admin here. I’d laugh and provide you my superiors contact info. As well as the best places around my school for happy hour that can accommodate a group of 20 |
teacher here...
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+1, a parent (or admin) can’t make me work in my free time. |
Maybe if they went to happy hour, they’d be more enjoyable as people. |
Laughing off the concerns of 20 parents with a flippant response? That is entirely unprofessional and entirely unfit for a public servant. This is why parents no longer have respect for educators. |
Any professional uses their free time to complete their assigned work. |
Can you imagine the media response to that one? Fcps teachers refuse to grade timely. left and right would go nuts over that story. Might even work too because teachers can complain they're overworked and get responsibilites pulled back. |
See, the funny thing is, most parents do. The mobs rolling up 20 deep because a test wasn't graded quick enough are the ones that don't, which is why they are laughed off. |
Most parents do support teachers. However, as this thread illustrates, they also advocate for their children, which might sometimes come across as anti-teacher when it's not. Ultimately, parents can't control teacher working conditions. Some of the advice given to parents in this thread, such as, "if you don't have grades, ask for a conference," seems like it would make teachers' jobs harder, not easier. Some parents are horrible, but others have had their trust eroded by non-responsive teachers. Dedicated teachers might not know or understand what it is like to have your child in a class with an ineffective teacher. As a parents, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If teacher communication with parents or grading isn't timely, and it's really an overall workload issue, then it would make sense to go to an administrator, which no teacher wants. We wind up with the back and forth where teachers rightfully demand to be treated like the professionals that they are, while at the same time telling parents that they are unreasonable for wanting teachers to perform core functions of their jobs, like gradiig. |
Except that teachers on this thread are actively telling you to go their administrators in these situations--just to note your concerns that they are not being given sufficient time to do the core functions of their job. A message to admin that focuses on "I am concerned that my child's teacher's heavy workload is undermining their ability to grade and respond on time--what are you doing to ameliorate this and give her more time to grade?" is different than one that focuses on "My child teacher's isn't doing her job, what are you going to do about her?" This gives the admin data to push back against some requirements imposed on teachers by those above them or to request additional supports. There may not be enough slack in the system to solve the problem, but it's the approach that is likely to generate possible solutions rather than drain the teacher's time and energy more. |
This is an outdated concept. That was true before the pandemic, but no longer. Since the pandemic, working conditions have gotten worse. School district and school administration have continued to pile on non-teaching responsibilities to teachers and have offered very little in the way of relief to overworked and exhausted teachers, forcing many teachers out of the career. Teachers have realized that their complaints are ignored at the administration and district level. So, teachers have been forced to take other measures which include Work to Rule. It isn't because teachers want to stop doing all these things that help make students more successful, but they are out of options. So they work to rule, they provide hard limits to the amount of extra off-duty work that they will complete, they end up not doing some elements like parent conferences, posting grades in a timely manner, etc. The hope, now, is that the parents will go to the administration. The hope is that if there are enough complaints from the parents and community that the administration will actually act to take some of the administrative tasks that should not be on the teachers off their plate so that the teachers can get back to teaching and teaching related duties. So, help out. Go to the administration, but try not to go with torches and pitchforks, but go to the school administration and inform them that your child is not getting the support from the teacher that they need, and that the teacher has not bee responsive to your outreach on your student's behalf. Ask them to please do what is necessary to allow the teacher to get to these teaching duties. The school administration needs to be involved and needs to know the extent of the problem and the complaints of the community or they will continue to ignore the teachers' complaints about overburdened non-class time. |
What do you mean “no longer”?? Let’s not pretend that someone like you ever had respect for teachers. |
In my home country, we have a lot of respect for teachers; jts a higher status position than in the States. Casitgating parents because they expect teachers to grade work on a timely basis is quite silly. |
The issue is that having that expectation during the pandemic while there are many new demands on teachers and a teacher shortage is unrealistic. Some may have situations where it is possible but many will not. These is not 'normal times' and so 'normal expectations' are just not possible. -- parent |
| I am floored by teachers who think late grading is defensible. It's a fundamental requirement of the job. |