Disorganized teachers are making DL 10X worse

[Anonymous]

At least for MS and HS. The classes are actually not bad from the teachers who have their act together but the ones who are just phoning it in doing less than the bare minimum or an organizational mess are making it really, really bad.

1. One teacher never responds to emails. She recently sent an email to all students letting them know that she is simply overwhelmed with all the emails she is receiving. She goes on to say that to bring better balance to her life and streamline things that she will only answer questions during tutorial and will no longer respond to any email. She only holds tutorial twice a week and its scheduled not during tutorial time but during another class block which some students have other classes.

2. One teacher decided a pandemic with the added excitement of wildfire evacuations was a perfect time to adopt a new standards base grading system and just wing it. She has a four point "standards" scale. If you receive anything less than 3.5 it is recorded as a 2+. She has told the students that a 4 needs to be something that surprises her and which no one else has done. She refused to give any examples of what a 4 would entail. She told the parents that the kids could redo assignments as many times as they want and earn whatever grade they aspired to receive. However, she has only graded 2 out of 12 assignments that have been collected since August. She warned students that it would take her several weeks to" grade" the recent test. She also has said that she doesn't write feedback on any of the work. If the student has a question about a grade once they eventually receive it they will need to attend her tutorial and have a conversation about it. Another teacher as adopted this method and also does not give any feedback or mark anything wrong but expects a student who doesn't know why they received a 3.4652 to have a discussion with her. She will send her rubric in advance but its the vaguest list I have ever seen.

This is clearly teachers deciding that they don't want to actually grade work anymore.

[Anonymous]

OP, I am so sorry. I hope that you are escalating to the principals. This behavior is completely unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

Our K teacher not responding to any emails is why we quite DL a week in. Sorry you're dealing with this OP.

[Anonymous]

2 weeks in.
Maybe you should be more judgmental? I mean, you *are* the teacher's supervisor, right?

[Anonymous]

Please consider how many students these teachers have. If parents email them frequently, it’s simply not sustainable.

Before you email, check the syllabus and website and any other thing in writing you have. Check with other parents or students first to see if they know the answer.

[Anonymous]

Here's a thought - parents who spent all summer and early fall complaining about DL only to send a deluge of emails in the first week nitpicking every little thing need to stuff it.

Just admit you wouldn't be happy if a Supreme Court Justice was teaching your kindergartner and let it go. BTW what the h is so urgent that your kindergartner needs to have multiple emails in during the first week - the teacher forgot to announce the correct washable marker gradient?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please consider how many students these teachers have. If parents email them frequently, it’s simply not sustainable.

Before you email, check the syllabus and website and any other thing in writing you have. Check with other parents or students first to see if they know the answer.

This.

A resourceful teacher should have all the FAQs linked somewhere but honestly these parents won't be satisfied until another adult is going through the hell they are of SFH (school from home).

[Anonymous]

As a teacher's aide for many years in elementary school I can tell you that disorganized or lazy teachers are just as bad when school is in the building, you just don't know it. Kids won't tell you. Be grateful for this opportunity to find out what your kid's teachers are really like.

[Anonymous]

They may have hormonal imbalances that cause psychological issues. Throughout these years my kids had ES teachers with poor judgment. You may want to write to the adm to see if the situation improves.

[Anonymous]

My DH is a high school teacher. He averages 150 emails every day. 80-100 of them are emails asking questions that can be answered by one or two documents posted and reviewed by him. Yet he still has to wade through all of them.

[Anonymous]

OP here - we are in another state that went back mid-August so we are more than two weeks into this. I haven't been emailing the teachers but my kids have sent them messages to which several teachers never respond. The disorganized teachers are the ones gets the most emails because the ones that have their stuff together have it laid it in a clear manner and set up correctly. They are quick to respond to questions and grade promptly.

I would be 100% of supportive of DL going on for the entire year if it needed to for health reasons IF someone would get control of the bad teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least for MS and HS. The classes are actually not bad from the teachers who have their act together but the ones who are just phoning it in doing less than the bare minimum or an organizational mess are making it really, really bad.

1. One teacher never responds to emails. She recently sent an email to all students letting them know that she is simply overwhelmed with all the emails she is receiving. She goes on to say that to bring better balance to her life and streamline things that she will only answer questions during tutorial and will no longer respond to any email. She only holds tutorial twice a week and its scheduled not during tutorial time but during another class block which some students have other classes.

2. One teacher decided a pandemic with the added excitement of wildfire evacuations was a perfect time to adopt a new standards base grading system and just wing it. She has a four point "standards" scale. If you receive anything less than 3.5 it is recorded as a 2+. She has told the students that a 4 needs to be something that surprises her and which no one else has done. She refused to give any examples of what a 4 would entail. She told the parents that the kids could redo assignments as many times as they want and earn whatever grade they aspired to receive. However, she has only graded 2 out of 12 assignments that have been collected since August. She warned students that it would take her several weeks to" grade" the recent test. She also has said that she doesn't write feedback on any of the work. If the student has a question about a grade once they eventually receive it they will need to attend her tutorial and have a conversation about it. Another teacher as adopted this method and also does not give any feedback or mark anything wrong but expects a student who doesn't know why they received a 3.4652 to have a discussion with her. She will send her rubric in advance but its the vaguest list I have ever seen.

This is clearly teachers deciding that they don't want to actually grade work anymore.

Even if we were in school, these teachers would still exist. My daughter has had quite a few of them in the past 12 years. You're really only left with to choices: 1) request a teacher switch or, 2) del with it for the next 9 months. We have done both depending on the course/year.