Teacher won't email back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reasons why the teacher is not responding is because you as the parent shouldn't be emailing the teacher about this issue. No way your parent ever sent in a note to the teacher saying,

"I want to make sure my daughter turned in the right assignment. Can you write me a note back telling me she turned in the correct assignment? I know you already spoke to her and she submitted it but I just really wanted to make sure."

Please call your parents and ask them. They are going to be completely puzzled why you would contact the teacher.

You wrote, "My student has emailed teacher twice about a missing assignment (2 weeks ago). Teacher didn't reply. Student talked to her in class and then submitted the work."
Your student sees her teacher all the time. The teacher should not have to go out of his or her way to email a student back who is missing an assignment. The student should be staying after class, going before school, at lunch, etc. to inquire.

So your student finally understood this and went to speak to the teacher in person AND then submitted the work.

So the issue has been solved. Why do you think the teacher needs to use her valuable time to send you a special email?

Under the no good deed goes unpunished category is teachers responding to nonsense emails. Instead of quickly responding and then never hearing from the parent, teachers who respond to ridiculous emails like this are then bombarded with MORE emails from the parent.

The best tactic is now not to respond to emails that are just pestering teachers over something your child should be doing. So go ahead and CC the principal and superintendent. Do you really think there are qualified teachers lined up waiting to teach middle school?

I think you missed the part where the assignment still shows as missing, the student has tried to handle this, and it's still not handled. At some point, yes, it still is appropriate for parents to step in. My parents (very rarely) did 20 years ago. Even when my siblings and I were in high school.

Late assignments go in last.

If the assignment is still missing the final week of the quarter, your teen should reach out again, in person, not by email.

This is my policy. I grade late work every other Friday. I don’t have time to constantly stop my other work to grade assignments submitted late. I tell students this in person and it’s written into my course documents.

Yes, the student’s grade may be lower for a while. But drawing lines like this means I occasionally get to see my own family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Catering to parent emails" when the parent is trying to help the child get the work done should not be seen as a burden. They're literally trying to help you teach their kid. It's not like the parent was complaining about random stuff.

This should be handled by the kid, including the consequences of lookung at that zero until the end of the term when the teacher enters in late work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what's the recourse against teachers that don't reply?

You their job is to teach, not to email parents, right? This is why teachers are quitting in droves.

The shortage is going to get so much worse after this year....parents and gatehouse keep burying their heads in the sand. It's not good I know two teachers who said they will be gone after winter break. I'm sure they are not the only two.

They won’t be.

I spent 45 minutes after school today responding to emails. I then came home with about 3 hours of grading to do. I’ll spend 4 hours after work today simply catching up on today’s work.

I’ll repeat this tomorrow, and then whatever I can’t get done during 5 days of 10-12 hour days will get done this weekend.

OP, sometimes I can’t respond to all the emails I get. I have 150 students, and by the end of the day I may have 30 emails that need detailed, crafted responses. I also have to plan for my next day, grade papers, and visit the bathroom for the first time in 5 hours.

My intention is ALWAYS to do the right thing, but this job pulls me in too many directions simultaneously. Right now, it’s pulling me to the exit door.

You probably should head for the exit. Maybe you don't need the money or know you can find a better job somewhere else. And that's fine. Teaching isn't for everyone and if you find that the only way to manage the work is by clocking in for 60 hours of work a week every week then it probably isn't for you.

I’ve been at this 20 years.

Please explain to me, since you know my job better than I do, how I can do the following in 4.5 planning hours a WEEK:
1. Constructively comment on 280 papers, mostly multi-paragraph responses
2. Respond to approximately 75 emails
3. Plan 10 1-hour long presentations
4. Update all records (grading, attendance, discipline, etc)
5. Attend 2 1-hour meetings
6. Eat lunch and attend to personal needs
I’m eagerly waiting to hear how to do this in under 5 hours. Please tell me!

OP, to get this back on track:

Just email the teacher and CC the assistant principal. That will likely work.

I agree with everything you say except escalating to the AP. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for a secondary teacher to do all that with even double the amount of planning, and specially if it is English as the field. This is why I'm not a HS English teacher anymore. I worked 20-30 hours beyond contract each week. And was never done.

It is NOT uprofessional for a teacher to prioritize other tasks over non-urgent emails. They are not a 24 hour customer service organization. They're just not, through they are treated worse. I respect my child's teachers as professionals and certainly would expect a quick response to something non-urgent like this. If it was absolutely imperative that I get an answer...like actually more important than the lessons I knew he teacher had to plan and other urgent issues I know come up, I would email again and say something like, "I know you are likely swamped so I am just plumping this back up in your inbox. If you had a chance to check on the status of the assignment I would be grateful, as my child's weekend plans hinge on completion of this task. I'm sorry to create more work for you but just need to confirm that Xander doesn't owe you anything else."

You have an impossible workload. I don't judge.

Sorry, I meant to type that I respect my son's teachers as professionals and would NOT expect a quick reply to an email like this. I know they have much more urgent tasks that impact a whole class of students, like planning lessons or prepping a space for an activity or finishing grading a set of papers so they can be reviewed.

Even if it only took, say, 4-6 minutes to look up this assignment and write a response, where does the teacher find the time to do this times 10 a day? 20 a day? You think they have a spare 40 minutes where they are otherwise just filing their nails?

There is some actual downtime during class. The teacher is not the “sage on the stage”for the entire class period. When students are working in a group or independently - or even during a test or a study hall period - sometimes the teacher can check and respond to emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what's the recourse against teachers that don't reply?

You their job is to teach, not to email parents, right? This is why teachers are quitting in droves.

The shortage is going to get so much worse after this year....parents and gatehouse keep burying their heads in the sand. It's not good I know two teachers who said they will be gone after winter break. I'm sure they are not the only two.

They won’t be.

I spent 45 minutes after school today responding to emails. I then came home with about 3 hours of grading to do. I’ll spend 4 hours after work today simply catching up on today’s work.

I’ll repeat this tomorrow, and then whatever I can’t get done during 5 days of 10-12 hour days will get done this weekend.

OP, sometimes I can’t respond to all the emails I get. I have 150 students, and by the end of the day I may have 30 emails that need detailed, crafted responses. I also have to plan for my next day, grade papers, and visit the bathroom for the first time in 5 hours.

My intention is ALWAYS to do the right thing, but this job pulls me in too many directions simultaneously. Right now, it’s pulling me to the exit door.

You probably should head for the exit. Maybe you don't need the money or know you can find a better job somewhere else. And that's fine. Teaching isn't for everyone and if you find that the only way to manage the work is by clocking in for 60 hours of work a week every week then it probably isn't for you.

I’ve been at this 20 years.

Please explain to me, since you know my job better than I do, how I can do the following in 4.5 planning hours a WEEK:
1. Constructively comment on 280 papers, mostly multi-paragraph responses
2. Respond to approximately 75 emails
3. Plan 10 1-hour long presentations
4. Update all records (grading, attendance, discipline, etc)
5. Attend 2 1-hour meetings
6. Eat lunch and attend to personal needs
I’m eagerly waiting to hear how to do this in under 5 hours. Please tell me!

OP, to get this back on track:

Just email the teacher and CC the assistant principal. That will likely work.

I agree with everything you say except escalating to the AP. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for a secondary teacher to do all that with even double the amount of planning, and specially if it is English as the field. This is why I'm not a HS English teacher anymore. I worked 20-30 hours beyond contract each week. And was never done.

It is NOT uprofessional for a teacher to prioritize other tasks over non-urgent emails. They are not a 24 hour customer service organization. They're just not, through they are treated worse. I respect my child's teachers as professionals and certainly would expect a quick response to something non-urgent like this. If it was absolutely imperative that I get an answer...like actually more important than the lessons I knew he teacher had to plan and other urgent issues I know come up, I would email again and say something like, "I know you are likely swamped so I am just plumping this back up in your inbox. If you had a chance to check on the status of the assignment I would be grateful, as my child's weekend plans hinge on completion of this task. I'm sorry to create more work for you but just need to confirm that Xander doesn't owe you anything else."

You have an impossible workload. I don't judge.

Sorry, I meant to type that I respect my son's teachers as professionals and would NOT expect a quick reply to an email like this. I know they have much more urgent tasks that impact a whole class of students, like planning lessons or prepping a space for an activity or finishing grading a set of papers so they can be reviewed.

Even if it only took, say, 4-6 minutes to look up this assignment and write a response, where does the teacher find the time to do this times 10 a day? 20 a day? You think they have a spare 40 minutes where they are otherwise just filing their nails?

There is some actual downtime during class. The teacher is not the “sage on the stage”for the entire class period. When students are working in a group or independently - or even during a test or a study hall period - sometimes the teacher can check and respond to emails.

Are you a teacher? (Very few teachers will use “sage on the stage.” We tend to hate that phrase.)

I don’t sit at my desk AT ALL when I have students in the room. Testing? I’m monitoring. Group or independent work? I’m walking around and checking.

Sitting at my desk in the best way to ensure students will be off task.

In fact, my administration regularly tells us that we have no business being at our desks when students are in the room.

[Anonymous]

Seriously. I log 15k steps or more every day constantly walking around my classroom all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what's the recourse against teachers that don't reply?

You their job is to teach, not to email parents, right? This is why teachers are quitting in droves.

The shortage is going to get so much worse after this year....parents and gatehouse keep burying their heads in the sand. It's not good I know two teachers who said they will be gone after winter break. I'm sure they are not the only two.

They won’t be.

I spent 45 minutes after school today responding to emails. I then came home with about 3 hours of grading to do. I’ll spend 4 hours after work today simply catching up on today’s work.

I’ll repeat this tomorrow, and then whatever I can’t get done during 5 days of 10-12 hour days will get done this weekend.

OP, sometimes I can’t respond to all the emails I get. I have 150 students, and by the end of the day I may have 30 emails that need detailed, crafted responses. I also have to plan for my next day, grade papers, and visit the bathroom for the first time in 5 hours.

My intention is ALWAYS to do the right thing, but this job pulls me in too many directions simultaneously. Right now, it’s pulling me to the exit door.

You probably should head for the exit. Maybe you don't need the money or know you can find a better job somewhere else. And that's fine. Teaching isn't for everyone and if you find that the only way to manage the work is by clocking in for 60 hours of work a week every week then it probably isn't for you.

I’ve been at this 20 years.

Please explain to me, since you know my job better than I do, how I can do the following in 4.5 planning hours a WEEK:
1. Constructively comment on 280 papers, mostly multi-paragraph responses
2. Respond to approximately 75 emails
3. Plan 10 1-hour long presentations
4. Update all records (grading, attendance, discipline, etc)
5. Attend 2 1-hour meetings
6. Eat lunch and attend to personal needs
I’m eagerly waiting to hear how to do this in under 5 hours. Please tell me!

OP, to get this back on track:

Just email the teacher and CC the assistant principal. That will likely work.

I agree with everything you say except escalating to the AP. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for a secondary teacher to do all that with even double the amount of planning, and specially if it is English as the field. This is why I'm not a HS English teacher anymore. I worked 20-30 hours beyond contract each week. And was never done.

It is NOT uprofessional for a teacher to prioritize other tasks over non-urgent emails. They are not a 24 hour customer service organization. They're just not, through they are treated worse. I respect my child's teachers as professionals and certainly would expect a quick response to something non-urgent like this. If it was absolutely imperative that I get an answer...like actually more important than the lessons I knew he teacher had to plan and other urgent issues I know come up, I would email again and say something like, "I know you are likely swamped so I am just plumping this back up in your inbox. If you had a chance to check on the status of the assignment I would be grateful, as my child's weekend plans hinge on completion of this task. I'm sorry to create more work for you but just need to confirm that Xander doesn't owe you anything else."

You have an impossible workload. I don't judge.

Sorry, I meant to type that I respect my son's teachers as professionals and would NOT expect a quick reply to an email like this. I know they have much more urgent tasks that impact a whole class of students, like planning lessons or prepping a space for an activity or finishing grading a set of papers so they can be reviewed.

Even if it only took, say, 4-6 minutes to look up this assignment and write a response, where does the teacher find the time to do this times 10 a day? 20 a day? You think they have a spare 40 minutes where they are otherwise just filing their nails?

There is some actual downtime during class. The teacher is not the “sage on the stage”for the entire class period. When students are working in a group or independently - or even during a test or a study hall period - sometimes the teacher can check and respond to emails.

Are you a teacher? (Very few teachers will use “sage on the stage.” We tend to hate that phrase.)

I don’t sit at my desk AT ALL when I have students in the room. Testing? I’m monitoring. Group or independent work? I’m walking around and checking.

Sitting at my desk in the best way to ensure students will be off task.

In fact, my administration regularly tells us that we have no business being at our desks when students are in the room.

Yes I was, for FCPS, in fact. And I did have some time at times when students were in the class to sit at my desk and check emails.

[Anonymous]

We have a,lot of wonderful teachers in FCPS


Quit chasing them away OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, in three years with FCPS, we’re never had a teacher that responded to emails timely or effectively.

Send another email, if still no response cc the principal

We were in FCPS for 7 years. I've only once had a teacher not respond in a timely and effective manner. She was in her third year, and at the end of it she was let go (for many, many other reasons than email, but it was a symptom). Maybe this was because it was ES, where there are a lot fewer kids per teacher?

I've been teaching for 25 years and have an average of 140 students per year. The only times I haven't responded to parent or student emails within 48 hours are:

1. Emails sent late Friday evening.
2. Emails sent during school holidays or summer.
3. Emails sent when I was out for two weeks for surgery. (I had an OOO reply on my emails.)
4. Emails sent when I was out on maternity leave (I had an OOO response on my emails. My sub could answer emails.)

Otherwise, in 25 years, I've always responded within 48 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what's the recourse against teachers that don't reply?

You their job is to teach, not to email parents, right? This is why teachers are quitting in droves.

The shortage is going to get so much worse after this year....parents and gatehouse keep burying their heads in the sand. It's not good I know two teachers who said they will be gone after winter break. I'm sure they are not the only two.

They won’t be.

I spent 45 minutes after school today responding to emails. I then came home with about 3 hours of grading to do. I’ll spend 4 hours after work today simply catching up on today’s work.

I’ll repeat this tomorrow, and then whatever I can’t get done during 5 days of 10-12 hour days will get done this weekend.

OP, sometimes I can’t respond to all the emails I get. I have 150 students, and by the end of the day I may have 30 emails that need detailed, crafted responses. I also have to plan for my next day, grade papers, and visit the bathroom for the first time in 5 hours.

My intention is ALWAYS to do the right thing, but this job pulls me in too many directions simultaneously. Right now, it’s pulling me to the exit door.

You probably should head for the exit. Maybe you don't need the money or know you can find a better job somewhere else. And that's fine. Teaching isn't for everyone and if you find that the only way to manage the work is by clocking in for 60 hours of work a week every week then it probably isn't for you.

I’ve been at this 20 years.

Please explain to me, since you know my job better than I do, how I can do the following in 4.5 planning hours a WEEK:
1. Constructively comment on 280 papers, mostly multi-paragraph responses
2. Respond to approximately 75 emails
3. Plan 10 1-hour long presentations
4. Update all records (grading, attendance, discipline, etc)
5. Attend 2 1-hour meetings
6. Eat lunch and attend to personal needs
I’m eagerly waiting to hear how to do this in under 5 hours. Please tell me!

OP, to get this back on track:

Just email the teacher and CC the assistant principal. That will likely work.

I agree with everything you say except escalating to the AP. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for a secondary teacher to do all that with even double the amount of planning, and specially if it is English as the field. This is why I'm not a HS English teacher anymore. I worked 20-30 hours beyond contract each week. And was never done.

It is NOT uprofessional for a teacher to prioritize other tasks over non-urgent emails. They are not a 24 hour customer service organization. They're just not, through they are treated worse. I respect my child's teachers as professionals and certainly would expect a quick response to something non-urgent like this. If it was absolutely imperative that I get an answer...like actually more important than the lessons I knew he teacher had to plan and other urgent issues I know come up, I would email again and say something like, "I know you are likely swamped so I am just plumping this back up in your inbox. If you had a chance to check on the status of the assignment I would be grateful, as my child's weekend plans hinge on completion of this task. I'm sorry to create more work for you but just need to confirm that Xander doesn't owe you anything else."

You have an impossible workload. I don't judge.

Sorry, I meant to type that I respect my son's teachers as professionals and would NOT expect a quick reply to an email like this. I know they have much more urgent tasks that impact a whole class of students, like planning lessons or prepping a space for an activity or finishing grading a set of papers so they can be reviewed.

Even if it only took, say, 4-6 minutes to look up this assignment and write a response, where does the teacher find the time to do this times 10 a day? 20 a day? You think they have a spare 40 minutes where they are otherwise just filing their nails?

There is some actual downtime during class. The teacher is not the “sage on the stage”for the entire class period. When students are working in a group or independently - or even during a test or a study hall period - sometimes the teacher can check and respond to emails.

Are you a teacher? (Very few teachers will use “sage on the stage.” We tend to hate that phrase.)

I don’t sit at my desk AT ALL when I have students in the room. Testing? I’m monitoring. Group or independent work? I’m walking around and checking.

Sitting at my desk in the best way to ensure students will be off task.

In fact, my administration regularly tells us that we have no business being at our desks when students are in the room.

Yes I was, for FCPS, in fact. And I did have some time at times when students were in the class to sit at my desk and check emails.

We’d love to know your secret. Did you just not focus on student work or student behavior? Or did you teach advanced seniors? Or was this years ago, pre-Covid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a,lot of wonderful teachers in FCPS


Quit chasing them away OP.

An email chases them away? Y'all are ridiculous. And teachers complain they don't have parental support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Catering to parent emails" when the parent is trying to help the child get the work done should not be seen as a burden. They're literally trying to help you teach their kid. It's not like the parent was complaining about random stuff.

This should be handled by the kid, including the consequences of lookung at that zero until the end of the term when the teacher enters in late work

It has been handled by the kid and the kid was ignored!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a,lot of wonderful teachers in FCPS


Quit chasing them away OP.

An email chases them away? Y'all are ridiculous. And teachers complain they don't have parental support.

Here’s how we don’t have parental support: Multiple teachers have posted tonight about a teacher’s workload. None of these posts were written as complaints or excuses. They were simply explanations attempting to illustrate how an email may be missed.

You clearly decided to ignore all of the teachers’ experiences, falling instead on a common misinterpretation of “teachers complaining”.

Yes, ignoring our explanations (again: NOT COMPLAINTS) does contribute to the teacher exodus.

Those tremendous teachers your children have had? They are that way because they devoted their nights and weekends to your children, sacrificing their own.

But all some parents are able to do is find fault, and that weighs on those of us who work through the night for your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Catering to parent emails" when the parent is trying to help the child get the work done should not be seen as a burden. They're literally trying to help you teach their kid. It's not like the parent was complaining about random stuff.

This should be handled by the kid, including the consequences of lookung at that zero until the end of the term when the teacher enters in late work

It has been handled by the kid and the kid was ignored!!

The teacher ignored your student speaking to her in person?

[Anonymous]

OP, your child sees the teacher every day or every other day if there is a block schedule. Your child should be talking to the teacher. How are you not understanding that a student emailing a teacher about missing work twice instead of a student talking to the teacher before school, after school, after class, and/or at lunch is making the teacher work harder when it should be your student doing the legwork to talk to the teacher in person. It takes time to respond to back and forth emails when a conversation in person will quickly resolve the problem.

Most likely the teacher has explained to your student, missing work gets graded last or graded once a month. Why do you think your child is so special out of the teacher's 150 students that the teacher is supposed to stop everything, grade your child's late work, enter the grade online and then email you back. Your child probably isn't telling you the whole story. For all you know the teacher could have told your child, I got your mother's email and late work gets graded last.

Or hopefully the teacher isn't putting up with this obsessive nonsense. Your child talked to the teacher and submitted the assignment but the teacher hasn't had a chance to update the online grading system. Why do you think your child submitted the wrong assignment? What assignment do you think she submitted? Some random piece of paper?

She spoke in person with the teacher (good job for her!) and then turned in the assignment. Now you need to be patient. Do you think the teacher emails every parent when his or her child turns in something late saying I know it says missing in the grade book but rest assured your child turned in the correct assignment? If you want that level of catering, pay for private school. Meanwhile, your child is the one who is going to suffer because if you keep pestering the teacher. When the teacher has to choose who to call on why would he or she call on your child to answer? The teacher might get an email from you saying- my child came home from school and said they were called on to answer a question, but wasn't sure if they correctly answered the question or got credit for answering, etc.

Leave the teacher alone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your child sees the teacher every day or every other day if there is a block schedule. Your child should be talking to the teacher. How are you not understanding that a student emailing a teacher about missing work twice instead of a student talking to the teacher before school, after school, after class, and/or at lunch is making the teacher work harder when it should be your student doing the legwork to talk to the teacher in person. It takes time to respond to back and forth emails when a conversation in person will quickly resolve the problem.

Most likely the teacher has explained to your student, missing work gets graded last or graded once a month. Why do you think your child is so special out of the teacher's 150 students that the teacher is supposed to stop everything, grade your child's late work, enter the grade online and then email you back. Your child probably isn't telling you the whole story. For all you know the teacher could have told your child, I got your mother's email and late work gets graded last.

Or hopefully the teacher isn't putting up with this obsessive nonsense. Your child talked to the teacher and submitted the assignment but the teacher hasn't had a chance to update the online grading system. Why do you think your child submitted the wrong assignment? What assignment do you think she submitted? Some random piece of paper?

She spoke in person with the teacher (good job for her!) and then turned in the assignment. Now you need to be patient. Do you think the teacher emails every parent when his or her child turns in something late saying I know it says missing in the grade book but rest assured your child turned in the correct assignment? If you want that level of catering, pay for private school. Meanwhile, your child is the one who is going to suffer because if you keep pestering the teacher. When the teacher has to choose who to call on why would he or she call on your child to answer? The teacher might get an email from you saying- my child came home from school and said they were called on to answer a question, but wasn't sure if they correctly answered the question or got credit for answering, etc.

Leave the teacher alone!

OP here. How do you not understand that the child has TALKED in person to the teacher and the teacher has said "I'll check" and dropped it/never got back to child or parent. Kid is shy and just doesn't want to pursue further and feels like they're a bother. SO NO, I will not leave the teacher alone. She better well get back to me (it's been 10 days now) and I will escalate if not.