Why do so many parents let their kids just stay home?

[Anonymous]

Covid is still around.

If a kid gets Covid and is fairly sick, that could be 5 days out right there; add in flu or strep or a stomach virus, plus a doctor's appointment, and it's really easy to be out 10+ days now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Teachers usually stay after a day or two a week anyway, helping kids. At least at our school. And then there are at least 2 teacher advisory periods / week. Teachers are present for both of these time periods (after school and TA). So why can't you do it then, math teacher? I get if a kid is missing ALL the time, that's perhaps a different situation and burden. But once in awhile I don't see the issue? People have to miss school or work sometimes and that just is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

My kids alert me to the classes that are important not to miss. They are highly dedicated students, and we do our best not to miss them or to do 1 as above. Doesn't mean every class is like yours - the majority aren't.

How do they know which classes are important when they haven't even occured yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

Happily, thank you for asking. Well, in middle school in high school there are not 180 days there are 90 classes. I’m going to change that to because at least 10 of those will be days that occur after the SOL. Of those 80 approximately 20 Will be test days. Out of those remaining 60 days, I counted approximately 45-50 unique concepts in Algebra that are different enough from the previous day to constitute a gap if missed. So going back to your question, there are approximately 3 to 4 days each quarter for overlap.

[Anonymous]

If you’ve ever spent time in a classroom, you’d see how much ‘filler’ time there is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

Happily, thank you for asking. Well, in middle school in high school there are not 180 days there are 90 classes. I’m going to change that to because at least 10 of those will be days that occur after the SOL. Of those 80 approximately 20 Will be test days. Out of those remaining 60 days, I counted approximately 45-50 unique concepts in Algebra that are different enough from the previous day to constitute a gap if missed. So going back to your question, there are approximately 3 to 4 days each quarter for overlap.

I’m another teacher and this is pretty accurate. Since you asked, here are specific topics for my Alg 2 class. https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-grades-9-12/mathematics/algebra-2-honors#details

Unlike this teacher I am not staying after school for 45 min to reteach the lesson. My notes are posted and extra videos are posted online. They are expected to watch and go over those when absent and come see me during the remediation block with questions. I get it, kids need to be absent. My own kids are absent sometimes. They know they are responsible for making up work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

Pages 27-30 here:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-calculus-ab-and-bc-course-and-exam-description.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve ever spent time in a classroom, you’d see how much ‘filler’ time there is.

There is little to no filler time in my classroom.
And to PP who said their notes and recordings are posted for students to catch up on their own - I would love to have a class full of students who all are capable to learn material on their own. Sometimes this happens (lesson is easy enough and student is able to find time to complete practice tor missed lessons on top of current lessons) but most often this is not the case.
Obviously, life happens and students must miss a class every now and then. But there are consequences that I outlined in my original post above. Parents who take kids out of school for vacations (saying missing school is not a big deal) are robbing their kids of practice time with immediate feedback that teacher provides. They do it again and again. Then they don’t understand why their kid is struggling later in a year or two years down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

Happily, thank you for asking. Well, in middle school in high school there are not 180 days there are 90 classes. I’m going to change that to because at least 10 of those will be days that occur after the SOL. Of those 80 approximately 20 Will be test days. Out of those remaining 60 days, I counted approximately 45-50 unique concepts in Algebra that are different enough from the previous day to constitute a gap if missed. So going back to your question, there are approximately 3 to 4 days each quarter for overlap.

I’m another teacher and this is pretty accurate. Since you asked, here are specific topics for my Alg 2 class. https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-grades-9-12/mathematics/algebra-2-honors#details

Unlike this teacher I am not staying after school for 45 min to reteach the lesson. My notes are posted and extra videos are posted online. They are expected to watch and go over those when absent and come see me during the remediation block with questions. I get it, kids need to be absent. My own kids are absent sometimes. They know they are responsible for making up work.

But that’s the problem, the majority of them make a little effort to follow up on the lesson or make up the work.

[Anonymous]

Schools no longer do anything about taedies and absences and the kids know it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a math teacher. I do have strict curriculum to follow. Every missed class means the student is behind and will be able to follow lesson they come to, unless they catch up on their own. Since many parents do not know math and not able to tutor, it then falls on me to somehow get the kid up to speed. For just lessons I can replace 90 minutes of class with 45 minutes of 1:1 after school session but now you asking me to be a 1:2 tutor for every kid who kisses my class, and for free.
So whatever is happening or not happening in other classes, missing math means one of the following: 1) you ensure your kid is up to speed on lesson/practice (studying in their own or with you or with tutor); 2) your kid spends at least an hour after school with teacher - you burden the teacher and teacher needs to agree to this (unfair either way); 3) your kid goes on as nothing happened meaning they now have a gap (those gaps when they accumulate will mean your kid is slower in future classes, struggling to understand lessons that require strong prerequisite skills, etc)

Assuming you're saying that the child will NOT be able to follow the lesson they "come to"? As in if they miss a day the next lesson cannot be understood according to your teaching methods. You sound like a terrible teacher. Even in the workplace and the adult world, we have missing people, sickness and plenty of review and recaps.

I’m not the PP, but I am a math teacher. You mentioned that there’s plenty of opportunities for review and recaps at your job, that’s not always the case in HS and sometimes MS. Often times a new concept is taught every class.

Can you name the 180 unique concepts taught in a single year's math class? Remember, they're apparently structured such that missing any one will render at least some of the remaining lessons unintelligible. I'll wait.

Happily, thank you for asking. Well, in middle school in high school there are not 180 days there are 90 classes. I’m going to change that to because at least 10 of those will be days that occur after the SOL. Of those 80 approximately 20 Will be test days. Out of those remaining 60 days, I counted approximately 45-50 unique concepts in Algebra that are different enough from the previous day to constitute a gap if missed. So going back to your question, there are approximately 3 to 4 days each quarter for overlap.

I’m another teacher and this is pretty accurate. Since you asked, here are specific topics for my Alg 2 class. https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-grades-9-12/mathematics/algebra-2-honors#details

Unlike this teacher I am not staying after school for 45 min to reteach the lesson. My notes are posted and extra videos are posted online. They are expected to watch and go over those when absent and come see me during the remediation block with questions. I get it, kids need to be absent. My own kids are absent sometimes. They know they are responsible for making up work.

But that’s the problem, the majority of them make a little effort to follow up on the lesson or make up the work.

You are quoting me and that’s true, the majority don’t do it. But I can’t worry about this. It’s physically impossible for me to teach the lesson again after school to every kid that is out and most don’t want to stay anyway. I do not worry about this anymore and the gaps widen for those who don’t put in effort on their own and come with questions. There is only so many hours in the day and my days of staying after for hours every day ended a few years back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve ever spent time in a classroom, you’d see how much ‘filler’ time there is.

There is little to no filler time in my classroom.
And to PP who said their notes and recordings are posted for students to catch up on their own - I would love to have a class full of students who all are capable to learn material on their own. Sometimes this happens (lesson is easy enough and student is able to find time to complete practice tor missed lessons on top of current lessons) but most often this is not the case.
Obviously, life happens and students must miss a class every now and then. But there are consequences that I outlined in my original post above. Parents who take kids out of school for vacations (saying missing school is not a big deal) are robbing their kids of practice time with immediate feedback that teacher provides. They do it again and again. Then they don’t understand why their kid is struggling later in a year or two years down the road.

There is filler in EVERY class. Even my kid's AP math class has had filler time/days. Less than others, for sure. But it's still there.

[Anonymous]

There is no filler time in my classroom. There are times we take few minutes in between one activity/question/lesson and the next one. Processing time and breaks are important and necessary. These are not fillers. And just because we have them doesn’t mean skipping the class is ok.
There are students who are able to study in their own using whatever resources are posted for them. Those students would be fine self studying to begin with. But most students benefit enormously from getting immediate feedback when they practice + from working in groups when they have to explain their thinking, brainstorm, etc + from hearing discussions between other students or between teacher and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve ever spent time in a classroom, you’d see how much ‘filler’ time there is.

There is little to no filler time in my classroom.
And to PP who said their notes and recordings are posted for students to catch up on their own - I would love to have a class full of students who all are capable to learn material on their own. Sometimes this happens (lesson is easy enough and student is able to find time to complete practice tor missed lessons on top of current lessons) but most often this is not the case.
Obviously, life happens and students must miss a class every now and then. But there are consequences that I outlined in my original post above. Parents who take kids out of school for vacations (saying missing school is not a big deal) are robbing their kids of practice time with immediate feedback that teacher provides. They do it again and again. Then they don’t understand why their kid is struggling later in a year or two years down the road.

There is filler in EVERY class. Even my kid's AP math class has had filler time/days. Less than others, for sure. But it's still there.

What is your point? Does this mean you would not think twice going on vacation during school year? having your kid stay home when they feel like it? I think, the thread is about those kind of decisions.