Anonymous wrote:That vacation lady sounds like the type of parents that will fight a teacher all year long and try to get them fired. I wish we had a union that actually protected teachers against these monsters.
I want competent teachers who teach and do their jobs. It's about half and half of who do it and who doesn't. We still have assignments not graded as of today and no final grades. Not ok. Nor is it ok to give kids and parents links to videos and use that as your primary teaching source. There is zero accountability for teachers at all the schools we've been to and are at. Teachers and admin don't respond to students or parents. They don't grade timely. They don't post information. They ony have 6-10 assignments per semester. Yes, I'm fed up and don't think my kids are gettting a quality education and tired of supplementing to make up for it.
Every year, my kids have a bad teacher. One that thinks they are a great teacher but really sucks. One that has been teaching for a while and waiting for retirement and pension.
But, most teachers are fine or great. Half the teachers do not suck. I help my kids push through it. There are college professors that suck and parents paying tuition of upwards of $50k or more. Paying does not guarantee better teaching.
Learn to deal with it. I have lazy coworkers. There are parents that never volunteer. Move on!
We do deal with it but you are lucky if you only had one bad teacher this year. We had about half. Several were gone a week or two a month. We dealt with it by getting tutors.
And this will continue to happen. Teachers are burned out, ending up with stress-related illness, and will be on leave. Or perhaps their families need them. I’m sorry. Truly. I know it makes things hard for everyone involved. The current climate is tough. Doesn’t mean the teachers are bad. I just wanted to point that out. Human problems still exist with teachers.
We have some some teachers that had a rough year due to personal issues but one was straight up bad.
Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a rising 9th grader. Before this change to grading I wanted my DC take as many AP's as possible even with their year round club sports and other extracurriculars, namely music. I justified this because in the old grading system A+B = A. Now I don't know if this strategy will work for DC. Given all their time commitments something will have to give.
Yes, your child will have to choose between school work and extracurriculars. That should be the case.
Kids should be doing both. Why would you be against extracurricular activities.
Lots can’t afford both I know I couldn’t.
MCPS extra curricular are free. County has a low income waiver and many private ones do as well.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
Bro, you need to take your own advice. It isn't the teacher's job to teach your kid study skills and time management. That's YOUR job as their parent (this is what chores are for: time management and responsibilities training). Once again, for the learning-impaired: Algebra class is about algebra, not study skills.
Umm Yes, it actually is a teacher's job to teach study skills and time management. Chores are about responsibility training, work ethic, life skills, and shared sacrifice. I as a parent have actually advocated that study skills and executive function need to be explicitly taught as part of a class in MS, even if only for one quarter. That's how you be sure that all the skill that have been taught over a bunch of class (readying, taking notes, summarizing, etc) come together to form proper study skills. Helpt kids learn to recognize that different subjects require different methods of study. It would also be a good way to help identify students who may have LD's that have gone unrecognized and untreated because the work load/pressure wasn't great enough that they couldn't overcome.
This is going to come off snarky and I don’t intend it to be. I agree that schools should teach study skills.
But if I’m correct, you’ve posted multiple times that things are always the teacher’s responsibility. Let’s assume a teacher has over 100 students, a packed curriculum they must deliver, a frantic school schedule, and no free time during the day to meet individually with students. Their plates are overflowing; how much more should we pile on as being the teacher’s responsibility?
I’m a parent, too. I have a demanding full time job and two children. I know my children better than the teachers ever can (because of the scenario above). My kid can get 1 minute of a teacher’s time because she’s in competition with 30 other students, whereas I can provide my child a dedicated hour at home. I feel it is my responsibility to work in partnership with the school; I fill in what can’t be covered during the school day. The school cannot be 100% responsible for all lessons.
There are multiple posters but they are right it’s child be taught but I think it should start in elementary and continue in middle. My kids did not get any lessons on note taking or study skills till freshman year with ap history and a great teacher.
Anonymous wrote:That vacation lady sounds like the type of parents that will fight a teacher all year long and try to get them fired. I wish we had a union that actually protected teachers against these monsters.
I want competent teachers who teach and do their jobs. It's about half and half of who do it and who doesn't. We still have assignments not graded as of today and no final grades. Not ok. Nor is it ok to give kids and parents links to videos and use that as your primary teaching source. There is zero accountability for teachers at all the schools we've been to and are at. Teachers and admin don't respond to students or parents. They don't grade timely. They don't post information. They ony have 6-10 assignments per semester. Yes, I'm fed up and don't think my kids are gettting a quality education and tired of supplementing to make up for it.
Every year, my kids have a bad teacher. One that thinks they are a great teacher but really sucks. One that has been teaching for a while and waiting for retirement and pension.
But, most teachers are fine or great. Half the teachers do not suck. I help my kids push through it. There are college professors that suck and parents paying tuition of upwards of $50k or more. Paying does not guarantee better teaching.
Learn to deal with it. I have lazy coworkers. There are parents that never volunteer. Move on!
I agree. The vast majority of teachers are good and want to do the best for the kids. The system is not setup to allow teachers to teach. It’s not their jobs to parent, just to teach.
I don't know how anyone can judge a teacher as good or bad when the kids attack the teacher regularly and admin forces cover ups as we see our colleagues fired when the talk about it. I recommend people not to become teachers until the retaliation is addressed and the rules amended.
Anonymous wrote:That vacation lady sounds like the type of parents that will fight a teacher all year long and try to get them fired. I wish we had a union that actually protected teachers against these monsters.
I want competent teachers who teach and do their jobs. It's about half and half of who do it and who doesn't. We still have assignments not graded as of today and no final grades. Not ok. Nor is it ok to give kids and parents links to videos and use that as your primary teaching source. There is zero accountability for teachers at all the schools we've been to and are at. Teachers and admin don't respond to students or parents. They don't grade timely. They don't post information. They ony have 6-10 assignments per semester. Yes, I'm fed up and don't think my kids are gettting a quality education and tired of supplementing to make up for it.
Every year, my kids have a bad teacher. One that thinks they are a great teacher but really sucks. One that has been teaching for a while and waiting for retirement and pension.
But, most teachers are fine or great. Half the teachers do not suck. I help my kids push through it. There are college professors that suck and parents paying tuition of upwards of $50k or more. Paying does not guarantee better teaching.
Learn to deal with it. I have lazy coworkers. There are parents that never volunteer. Move on!
I agree. The vast majority of teachers are good and want to do the best for the kids. The system is not setup to allow teachers to teach. It’s not their jobs to parent, just to teach.
Anonymous wrote:That vacation lady sounds like the type of parents that will fight a teacher all year long and try to get them fired. I wish we had a union that actually protected teachers against these monsters.
I want competent teachers who teach and do their jobs. It's about half and half of who do it and who doesn't. We still have assignments not graded as of today and no final grades. Not ok. Nor is it ok to give kids and parents links to videos and use that as your primary teaching source. There is zero accountability for teachers at all the schools we've been to and are at. Teachers and admin don't respond to students or parents. They don't grade timely. They don't post information. They ony have 6-10 assignments per semester. Yes, I'm fed up and don't think my kids are gettting a quality education and tired of supplementing to make up for it.
Every year, my kids have a bad teacher. One that thinks they are a great teacher but really sucks. One that has been teaching for a while and waiting for retirement and pension.
But, most teachers are fine or great. Half the teachers do not suck. I help my kids push through it. There are college professors that suck and parents paying tuition of upwards of $50k or more. Paying does not guarantee better teaching.
Learn to deal with it. I have lazy coworkers. There are parents that never volunteer. Move on!
I agree. The vast majority of teachers are good and want to do the best for the kids. The system is not setup to allow teachers to teach. It’s not their jobs to parent, just to teach.
I definitely agree with you. Teachers become the scapegoat for what’s going poorly in society, and the good teachers are quite tired of carrying so much responsibility and blame.
I’m a teacher and my DD has decided to become one. I tried so hard to talk her out of it, but she won’t really understand until personally experiences the absurd expectations and poor treatment. I’m hoping it gets better before she graduates college, but I’m not optimistic.
Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a rising 9th grader. Before this change to grading I wanted my DC take as many AP's as possible even with their year round club sports and other extracurriculars, namely music. I justified this because in the old grading system A+B = A. Now I don't know if this strategy will work for DC. Given all their time commitments something will have to give.
Yes, your child will have to choose between school work and extracurriculars. That should be the case.
Kids should be doing both. Why would you be against extracurricular activities.
That's hilarious... of course you do both. But you can't expect to look like an academic star on paper when your priority is outside school. Everyone has only so much time, including teenagers. Their time will reflect their priorities, and colleges will be able to judge those.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
Bro, you need to take your own advice. It isn't the teacher's job to teach your kid study skills and time management. That's YOUR job as their parent (this is what chores are for: time management and responsibilities training). Once again, for the learning-impaired: Algebra class is about algebra, not study skills.
Umm Yes, it actually is a teacher's job to teach study skills and time management. Chores are about responsibility training, work ethic, life skills, and shared sacrifice. I as a parent have actually advocated that study skills and executive function need to be explicitly taught as part of a class in MS, even if only for one quarter. That's how you be sure that all the skill that have been taught over a bunch of class (readying, taking notes, summarizing, etc) come together to form proper study skills. Helpt kids learn to recognize that different subjects require different methods of study. It would also be a good way to help identify students who may have LD's that have gone unrecognized and untreated because the work load/pressure wasn't great enough that they couldn't overcome.
This is going to come off snarky and I don’t intend it to be. I agree that schools should teach study skills.
But if I’m correct, you’ve posted multiple times that things are always the teacher’s responsibility. Let’s assume a teacher has over 100 students, a packed curriculum they must deliver, a frantic school schedule, and no free time during the day to meet individually with students. Their plates are overflowing; how much more should we pile on as being the teacher’s responsibility?
I’m a parent, too. I have a demanding full time job and two children. I know my children better than the teachers ever can (because of the scenario above). My kid can get 1 minute of a teacher’s time because she’s in competition with 30 other students, whereas I can provide my child a dedicated hour at home. I feel it is my responsibility to work in partnership with the school; I fill in what can’t be covered during the school day. The school cannot be 100% responsible for all lessons.
There are multiple posters but they are right it’s child be taught but I think it should start in elementary and continue in middle. My kids did not get any lessons on note taking or study skills till freshman year with ap history and a great teacher.
Correct. I’m the poster that said that study skills should be taught in school. I haven’t posted that teachers should take on more. I know teachers need more time and supports. I’m not advocating for teachers to give more of their time or spend more of their dollars. In fact quite the opposite. They should do their job with excellence for the 8 hours they are contracted, invest maybe 10% more time (say 50hrs a week total) and then tell everybody to kick rocks.
- If folks want kids to learn to write, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want grades in a reasonable time, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want teachers to respond to concerns, that’s reasonable provide tools and time for that.
- If you need teachers to stay late then expect to see that reported on timesheets.
Educating kids is an endeavor. Not having study skills and executive functioning present risk/issues to that endeavor. Teacher burn out is a risk/issue to that endeavor. Either we address risk/issues or we accept the consequences. Folks don’t seem to be happy with the consequences, so I suggest we address the root causes. Band aides don’t fix problems, they are temporary supports.
Anonymous wrote:I don't know how anyone can judge a teacher as good or bad when the kids attack the teacher regularly and admin forces cover ups as we see our colleagues fired when the talk about it. I recommend people not to become teachers until the retaliation is addressed and the rules amended.
We see the assignments, grading, responsiveness, talk to our kids on what happens in class.
Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a rising 9th grader. Before this change to grading I wanted my DC take as many AP's as possible even with their year round club sports and other extracurriculars, namely music. I justified this because in the old grading system A+B = A. Now I don't know if this strategy will work for DC. Given all their time commitments something will have to give.
Yes, your child will have to choose between school work and extracurriculars. That should be the case.
Kids should be doing both. Why would you be against extracurricular activities.
That's hilarious... of course you do both. But you can't expect to look like an academic star on paper when your priority is outside school. Everyone has only so much time, including teenagers. Their time will reflect their priorities, and colleges will be able to judge those.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
Bro, you need to take your own advice. It isn't the teacher's job to teach your kid study skills and time management. That's YOUR job as their parent (this is what chores are for: time management and responsibilities training). Once again, for the learning-impaired: Algebra class is about algebra, not study skills.
Umm Yes, it actually is a teacher's job to teach study skills and time management. Chores are about responsibility training, work ethic, life skills, and shared sacrifice. I as a parent have actually advocated that study skills and executive function need to be explicitly taught as part of a class in MS, even if only for one quarter. That's how you be sure that all the skill that have been taught over a bunch of class (readying, taking notes, summarizing, etc) come together to form proper study skills. Helpt kids learn to recognize that different subjects require different methods of study. It would also be a good way to help identify students who may have LD's that have gone unrecognized and untreated because the work load/pressure wasn't great enough that they couldn't overcome.
This is going to come off snarky and I don’t intend it to be. I agree that schools should teach study skills.
But if I’m correct, you’ve posted multiple times that things are always the teacher’s responsibility. Let’s assume a teacher has over 100 students, a packed curriculum they must deliver, a frantic school schedule, and no free time during the day to meet individually with students. Their plates are overflowing; how much more should we pile on as being the teacher’s responsibility?
I’m a parent, too. I have a demanding full time job and two children. I know my children better than the teachers ever can (because of the scenario above). My kid can get 1 minute of a teacher’s time because she’s in competition with 30 other students, whereas I can provide my child a dedicated hour at home. I feel it is my responsibility to work in partnership with the school; I fill in what can’t be covered during the school day. The school cannot be 100% responsible for all lessons.
There are multiple posters but they are right it’s child be taught but I think it should start in elementary and continue in middle. My kids did not get any lessons on note taking or study skills till freshman year with ap history and a great teacher.
Correct. I’m the poster that said that study skills should be taught in school. I haven’t posted that teachers should take on more. I know teachers need more time and supports. I’m not advocating for teachers to give more of their time or spend more of their dollars. In fact quite the opposite. They should do their job with excellence for the 8 hours they are contracted, invest maybe 10% more time (say 50hrs a week total) and then tell everybody to kick rocks.
- If folks want kids to learn to write, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want grades in a reasonable time, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want teachers to respond to concerns, that’s reasonable provide tools and time for that.
- If you need teachers to stay late then expect to see that reported on timesheets.
Educating kids is an endeavor. Not having study skills and executive functioning present risk/issues to that endeavor. Teacher burn out is a risk/issue to that endeavor. Either we address risk/issues or we accept the consequences. Folks don’t seem to be happy with the consequences, so I suggest we address the root causes. Band aides don’t fix problems, they are temporary supports.
I generally agree with you, but here’s how it will play out in reality:
Teachers, who already have a tight schedule to follow, will be tasked with teaching study skills / executive functioning skills. They’ll receive little to no training, and what training they do receive will be poorly planned and at a severely inconvenient time. They’ll receive no additional resources or support. Instead, they’ll just get a “get this done, too” mandate on top of all the other “get it done” mandates. The study skills / executive functioning materials they’ll be given will be poorly planned and constructed, so teachers will have to spend time they don’t have to revise them until they are actually useful.
I’m not trying to be negative, but decades in this profession have shown me this is how every new initiative or endeavor happens.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
Bro, you need to take your own advice. It isn't the teacher's job to teach your kid study skills and time management. That's YOUR job as their parent (this is what chores are for: time management and responsibilities training). Once again, for the learning-impaired: Algebra class is about algebra, not study skills.
Umm Yes, it actually is a teacher's job to teach study skills and time management. Chores are about responsibility training, work ethic, life skills, and shared sacrifice. I as a parent have actually advocated that study skills and executive function need to be explicitly taught as part of a class in MS, even if only for one quarter. That's how you be sure that all the skill that have been taught over a bunch of class (readying, taking notes, summarizing, etc) come together to form proper study skills. Helpt kids learn to recognize that different subjects require different methods of study. It would also be a good way to help identify students who may have LD's that have gone unrecognized and untreated because the work load/pressure wasn't great enough that they couldn't overcome.
This is going to come off snarky and I don’t intend it to be. I agree that schools should teach study skills.
But if I’m correct, you’ve posted multiple times that things are always the teacher’s responsibility. Let’s assume a teacher has over 100 students, a packed curriculum they must deliver, a frantic school schedule, and no free time during the day to meet individually with students. Their plates are overflowing; how much more should we pile on as being the teacher’s responsibility?
I’m a parent, too. I have a demanding full time job and two children. I know my children better than the teachers ever can (because of the scenario above). My kid can get 1 minute of a teacher’s time because she’s in competition with 30 other students, whereas I can provide my child a dedicated hour at home. I feel it is my responsibility to work in partnership with the school; I fill in what can’t be covered during the school day. The school cannot be 100% responsible for all lessons.
There are multiple posters but they are right it’s child be taught but I think it should start in elementary and continue in middle. My kids did not get any lessons on note taking or study skills till freshman year with ap history and a great teacher.
Correct. I’m the poster that said that study skills should be taught in school. I haven’t posted that teachers should take on more. I know teachers need more time and supports. I’m not advocating for teachers to give more of their time or spend more of their dollars. In fact quite the opposite. They should do their job with excellence for the 8 hours they are contracted, invest maybe 10% more time (say 50hrs a week total) and then tell everybody to kick rocks.
- If folks want kids to learn to write, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want grades in a reasonable time, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want teachers to respond to concerns, that’s reasonable provide tools and time for that.
- If you need teachers to stay late then expect to see that reported on timesheets.
Educating kids is an endeavor. Not having study skills and executive functioning present risk/issues to that endeavor. Teacher burn out is a risk/issue to that endeavor. Either we address risk/issues or we accept the consequences. Folks don’t seem to be happy with the consequences, so I suggest we address the root causes. Band aides don’t fix problems, they are temporary supports.
I generally agree with you, but here’s how it will play out in reality:
Teachers, who already have a tight schedule to follow, will be tasked with teaching study skills / executive functioning skills. They’ll receive little to no training, and what training they do receive will be poorly planned and at a severely inconvenient time. They’ll receive no additional resources or support. Instead, they’ll just get a “get this done, too” mandate on top of all the other “get it done” mandates. The study skills / executive functioning materials they’ll be given will be poorly planned and constructed, so teachers will have to spend time they don’t have to revise them until they are actually useful.
I’m not trying to be negative, but decades in this profession have shown me this is how every new initiative or endeavor happens.
It should start in Elementary school and then it can be taught in homeroom or other classes.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
Bro, you need to take your own advice. It isn't the teacher's job to teach your kid study skills and time management. That's YOUR job as their parent (this is what chores are for: time management and responsibilities training). Once again, for the learning-impaired: Algebra class is about algebra, not study skills.
Umm Yes, it actually is a teacher's job to teach study skills and time management. Chores are about responsibility training, work ethic, life skills, and shared sacrifice. I as a parent have actually advocated that study skills and executive function need to be explicitly taught as part of a class in MS, even if only for one quarter. That's how you be sure that all the skill that have been taught over a bunch of class (readying, taking notes, summarizing, etc) come together to form proper study skills. Helpt kids learn to recognize that different subjects require different methods of study. It would also be a good way to help identify students who may have LD's that have gone unrecognized and untreated because the work load/pressure wasn't great enough that they couldn't overcome.
This is going to come off snarky and I don’t intend it to be. I agree that schools should teach study skills.
But if I’m correct, you’ve posted multiple times that things are always the teacher’s responsibility. Let’s assume a teacher has over 100 students, a packed curriculum they must deliver, a frantic school schedule, and no free time during the day to meet individually with students. Their plates are overflowing; how much more should we pile on as being the teacher’s responsibility?
I’m a parent, too. I have a demanding full time job and two children. I know my children better than the teachers ever can (because of the scenario above). My kid can get 1 minute of a teacher’s time because she’s in competition with 30 other students, whereas I can provide my child a dedicated hour at home. I feel it is my responsibility to work in partnership with the school; I fill in what can’t be covered during the school day. The school cannot be 100% responsible for all lessons.
There are multiple posters but they are right it’s child be taught but I think it should start in elementary and continue in middle. My kids did not get any lessons on note taking or study skills till freshman year with ap history and a great teacher.
Correct. I’m the poster that said that study skills should be taught in school. I haven’t posted that teachers should take on more. I know teachers need more time and supports. I’m not advocating for teachers to give more of their time or spend more of their dollars. In fact quite the opposite. They should do their job with excellence for the 8 hours they are contracted, invest maybe 10% more time (say 50hrs a week total) and then tell everybody to kick rocks.
- If folks want kids to learn to write, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want grades in a reasonable time, great provide the tools and time for that.
- If you want teachers to respond to concerns, that’s reasonable provide tools and time for that.
- If you need teachers to stay late then expect to see that reported on timesheets.
Educating kids is an endeavor. Not having study skills and executive functioning present risk/issues to that endeavor. Teacher burn out is a risk/issue to that endeavor. Either we address risk/issues or we accept the consequences. Folks don’t seem to be happy with the consequences, so I suggest we address the root causes. Band aides don’t fix problems, they are temporary supports.
I generally agree with you, but here’s how it will play out in reality:
Teachers, who already have a tight schedule to follow, will be tasked with teaching study skills / executive functioning skills. They’ll receive little to no training, and what training they do receive will be poorly planned and at a severely inconvenient time. They’ll receive no additional resources or support. Instead, they’ll just get a “get this done, too” mandate on top of all the other “get it done” mandates. The study skills / executive functioning materials they’ll be given will be poorly planned and constructed, so teachers will have to spend time they don’t have to revise them until they are actually useful.
I’m not trying to be negative, but decades in this profession have shown me this is how every new initiative or endeavor happens.
It should start in Elementary school and then it can be taught in homeroom or other classes.
Yes, and it will happen in the manner above. There’s no scenario in which this wouldn’t fall primarily on teachers and increase their workload. Like every other change or initiative.
This is the problem with MCPS. Any basic practice is tooo complicated. It will take millions to hire consultants who are former MCPS central office staff to construct a report to be reviewed with central office. Central Office staff will determine they need to hire another 2 FTE positions and a new director to analyze the report because their pea brains can’t handle it. Months later a poorly written edict will flow down to teachers to teach study skills along with 50 pages of data collection to record that you are teaching study skills and assess study skills but nothing about actually teaching study skills. The older teachers will roll their eyes. The younger teachers will be bewildered because they themselves never developed any study skills. The new teachers are the C students of 3rd tier schools. Nothing happens but we do have a new director and division of study skills.
Swing over to private school and you have a teacher who degree in the actual subject they are teaching. For their middle school or even freshman, they assign keeping a notebook throughout the semester/ year that will count toward the grade. Teacher specifies the structure, level of completeness required and checks it in class every marking period. In a different class, the teacher assigns groups to create study Quizlets. The groups peer review each other quizlets. Not hard people.
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