Middle school: how much teacher contact do you want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the parent of an incoming 7th grader. I consider myself a partner in my child’s education and I would be thrilled with a ‘The Week Ahead’ email. Middle schoolers need attentive parents/caregivers who are invested in their education and participate by reading the emails, checking in on work, discussing what they are learning at the dinner table, etc. You are doing your child nor their teachers any favors by letting them handle it all on their own. Thank you teachers for all you are doing.

Yes you are. It’s called teaching independence. Absolutely discuss their work with them. My kid just finished middle school and he regularly talked to me about his work, but he and he alone was responsible for staying on top of getting it fine and keeping track. He got all As and a place in a competitive high school program and that wasn’t because I held his hand for three years. By fostering independence he’s actually ready for high school, unlike your kid who will still be turning to mommy to ask what to do next.

That’s great that that worked for your kid, but that is not going to work with every kid.

OP, I would love to get more info so I can help scaffold for my middle schooler who is very bright but is still working on building executive function skills. PP and others who don’t need that for their kids can just ignore the email.

My family and I are immigrants. Growing up, my parents didn't help us with deadlines or homework. I did just fine. My brother struggled some, and my parents let him get bad grades. We are both doing fine in our careers, but my brother is unquestionably more successful than I am (he has an Ivy League Ph.D. and makes a fair amount more money than I do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the parent of an incoming 7th grader. I consider myself a partner in my child’s education and I would be thrilled with a ‘The Week Ahead’ email. Middle schoolers need attentive parents/caregivers who are invested in their education and participate by reading the emails, checking in on work, discussing what they are learning at the dinner table, etc. You are doing your child nor their teachers any favors by letting them handle it all on their own. Thank you teachers for all you are doing.

Yes you are. It’s called teaching independence. Absolutely discuss their work with them. My kid just finished middle school and he regularly talked to me about his work, but he and he alone was responsible for staying on top of getting it fine and keeping track. He got all As and a place in a competitive high school program and that wasn’t because I held his hand for three years. By fostering independence he’s actually ready for high school, unlike your kid who will still be turning to mommy to ask what to do next.

That’s great that that worked for your kid, but that is not going to work with every kid.

OP, I would love to get more info so I can help scaffold for my middle schooler who is very bright but is still working on building executive function skills. PP and others who don’t need that for their kids can just ignore the email.

My family and I are immigrants. Growing up, my parents didn't help us with deadlines or homework. I did just fine. My brother struggled some, and my parents let him get bad grades. We are both doing fine in our careers, but my brother is unquestionably more successful than I am (he has an Ivy League Ph.D. and makes a fair amount more money than I do).

So because it worked for you, it works for everyone. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the parent of an incoming 7th grader. I consider myself a partner in my child’s education and I would be thrilled with a ‘The Week Ahead’ email. Middle schoolers need attentive parents/caregivers who are invested in their education and participate by reading the emails, checking in on work, discussing what they are learning at the dinner table, etc. You are doing your child nor their teachers any favors by letting them handle it all on their own. Thank you teachers for all you are doing.

Yes you are. It’s called teaching independence. Absolutely discuss their work with them. My kid just finished middle school and he regularly talked to me about his work, but he and he alone was responsible for staying on top of getting it fine and keeping track. He got all As and a place in a competitive high school program and that wasn’t because I held his hand for three years. By fostering independence he’s actually ready for high school, unlike your kid who will still be turning to mommy to ask what to do next.

That’s great that that worked for your kid, but that is not going to work with every kid.

OP, I would love to get more info so I can help scaffold for my middle schooler who is very bright but is still working on building executive function skills. PP and others who don’t need that for their kids can just ignore the email.

My family and I are immigrants. Growing up, my parents didn't help us with deadlines or homework. I did just fine. My brother struggled some, and my parents let him get bad grades. We are both doing fine in our careers, but my brother is unquestionably more successful than I am (he has an Ivy League Ph.D. and makes a fair amount more money than I do).

So because it worked for you, it works for everyone. Got it.

Well it worked best for my brother.

And you can read into my anecdote what you want, but there is truth to the notion that you do your kids a disservice if you never let them fail.

[Anonymous]

My kids’ middle school teachers always emailed back within 24hrs of me contacting them. I so appreciated this and found it very professional.

I like getting monthly updates but I don’t think I always received them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teachers here trying to settle a debate amongst friends in different school districts:

How much teacher-initiated email (or handouts sent home) communication do you want from your kids teachers, and how much do you actually get? Grade level would be helpful context but not necessary if you don’t want to give it.

I don't really care but whatever they do I'll definitely complain about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd love a weekly or twice weekly email with all the assignments and due dates so we can keep on tope of it. The more the better.

Last year, I experimented with this. I sent a Sunday night announcement in Canvas that previewed the week and a Friday afternoon wrap up of what we actually did. Almost no one looked at it the first three weeks. However, I got about 70 emails asking me things that those announcements answered. In weeks 4-9, I stopped the Sunday night preview and just did the Friday wrap up. No one looked at them. Countless emails asking about due dates and deadlines.

I didn’t do these weekly announcements the rest of the year. They were time consuming to write and parents couldn’t be bothered to read them.

It might be less time-consuming if chatGPT writes the emails for you. This would allow you to do more with less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teachers here trying to settle a debate amongst friends in different school districts:

How much teacher-initiated email (or handouts sent home) communication do you want from your kids teachers, and how much do you actually get? Grade level would be helpful context but not necessary if you don’t want to give it.

My kids are rising 9th and 10th graders. I did not expect any communication from MS teachers apart from the syllabus at the beginning of the year. It was helpful to know what was covered in class.

I'm a generation X parent where there was very little sent home from my school system (apart from permission slips) in the 80s & early 90s. I rarely contacted the teacher/s. When I was in MS/HS, the teachers only contacted my parents if there was an issue.

I did contact an administrator once due to a teacher not teaching the subject.

I feel like teachers get too many emails about trivial things, and I didn't feel the need to add to it.