if you send an email to a teacher, how long do you expect to hear back from the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Two business/school days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher too.
Weird question: Are you sure you started a dialogue?

Some parents have sent me messages this year that say things like, "Thank you for all you do. If you and your family have the time, (my child) has a game at XYZ arena this weekend (or is in a play, or will be singing at a Christmas church service) and admission is free. We hope to see you there!!

Then I see the parents and they saw it is an invite while I saw it as "for your situational awareness".

Others ask, "Is Tuesday PE uniform day" and I see it Wednesday, so....

One strategy I don't hate is when people call the office, and say, "I am not sure Mrs. AwesomeTeacher saw my email, but I am calling to tell her the dog ate my kid's math book," and that gets stuck in my mailbox or delivered.

Our policy is 24 hours (on work days) and I try to adhere to that. I don't respond to emails where parents ask me to donate money to a cause/sign a petition or to buy something to support their child's extracurricular activities.

I will ask the child about their interests, but I don't use my pay to subsidize luxury interests.

OP: Not trying to put you in the hot seat, but some well-intentioned emails can be hard collect the most polite words with which to respond.

Other times I did not respond right away: Covid (2nd time), brain injury (no screens), funeral, my own family member being in crisis, when I knew they asked the same question of a colleague and were setting me up for fight without telling me.

I surely hope you are not working in my kids’ school. Keep blaming parents.

[Anonymous]

I would call the front desk or email the division director and ask them to let the teacher know you are trying to get in touch with them and could they reach out to you. Our school has super strong firewalls and sometimes very innocuous parents emails end up on the wrong side. It happens.

[Anonymous]

If that's what happened, IT would need to clear your email address in the system ^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher too.
Weird question: Are you sure you started a dialogue?

Some parents have sent me messages this year that say things like, "Thank you for all you do. If you and your family have the time, (my child) has a game at XYZ arena this weekend (or is in a play, or will be singing at a Christmas church service) and admission is free. We hope to see you there!!

Then I see the parents and they saw it is an invite while I saw it as "for your situational awareness".

Others ask, "Is Tuesday PE uniform day" and I see it Wednesday, so....

One strategy I don't hate is when people call the office, and say, "I am not sure Mrs. AwesomeTeacher saw my email, but I am calling to tell her the dog ate my kid's math book," and that gets stuck in my mailbox or delivered.

Our policy is 24 hours (on work days) and I try to adhere to that. I don't respond to emails where parents ask me to donate money to a cause/sign a petition or to buy something to support their child's extracurricular activities.

I will ask the child about their interests, but I don't use my pay to subsidize luxury interests.

OP: Not trying to put you in the hot seat, but some well-intentioned emails can be hard collect the most polite words with which to respond.

Other times I did not respond right away: Covid (2nd time), brain injury (no screens), funeral, my own family member being in crisis, when I knew they asked the same question of a colleague and were setting me up for fight without telling me.

I surely hope you are not working in my kids’ school. Keep blaming parents.

I’m a DP. What’s wrong with this teacher’s response? I don’t see where she is blaming parents at all.

[Anonymous]

I've been a teacher for a very long time. Here are a few thoughts:
1. give the teacher a bit of grace - chances are high that they didn't receive your first email (happens more than you think) because the email got stuck in spam/junk.
2. the teacher may be overwhelmed with post holiday email
3. it's possible the teacher did see your email and didn't realize you wanted a response
4. yes, it is possible the teacher is just not responding and yes that is super annoying
5. Do NOT email the HOS. This a ridiculous reason to contact the HOS and they will think you are overreacting.
6. You might consider emailing the department chair to check in
7. you might also consider a phone call in which you verify that the teacher received your email.

You would not believe the number of times a parent sent me a scathing email asking why I hadn't responded to an email that either went to spam (for some unknown reason) or that they actually found later in their own draft folder and hadn't actually sent.

[Anonymous]

I would expect to hear back by next day at latest if emailing the teacher. Even if just to acknowledge receipt and let me know next steps.

At my kids’ current school I usually hear back same day if I email in AM. Only if it’s a more in depth question (where they may need to consult on answer) is there a 1 day lag.

Very thankful for the responsiveness of the teachers…I would be annoyed if it took days or weeks to get a response.

But I also would not be fussed about following up after 48 hours if I did not hear just in case the email got lost in the inbox. It happens…