2-3 hours a day of independent work to do in addition to class time. I know he cannot access, submit and keep track of each assignment because I can’t. Constantly changing online platforms, broken links, apps that are only accessible during class time but that are needed to complete after-class assignments, work that must be individually photographed and uploaded to be turned in, new apps that require passwords not given to either of us to open, and half his assignments marked as missing, not completed when they are turned in and graded. I am spending hours daily trying to shepherd him through it all, and as far as I can tell the other parents just accept this without question and spend the same amount of time as I do sitting with their kids pushing them through work that could easily be made simple to access. And I cannot send my child to in-person school even if I had that option. It is infuriating. |