Why don’t teachers respond to student emails in a timely manner or not at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just checked — kids say they can only email teachers’ FCPS accounts through their school email. I had DC double check anyway. They used the FCPS email addresses. So that doesn’t explain the issue for us.

-OP

I think you're confused. They can only email the FCPSschools.net account from their own FCPSschools.net accounts, not the FCPS.edu accounts. Your child needs to email the teacher from a non-FCPS email address to their FCPS.edu account.

Hmm check this. I just answered 3 student emails, all from their fcpsschools address to my fcps.edu address. Double checked before responding to this thread. High school if that helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just checked — kids say they can only email teachers’ FCPS accounts through their school email. I had DC double check anyway. They used the FCPS email addresses. So that doesn’t explain the issue for us.

-OP

I think you're confused. They can only email the FCPSschools.net account from their own FCPSschools.net accounts, not the FCPS.edu accounts. Your child needs to email the teacher from a non-FCPS email address to their FCPS.edu account.

Hmm check this. I just answered 3 student emails, all from their fcpsschools address to my fcps.edu address. Double checked before responding to this thread. High school if that helps.

Either way, I bet OP's kid emailed the fcps schools.net account and not the FCPS.edu one. Double check, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do teachers have no time to answer? Don’t they have office hours?

They must be busy eating hamburgers in the lounge.

Lol. The more comments I read on this forum, the more I realize that that is exactly what I should be doing. I make myself miserable for what?

Yep, not going to reply to emails for a few more days! 😊

You’ll regret it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grade child emailed the distance learning coordinator 1.5 weeks ago with 3 specific questions about the Schoology platform and attendance processes for virtual students. She has followed up twice. Since then she has received no answer except for 3 reminders sent to all of the virtual students reminding them to reply to all of their emails each day.

It would be funny if the questions weren’t important. She has asked others the same questions and was referred back to the coordinator. She has also requested a virtual meeting, and no response. I am trying really hard not to get involved. I suggested she leave a voicemail, but there isn’t an option to leave a message.

(This isn't a local school, and it is private which is why it started 2 weeks ago now.)

Well, that’s when you can feel perfectly justified sending the email with a cc to all her superiors.

Yes, I could feel justified. But in this case my child asked me to send the next follow up to the teacher. She thinks maybe parents get more attention.

We have verified the email address in the school system, my daughter has sent one of the follow-ups from her gmail account just in case it was a school email platform issue. I am going to suggest in my follow up that perhaps the earlier messages haven’t gotten through (while copying myself so I can check.)

If that doesn’t work I will schedule a meeting with an admin.

I get the email volume issue. I work as a consultant who either facilitates all day via Zoom or in the before times travelled to my clients. At the end of each day there is always a huge email backlog. But please be self-aware or at least have a sense of humor and and extend the same flexibility to students that you expect for yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone fixated on student sending an email on weekend? The emails were sent on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Right. So the teacher worked 10 hours on Tuesday with more urgent issues than the child’s email and responded to the 15 emails she could get to before she had to make dinner for her family, get back to grading more papers, and then out her child to bed. The next day she arrived to school to an inbox with 15 more emails from overnight. She taught her 8 hours, got to her desk after school, finished what she could to get ready for tomorrow, and faced 30 more emails plus the ones she didn’t get to last night. She triaged among those 50 emails and answered those that were the most urgent or were from admin. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There is no catching up with that kind of volume plus teaching a full day. The email was not that urgent. If it is, please send again. If you’re halfway decent, maybe say, “Dear Mrs. Smith, I know you are super busy and I’ve tried to figure this out by calling the student help desk but they couldn’t help me, and I asked a couple of friends and they didn’t know either. Could you please take a look at my email from Tuesday? I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. Thanks so much and I hope you had a good weekend!
All the best,
Appreciative Kid

This is not unique to teaching, it's called having a job. I work my 8 hours plus have to deal with hundreds of emails a day, bosses and employees. Not to mention making dinner for my family and getting kids to multiple different schools each day. I still manage to respond to all my work emails with 1 business day. And I work all summer. If you don't like teaching find another job and stop complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone fixated on student sending an email on weekend? The emails were sent on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Right. So the teacher worked 10 hours on Tuesday with more urgent issues than the child’s email and responded to the 15 emails she could get to before she had to make dinner for her family, get back to grading more papers, and then out her child to bed. The next day she arrived to school to an inbox with 15 more emails from overnight. She taught her 8 hours, got to her desk after school, finished what she could to get ready for tomorrow, and faced 30 more emails plus the ones she didn’t get to last night. She triaged among those 50 emails and answered those that were the most urgent or were from admin. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There is no catching up with that kind of volume plus teaching a full day. The email was not that urgent. If it is, please send again. If you’re halfway decent, maybe say, “Dear Mrs. Smith, I know you are super busy and I’ve tried to figure this out by calling the student help desk but they couldn’t help me, and I asked a couple of friends and they didn’t know either. Could you please take a look at my email from Tuesday? I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. Thanks so much and I hope you had a good weekend!
All the best,
Appreciative Kid

This is not unique to teaching, it's called having a job. I work my 8 hours plus have to deal with hundreds of emails a day, bosses and employees. Not to mention making dinner for my family and getting kids to multiple different schools each day. I still manage to respond to all my work emails with 1 business day. And I work all summer. If you don't like teaching find another job and stop complaining.

You have no idea, lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How do teachers have no time to answer? Don’t they have office hours?

No. That was only during virtual learning last year. They are working every minute they are in the school building, and scarcely have time to eat or use the restroom.

They shouldn't. If my baby sends the teacher an email he needs a respond within 60 seconds. BYW I am being sarcastic

[Anonymous]

The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

Yes, but those are teachers who don’t like hamburgers, so they aren’t wasting time in the lounge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

Those teachers are probably in their 5th+ yr of teaching the same grade and same curriculum. They have time to devote to other things if they aren't expected to constantly reinvent the wheel every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip so trust me that teacher is cutting something somewhere. I mentor new teachers and the young ones’ physical health is usually terrible for that age compared to mine (I was a in a different high demand field, but with fixed hours in my 20s). I have seen them gain 20 lbs because they stopped exercising and started eating fast food while grading at 11 pm. I also had to personally drive a young man to urgent care where they suspected he had a ulcer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

Those teachers are probably in their 5th+ yr of teaching the same grade and same curriculum. They have time to devote to other things if they aren't expected to constantly reinvent the wheel every year.

Yup. I'm on year 7 and finally think I have a chance at a normal-ish schedule this year. My kids might even get to go to their extracurriculars with me and not my partner!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip so trust me that teacher is cutting something somewhere. I mentor new teachers and the young ones’ physical health is usually terrible for that age compared to mine (I was a in a different high demand field, but with fixed hours in my 20s). I have seen them gain 20 lbs because they stopped exercising and started eating fast food while grading at 11 pm. I also had to personally drive a young man to urgent care where they suspected he had a ulcer.

That’s why over half of the new teachers don’t make it beyond 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do teachers have no time to answer? Don’t they have office hours?

They must be busy eating hamburgers in the lounge.

Lol. The more comments I read on this forum, the more I realize that that is exactly what I should be doing. I make myself miserable for what?

Yep, not going to reply to emails for a few more days! 😊

You’ll regret it

PP here, doubtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole "teachers don't have time to answer emails from students" reasoning falls apart when you find the a teacher who does. My HS child has had a precious few teachers who respond to student emails, enter grades into the grade book in a timely manner and are generally very responsive, but they do exist. These teachers have ranged from young and old, with families and not, and across subjects. These teachers prove it can be done and highlight the absurdity of some of the excuses other teachers offer up.

I used to be that teacher. I gained 80 pounds over 6 years, was on antidepressants, lost my boyfriend and most friendships, and burned out and left teaching for 10 years, making 30% more working for a “high pressure, high paced” digital startup. I worked about 25 hours less per week than when I was teaching. And I could go to the bathroom whenever I wanted. And check the morning news in my laptop. And more than occasionally go online shopping.

I’ve worked in several other fields in jobs that everyone considered high stress and fast paced. It was NOTHING compared to teaching.