Is this personal for a principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

If your email being sent to the teacher is mortifying, you might want to think about what kind of emails you are writing. There are polite, professional ways to bring up issues that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

Your snotty tone is a huge turnoff. I actually did bring up the issue to the teacher first. She completely dismissed me, so I then wrote an email to the principal, making it clear I had tried to resolve the issue with the teacher but that had not been successful.

Instead of the principal addressing the problem directly with the teacher, she decided to CC me on her email to the teacher. The teacher then emailed me and gaslit me by pretending she was “open” to suggestions and had “no idea” why I would have taken this to the principal. Obviously, she was backpedaling after being called out.

It would have been far more productive - and less embarrassing for everyone - had the principal and teacher just dealt with this privately, especially after my email made clear I had tried doing just that unsuccessfully.

You really think of the principals of parents and the teachers as kids. I’m a PP and again I ask, what did you want to happen? The principal to call the teacher to the office and demand the gradebook be updated?

Look- the other teacher explained it. There is only so much time. The principal forwarded the email, which is appropriate when you go over someone’s head for something small. This is small. It’s not to you but it really is. I’m sorry you are digging in on this.

I’m frustrated too. My kid had grades not updated and we are in the final days. I know emailing the principal is not the way to go. If they are never updated and final grades are posted, that’s when the email goes out.

Your reading comprehension needs work. I'm not the OP or whoever complained about the gradebook. I'm a different poster, who had a different issue with the teacher, one that I'm not going to get into here. And I clearly stated that I *did* contact the teacher first. I bolded the relevant parts, above. Pay more attention when you respond to someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed them re a issue I had with a teacher, and she CC THE TEACHER, THE Teacher replay to the email.... IS she allowed to do this?

OMG - the *exact* same thing happened to me!! This was a few years ago, but it was mortifying. Why do they do this??

If your email being sent to the teacher is mortifying, you might want to think about what kind of emails you are writing. There are polite, professional ways to bring up issues that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

Your snotty tone is a huge turnoff. I actually did bring up the issue to the teacher first. She completely dismissed me, so I then wrote an email to the principal, making it clear I had tried to resolve the issue with the teacher but that had not been successful.

Instead of the principal addressing the problem directly with the teacher, she decided to CC me on her email to the teacher. The teacher then emailed me and gaslit me by pretending she was “open” to suggestions and had “no idea” why I would have taken this to the principal. Obviously, she was backpedaling after being called out.

It would have been far more productive - and less embarrassing for everyone - had the principal and teacher just dealt with this privately, especially after my email made clear I had tried doing just that unsuccessfully.

Doesn’t the teacher deserve to know you’re the one complaining?

Can you even read?? I clearly stated that I went to the teacher first. Bolded above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I usually did it the other way. I would send a second request to the teacher and if they did not respond - I would send a third request to the teacher, but cc the Principal. I would put ‘Third Request’ in the subject line after the main subject and include the two other emails in the chain.

This is a great idea and I wish I had done it that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

DP. I'm very supportive of teachers, but let's be honest - not every teacher is a gem. There are plenty of duds, just as there are in any workplace. My kids have had some absolutely amazing teachers, and they've also had a couple who should really never have been around children at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

Why should the principal support the teacher in not updating the grade book? A disciplinary issue where there could be differences of opinion I could understand, but updating the grade book seems pretty clear cut to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

Why should the principal support the teacher in not updating the grade book? A disciplinary issue where there could be differences of opinion I could understand, but updating the grade book seems pretty clear cut to me.

Then you aren't aware of the realities of teaching nowadays. 140 students. If I spend just 2 minutes on each child's assignment, that is 2.5 hours of work. Most substantive assignments need at least 5 minutes per student. I have (technically) 5 hours of planning time per week and 4 preps (that's 4 different subjects to prepare for). At least two planning times per week are taken up with meetings (IEP, team, parent, etc.)

So that leaves me with 3 hours per week for planning and grading. But I have over 50 emails a day on average. And I have to work on documenting behaviors, interventions, progress monitoring, and common assessment data to our data wall. On top of that, I get a tsunami of late work and re-takes at the end of every quarter.

So it's not that clear cut. I woke 60-70
Hour weeks most weeks, and even then I might not update the grade book some weeks. If I have statutory deadlines for paperwork and IEP meetings and evaluation, updating my grade book has to be triaged way past all that and the MOST important of mg
Y time: planning challenging and engaging instruction for your kids. So yeah...grade book is not that high a priority.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I’m shocked that documenting behaviors is a higher priority than grading. I would have thought that since all students need to be taught, grades for 140 students would outweigh the needs of (hopefully) a few—IEPs, behavioral issues, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

Why should the principal support the teacher in not updating the grade book? A disciplinary issue where there could be differences of opinion I could understand, but updating the grade book seems pretty clear cut to me.

In the case of the OP, they admitted that they never reached out to the teacher and were unsure if their child did. They also did not clarify if the issue was on time or late assignments. We also do not know what the timeframe is. We do not even know if the teacher did anything *wrong* or if the OP just has unrealistic expectations. Yes, when parents are being unrealistic and not being mature enough to contact the teacher directly (as was this case with this OP), the principal should support the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Principals suck. They will support their staff over a student/parent. I’ve rarely had a good interaction even if I was right.

Sure. I bet you love it if your boss throws you under the bus.

You do what’s right you don’t just support the teacher, the schools should be about the kids not like running a business.

Maybe what's right is supporting the teacher?

DP. I'm very supportive of teachers, but let's be honest - not every teacher is a gem. There are plenty of duds, just as there are in any workplace. My kids have had some absolutely amazing teachers, and they've also had a couple who should really never have been around children at all.

While this is true, there are a lot of very demanding and difficult parents that make both teachers and administrators lives a living hell.

If this teacher did not update the grade book for weeks for on time assignments and the OP had contacted them first, admin contact is appropriate. In this case, we know they were not mature enough to reach out the teacher first and don't even know if they child did. We also do not know if this was an on time assignment or a late assignment. We also don't know what the timeframe is. Are we talking a week or multiple weeks? So yes, principals do need to support teachers when parents are being unrealistic and set the expectations of how communication should occur (i.e. go to the teacher first). It sounds like this is what the principal did in this case.