Dear Parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just giving less assignments this year. Or creating worksheets that self check, or using computer programs that score immediately. I have way way way too many students to give consistent, meaningful feedback this year. 150 students x1 minute each is 2.5 hours, my entire unencumbered planning for the week. When do I plan lessons? When do i contact families to inform them of Johnny’s struggles with xyz? When do I make copies?

You want real feedback, I need 100 kids, not 150. I need 1 prep, not 3. I need 5+ hours a week of dedicated planning, not 3. I need curriculum to fall back on so I don’t have to make it all from scratch when I’m handed yet another prep I’ve never taught before.

Will I try my butt off to get your kids feedback? Absolutely. But I have only given one assignment in each class so far and already spent 4 hours today (sunday) grading. That’s burnout in a sentence. And when I quit because I can’t keep up, there’s no one left to fill my role.

Please handle your kids’ teachers with care this year. We’re (mostly) all really, really struggling to do this job well and I’m not sure it can be in the current conditions.

Parents are fine with worksheets that self-check or computer programs that score immediately. Those provide feedback for children and parents. What parents are looking for is hard gauges as to how their kid is doing. In this day and age, if you are not using technology as a valid aid, you are behind the times re: teaching.

So send an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just giving less assignments this year. Or creating worksheets that self check, or using computer programs that score immediately. I have way way way too many students to give consistent, meaningful feedback this year. 150 students x1 minute each is 2.5 hours, my entire unencumbered planning for the week. When do I plan lessons? When do i contact families to inform them of Johnny’s struggles with xyz? When do I make copies?

You want real feedback, I need 100 kids, not 150. I need 1 prep, not 3. I need 5+ hours a week of dedicated planning, not 3. I need curriculum to fall back on so I don’t have to make it all from scratch when I’m handed yet another prep I’ve never taught before.

Will I try my butt off to get your kids feedback? Absolutely. But I have only given one assignment in each class so far and already spent 4 hours today (sunday) grading. That’s burnout in a sentence. And when I quit because I can’t keep up, there’s no one left to fill my role.

Please handle your kids’ teachers with care this year. We’re (mostly) all really, really struggling to do this job well and I’m not sure it can be in the current conditions.

Parents are fine with worksheets that self-check or computer programs that score immediately. Those provide feedback for children and parents. What parents are looking for is hard gauges as to how their kid is doing. In this day and age, if you are not using technology as a valid aid, you are behind the times re: teaching.

Then there are the parents that get upset if elementary kids do their work on screens. This is one of the many challenges of education--what one group of parents think everyone is "fine with" is what the other group is yelling and complaining about. Some love deep projects others want worksheets. Some want technology solutions others want no screens. All assume that what they want is more common, more valid than what others want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just giving less assignments this year. Or creating worksheets that self check, or using computer programs that score immediately. I have way way way too many students to give consistent, meaningful feedback this year. 150 students x1 minute each is 2.5 hours, my entire unencumbered planning for the week. When do I plan lessons? When do i contact families to inform them of Johnny’s struggles with xyz? When do I make copies?

You want real feedback, I need 100 kids, not 150. I need 1 prep, not 3. I need 5+ hours a week of dedicated planning, not 3. I need curriculum to fall back on so I don’t have to make it all from scratch when I’m handed yet another prep I’ve never taught before.

Will I try my butt off to get your kids feedback? Absolutely. But I have only given one assignment in each class so far and already spent 4 hours today (sunday) grading. That’s burnout in a sentence. And when I quit because I can’t keep up, there’s no one left to fill my role.

Please handle your kids’ teachers with care this year. We’re (mostly) all really, really struggling to do this job well and I’m not sure it can be in the current conditions.

Parents are fine with worksheets that self-check or computer programs that score immediately. Those provide feedback for children and parents. What parents are looking for is hard gauges as to how their kid is doing. In this day and age, if you are not using technology as a valid aid, you are behind the times re: teaching.

Then there are the parents that get upset if elementary kids do their work on screens. This is one of the many challenges of education--what one group of parents think everyone is "fine with" is what the other group is yelling and complaining about. Some love deep projects others want worksheets. Some want technology solutions others want no screens. All assume that what they want is more common, more valid than what others want.

My kid does RSM for math enrichment. The kids are sent home with paper worksheets to complete. They are supposed to complete those and then enter their answers into the computer for checks. They ask the parents to take a picture of the worksheets and load them into the computer. We don't take the picture but we do send in DS with his completed worksheets. So there is a way of balancing doing the work on paper and using the computer to check the answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that we don't know our kids were having a problem with the homework, quizzes, etc. until it's too late. Maybe the schools need to hire people whose job it is just to grade the daily work/worksheets and quizzes. Or bring in honor roll high school students who need volunteer hours and let them grade the worksheets. The unit tests can be graded by the teachers.

But things need to be graded fairly quickly so we can help our kids if they are struggling. I don't trust the teachers to let me know.

Without homework tests or any sort of feedback we've got no clue what is going on. Makes me wonder what is stressing teachers out at the elementary level without these things.

You have report cards.

Well in ES those are meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just giving less assignments this year. Or creating worksheets that self check, or using computer programs that score immediately. I have way way way too many students to give consistent, meaningful feedback this year. 150 students x1 minute each is 2.5 hours, my entire unencumbered planning for the week. When do I plan lessons? When do i contact families to inform them of Johnny’s struggles with xyz? When do I make copies?

You want real feedback, I need 100 kids, not 150. I need 1 prep, not 3. I need 5+ hours a week of dedicated planning, not 3. I need curriculum to fall back on so I don’t have to make it all from scratch when I’m handed yet another prep I’ve never taught before.

Will I try my butt off to get your kids feedback? Absolutely. But I have only given one assignment in each class so far and already spent 4 hours today (sunday) grading. That’s burnout in a sentence. And when I quit because I can’t keep up, there’s no one left to fill my role.

Please handle your kids’ teachers with care this year. We’re (mostly) all really, really struggling to do this job well and I’m not sure it can be in the current conditions.

Parents are fine with worksheets that self-check or computer programs that score immediately. Those provide feedback for children and parents. What parents are looking for is hard gauges as to how their kid is doing. In this day and age, if you are not using technology as a valid aid, you are behind the times re: teaching.

Then there are the parents that get upset if elementary kids do their work on screens. This is one of the many challenges of education--what one group of parents think everyone is "fine with" is what the other group is yelling and complaining about. Some love deep projects others want worksheets. Some want technology solutions others want no screens. All assume that what they want is more common, more valid than what others want.

My kid does RSM for math enrichment. The kids are sent home with paper worksheets to complete. They are supposed to complete those and then enter their answers into the computer for checks. They ask the parents to take a picture of the worksheets and load them into the computer. We don't take the picture but we do send in DS with his completed worksheets. So there is a way of balancing doing the work on paper and using the computer to check the answers.

So the teacher has to data entry all the students work and have the computer check the answers? That doesn't seem reasonable for a public school teacher with their workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to think that MCPS parents were the worst, but I see that I just haven't been paying enough attention to FCPS parents. This thread is full of some of the most entitled, arrogant parents I've seen in a long time. And you wonder why teachers are leaving the profession and that some of you are complaining about having subs, long-term subs and random school staff babysitting your children and not teaching them. Well, congratulations, you've shown that your children are paying the price for your arrogance and entitlement. Don't be surprised if more teachers leave and some leave mid-year from some of you and your children end up with more untrained subs and school staff babysitting your children instead of teaching them.

Only an arrogant and entitled person would view parents wanting teachers to do their job and GRADE THE KIDS' WORK in a timely manner is arrogant or entitled. LOL.

You are only contributing to the problem. The problem right now is that the school administration and school board have pushed so many administrative tasks onto the teachers that they have less time per child. In addition, as teachers leave the profession, the class sizes are rising, which again decreases time per child. The teachers are overwhelmed. Adding in parent teacher meetings will only exacerbate the problem by taking more and more time away from the teacher's ability to address anything for the bulk of children.

Your entire attitude will make the problem worse. Parents like you are one of the primary reasons that teachers are leaving the profession. Will you be happy if you decide to browbeat and harass the teacher and they decide to leave the profession and you get a long-term or short-term sub with no teaching credentials, no curriculum and no lesson plans to just make up busy work for your child for an entire quarter while they try to find someone to replace the teacher you helped to chase out? Will you be happy if because of the harassment, that your child is no longer given homework at all just to allow the teacher to cut back to a 10 hour work day and a 55 hour work week?

Parents should be advocating with the school board to reduce administrative overhead tasks from teachers. The teachers need to get many of those administrative tasks removed from their schedules so that they have more time in their schedules to address student issues. Harassing and browbeating teachers is not going to improve your child's education. But getting teacher's away from administrative tasks and back to teaching will. Devote that aggression and energy into helping to improve teacher work conditions and you'll find it will have a bigger effect on improving your child's education than just piling on to the overwhelming schedule and tasks of your child's teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that we don't know our kids were having a problem with the homework, quizzes, etc. until it's too late. Maybe the schools need to hire people whose job it is just to grade the daily work/worksheets and quizzes. Or bring in honor roll high school students who need volunteer hours and let them grade the worksheets. The unit tests can be graded by the teachers.

But things need to be graded fairly quickly so we can help our kids if they are struggling. I don't trust the teachers to let me know.

Without homework tests or any sort of feedback we've got no clue what is going on. Makes me wonder what is stressing teachers out at the elementary level without these things.

You have no idea why an ES teacher is stressed? How about 3 hours during the school week to plan, make copies, and grade because 2 hours are used for useless meetings where we are told what to do. How about 25-28 kids with a huge spectrum of needs and abilities. That is why they are stressed.

No homework means less stress for the teacher.

It also means I have to assign my kid to do work, or pay for a tutor, so they can get re-enforcement and have a clue what they're actually learning and to what degree they have actually mastered it.

American schools are a joke compared to back home where they have far more students per classroom and far less funding per student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that we don't know our kids were having a problem with the homework, quizzes, etc. until it's too late. Maybe the schools need to hire people whose job it is just to grade the daily work/worksheets and quizzes. Or bring in honor roll high school students who need volunteer hours and let them grade the worksheets. The unit tests can be graded by the teachers.

But things need to be graded fairly quickly so we can help our kids if they are struggling. I don't trust the teachers to let me know.

Without homework tests or any sort of feedback we've got no clue what is going on. Makes me wonder what is stressing teachers out at the elementary level without these things.

You have no idea why an ES teacher is stressed? How about 3 hours during the school week to plan, make copies, and grade because 2 hours are used for useless meetings where we are told what to do. How about 25-28 kids with a huge spectrum of needs and abilities. That is why they are stressed.

No homework means less stress for the teacher.

It also means I have to assign my kid to do work, or pay for a tutor, so they can get re-enforcement and have a clue what they're actually learning and to what degree they have actually mastered it.

American schools are a joke compared to back home where they have far more students per classroom and far less funding per student.

And yet you are here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that we don't know our kids were having a problem with the homework, quizzes, etc. until it's too late. Maybe the schools need to hire people whose job it is just to grade the daily work/worksheets and quizzes. Or bring in honor roll high school students who need volunteer hours and let them grade the worksheets. The unit tests can be graded by the teachers.

But things need to be graded fairly quickly so we can help our kids if they are struggling. I don't trust the teachers to let me know.

Without homework tests or any sort of feedback we've got no clue what is going on. Makes me wonder what is stressing teachers out at the elementary level without these things.

You have no idea why an ES teacher is stressed? How about 3 hours during the school week to plan, make copies, and grade because 2 hours are used for useless meetings where we are told what to do. How about 25-28 kids with a huge spectrum of needs and abilities. That is why they are stressed.

No homework means less stress for the teacher.

It also means I have to assign my kid to do work, or pay for a tutor, so they can get re-enforcement and have a clue what they're actually learning and to what degree they have actually mastered it.

American schools are a joke compared to back home where they have far more students per classroom and far less funding per student.

And yet you are here.

Yep, and somehow a lower resourced school system outperforms the US system. We should demand far better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to think that MCPS parents were the worst, but I see that I just haven't been paying enough attention to FCPS parents. This thread is full of some of the most entitled, arrogant parents I've seen in a long time. And you wonder why teachers are leaving the profession and that some of you are complaining about having subs, long-term subs and random school staff babysitting your children and not teaching them. Well, congratulations, you've shown that your children are paying the price for your arrogance and entitlement. Don't be surprised if more teachers leave and some leave mid-year from some of you and your children end up with more untrained subs and school staff babysitting your children instead of teaching them.

Only an arrogant and entitled person would view parents wanting teachers to do their job and GRADE THE KIDS' WORK in a timely manner is arrogant or entitled. LOL.

You are only contributing to the problem. The problem right now is that the school administration and school board have pushed so many administrative tasks onto the teachers that they have less time per child. In addition, as teachers leave the profession, the class sizes are rising, which again decreases time per child. The teachers are overwhelmed. Adding in parent teacher meetings will only exacerbate the problem by taking more and more time away from the teacher's ability to address anything for the bulk of children.

Your entire attitude will make the problem worse. Parents like you are one of the primary reasons that teachers are leaving the profession. Will you be happy if you decide to browbeat and harass the teacher and they decide to leave the profession and you get a long-term or short-term sub with no teaching credentials, no curriculum and no lesson plans to just make up busy work for your child for an entire quarter while they try to find someone to replace the teacher you helped to chase out? Will you be happy if because of the harassment, that your child is no longer given homework at all just to allow the teacher to cut back to a 10 hour work day and a 55 hour work week?

Parents should be advocating with the school board to reduce administrative overhead tasks from teachers. The teachers need to get many of those administrative tasks removed from their schedules so that they have more time in their schedules to address student issues. Harassing and browbeating teachers is not going to improve your child's education. But getting teacher's away from administrative tasks and back to teaching will. Devote that aggression and energy into helping to improve teacher work conditions and you'll find it will have a bigger effect on improving your child's education than just piling on to the overwhelming schedule and tasks of your child's teacher.

Wait? Parents should be advocating for changes in teachers' working conditions? That's interesting because we were told for more than a year that teacher working conditions are none of our business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to think that MCPS parents were the worst, but I see that I just haven't been paying enough attention to FCPS parents. This thread is full of some of the most entitled, arrogant parents I've seen in a long time. And you wonder why teachers are leaving the profession and that some of you are complaining about having subs, long-term subs and random school staff babysitting your children and not teaching them. Well, congratulations, you've shown that your children are paying the price for your arrogance and entitlement. Don't be surprised if more teachers leave and some leave mid-year from some of you and your children end up with more untrained subs and school staff babysitting your children instead of teaching them.

Only an arrogant and entitled person would view parents wanting teachers to do their job and GRADE THE KIDS' WORK in a timely manner is arrogant or entitled. LOL.

You are only contributing to the problem. The problem right now is that the school administration and school board have pushed so many administrative tasks onto the teachers that they have less time per child. In addition, as teachers leave the profession, the class sizes are rising, which again decreases time per child. The teachers are overwhelmed. Adding in parent teacher meetings will only exacerbate the problem by taking more and more time away from the teacher's ability to address anything for the bulk of children.

Your entire attitude will make the problem worse. Parents like you are one of the primary reasons that teachers are leaving the profession. Will you be happy if you decide to browbeat and harass the teacher and they decide to leave the profession and you get a long-term or short-term sub with no teaching credentials, no curriculum and no lesson plans to just make up busy work for your child for an entire quarter while they try to find someone to replace the teacher you helped to chase out? Will you be happy if because of the harassment, that your child is no longer given homework at all just to allow the teacher to cut back to a 10 hour work day and a 55 hour work week?

Parents should be advocating with the school board to reduce administrative overhead tasks from teachers. The teachers need to get many of those administrative tasks removed from their schedules so that they have more time in their schedules to address student issues. Harassing and browbeating teachers is not going to improve your child's education. But getting teacher's away from administrative tasks and back to teaching will. Devote that aggression and energy into helping to improve teacher work conditions and you'll find it will have a bigger effect on improving your child's education than just piling on to the overwhelming schedule and tasks of your child's teacher.

Parents like me have been your biggest supporter over the last 2 years- so your assumption made me laugh out loud just now. But, parents like me also expect that if I have a legitimate question and concern with my child's learning, and how DC is getting feedback, you will hear about it. If "parents like me" piss you off for doing that (and to be clear, I have not not had to do this thus far but would not hesitate) so be it.

Your admin burdens are not my problem. I will support you and all teachers to the maximum until you stop doing your job to effectively teach my kid. I don't care what you think about me, whether I"m a problem, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to think that MCPS parents were the worst, but I see that I just haven't been paying enough attention to FCPS parents. This thread is full of some of the most entitled, arrogant parents I've seen in a long time. And you wonder why teachers are leaving the profession and that some of you are complaining about having subs, long-term subs and random school staff babysitting your children and not teaching them. Well, congratulations, you've shown that your children are paying the price for your arrogance and entitlement. Don't be surprised if more teachers leave and some leave mid-year from some of you and your children end up with more untrained subs and school staff babysitting your children instead of teaching them.

Only an arrogant and entitled person would view parents wanting teachers to do their job and GRADE THE KIDS' WORK in a timely manner is arrogant or entitled. LOL.

You are only contributing to the problem. The problem right now is that the school administration and school board have pushed so many administrative tasks onto the teachers that they have less time per child. In addition, as teachers leave the profession, the class sizes are rising, which again decreases time per child. The teachers are overwhelmed. Adding in parent teacher meetings will only exacerbate the problem by taking more and more time away from the teacher's ability to address anything for the bulk of children.

Your entire attitude will make the problem worse. Parents like you are one of the primary reasons that teachers are leaving the profession. Will you be happy if you decide to browbeat and harass the teacher and they decide to leave the profession and you get a long-term or short-term sub with no teaching credentials, no curriculum and no lesson plans to just make up busy work for your child for an entire quarter while they try to find someone to replace the teacher you helped to chase out? Will you be happy if because of the harassment, that your child is no longer given homework at all just to allow the teacher to cut back to a 10 hour work day and a 55 hour work week?

Parents should be advocating with the school board to reduce administrative overhead tasks from teachers. The teachers need to get many of those administrative tasks removed from their schedules so that they have more time in their schedules to address student issues. Harassing and browbeating teachers is not going to improve your child's education. But getting teacher's away from administrative tasks and back to teaching will. Devote that aggression and energy into helping to improve teacher work conditions and you'll find it will have a bigger effect on improving your child's education than just piling on to the overwhelming schedule and tasks of your child's teacher.

Parents like me have been your biggest supporter over the last 2 years- so your assumption made me laugh out loud just now. But, parents like me also expect that if I have a legitimate question and concern with my child's learning, and how DC is getting feedback, you will hear about it. If "parents like me" piss you off for doing that (and to be clear, I have not not had to do this thus far but would not hesitate) so be it.

Your admin burdens are not my problem. I will support you and all teachers to the maximum until you stop doing your job to effectively teach my kid. I don't care what you think about me, whether I"m a problem, etc.

Just to clarify, I am not a teacher nor have I ever been a teacher. I am a parent that gets along well with my children's teachers and I am as supportive as possible wherever and however I can be. I do not DEMAND actions from my children's teachers, but I highlight issues and ask them to help me solve them. I get answers because I act nicely and ask rather than demand. And I am also more patient. You seem to expect answers quickly and your imperious tone is very abrasive. But go ahead, say you are a big supporter while treating them like a servant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad to see this thread drawing attention to the problem of slow grading. I know no teachers are getting fired for it, but parents are certainly justifying in airing their frustrations and concerns because lack of feedback is a huge hindrance to learning and getting interventions should a child need help. The consequences can be huge and last for years. I know because it happened with my son.

FCPS administers SO many assessments of kids to determine if they need help (iReady, DRA, SoLs, Reading inventory, Math Inventory, assorted ecarts, etc). Teachers' timing of grading class assignments isn't the issue around getting children who need help help.

This is the dumbest thing posted in this thread, and there's some stiff competition. Absolutely none of the things you listed will inform a parent or student if the kid is in danger of failing a class, or getting a very low grade in it.

I was responding to a parent who talked about "hindrance to learning and getting interventions" not a grade in a class.

And quite obviously, "interventions" could (and in this situation likely does) mean getting help in a specific class, such as a tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a FCPS HS teacher. I have never had issues about returning grades in a timely manner.

This post makes me so very sad.

I know that most of the parents of the students in my class are supportive, decent people. However, threads like this show the horrible side of people. It is so hard to go to work knowing that there are people who are rallying for teachers to fail. Last year, one nutjob family complained to my principal that they didn't like the content that I was teaching (although it fell under the College Board's themes and topics for the AP class that I teach). They didn't like the answer they got from the principal (who supported me). They went to the cluster level. The executive principal also supported me. But do you know how disheartening it is to have to defend yourself against whackjobs like this who "demand" their "rights"? especially when they are told "no" because they are wrong? Sigh.

Are you also "so very sad" about the vehement teachers on this thread? Because as a parent, those are the ones I'm nervous about encountering.

[Anonymous]

I read this entire thread and it seems pretty clear to me that there are a few posters with extreme anxiety over their children, and they are expressing this by being very abrasive and rude. Teachers, who are currently going through a very stressful start to a new year, are reacting with frustration.

Parents; I know we live in an instant gratification society, but that is just not possible with teaching. I'm sure that your child's teacher cares deeply about their learning and supports them, but these approaches will not form a productive partnership. Some parents and teachers are trying to help by explaining that via this thread, and I hope that you take their word for it, because what you are looking for is not only impossible, but it has never been the standard.