Teacher is totally unresponsive - what would you do?

[Anonymous]

This is DCPS. I'm messaging her through the portal. I'm being extremely polite. I've emailed her 3 times over 3 months, so I am not badgering her.

The first 2 times I waited 7 days and sent a quick, polite follow up.

I know she replies to people because my husband emailed her a yes/no thing about scheduling and she did reply.

WWYD in this situation?

[Anonymous]

email and cc the principal.

[Anonymous]

Did your husband also message her through the portal, or did he send an email? Maybe there's a message with the portal; try sending it another way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did your husband also message her through the portal, or did he send an email? Maybe there's a message with the portal; try sending it another way.

My first 2 emails were to her DCPS email. Then DH successfully got a response from her using the portal, so I emailed her 10 days ago using the portal.

I have waited a while to be annoyed because I know the past week has been absolutely bonkers for teachers. But 10 days seems like plenty to wait before sending a follow up.

[Anonymous]

If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your husband also message her through the portal, or did he send an email? Maybe there's a message with the portal; try sending it another way.

My first 2 emails were to her DCPS email. Then DH successfully got a response from her using the portal, so I emailed her 10 days ago using the portal.

I have waited a while to be annoyed because I know the past week has been absolutely bonkers for teachers. But 10 days seems like plenty to wait before sending a follow up.

Why would you wait that long? I'm not sure why you are tiptoeing around this stuff. Prob got lost in the shuffle. Just resend, and CC the principal to make sure the teacher pays attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

Lexia has an assessment at the beginning. Always. It does have a high pass mark for each activity (80-90%, I think, on each tested part of the level), so kids often end up on the level before the one they should "really" be on... but to be stuck on letters if he can read suggests there are either gaps in his knowledge or gaps in his ability to use the software properly. Also, my 3 year old has gone from Level 1 to Level 5 in about 8 hours (and I assume that's with having to remediate wrong answers given that he isn't totally fluent on CVCs, for instance), so it's super easy to go pretty quickly if you actually have mastery of the topic.

[Anonymous]

Why not just hop on as she’s ending the live session and let her know you emailed her? I hear parents doing this at least a couple times a week to ask our teacher a quick question.

PP what are you so quick to CC the principal in an attempt to “get the teacher in trouble”?
FYI this is looked down upon by administrators and teachers alike. They get enough emails as is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

Lexia has an assessment at the beginning. Always. It does have a high pass mark for each activity (80-90%, I think, on each tested part of the level), so kids often end up on the level before the one they should "really" be on... but to be stuck on letters if he can read suggests there are either gaps in his knowledge or gaps in his ability to use the software properly. Also, my 3 year old has gone from Level 1 to Level 5 in about 8 hours (and I assume that's with having to remediate wrong answers given that he isn't totally fluent on CVCs, for instance), so it's super easy to go pretty quickly if you actually have mastery of the topic.

Yep. My kid started out below level on Lexia, but moved up really fast once she got the hang of the controls. I just told my kid to see how fast she could get through the easy stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just hop on as she’s ending the live session and let her know you emailed her? I hear parents doing this at least a couple times a week to ask our teacher a quick question.

PP what are you so quick to CC the principal in an attempt to “get the teacher in trouble”?
FYI this is looked down upon by administrators and teachers alike. They get enough emails as is.

NP here but if you don’t get a response after three emails, I would cc the principal too. Yes, teachers get a lot of emails but they should respond after a few days.

-a HS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

Lexia has an assessment at the beginning. Always. It does have a high pass mark for each activity (80-90%, I think, on each tested part of the level), so kids often end up on the level before the one they should "really" be on... but to be stuck on letters if he can read suggests there are either gaps in his knowledge or gaps in his ability to use the software properly. Also, my 3 year old has gone from Level 1 to Level 5 in about 8 hours (and I assume that's with having to remediate wrong answers given that he isn't totally fluent on CVCs, for instance), so it's super easy to go pretty quickly if you actually have mastery of the topic.

Yep. My kid started out below level on Lexia, but moved up really fast once she got the hang of the controls. I just told my kid to see how fast she could get through the easy stuff.

OP again and he did that for a while, and he loved it. He was super excited about Lexia. But now he's bored and I want him to get reengaged.

Anyway, fine if the answer is "no", but frustrated that I cannot get even an answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

I had this problem with my kid and apparently it is annoying/difficult for teachers to do it, esp if they are older/worse with tech.
I would just tell my kid they don’t have to do Lexia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she did respond to your husband's email, then she's not just ignoring her email; what was the nature of your email? When did you need a response?

I asked if there was a way to "level up" in Lexia because my son is pretty bored with it. He's an older K student who is reading books and he's stuck identifying individual letters.

The answer is no.

Sincerly,

a DCPS teacher who would also not be prioritizing such a ridiculous email with everything else I'm juggling

[Anonymous]

Come on, the teacher should have responded within a couple of days.

OP, I'd get a Raz Kids subscription via A-Z learning, around $100 a year. He can read at higher levels on Raz Kids. Also ask the school for an Epic login for online books at his level.