Reply to How to DELICATELY address some potential issues with teacher in the upcoming school year?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "How to DELICATELY address some potential issues with teacher in the upcoming school year?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Holy moly. So many misconceptions.
1. Title 1 parents DO care. I teach in a title 1 school. Many parents work multiple jobs, don't have a car, and don't understand the school system--but when I get a translator and call home, they 100% want to hear what I have to say. In conferences, I've had aunts/uncles/cousins come with mom and dad to help translate. I've had parents take taxis to/from their minimum wage job for IEP meetings. Not being on the PTA =/= not caring.

2. Teachers at title 1 schools aren't slackers. My colleagues have delivered food to families after school, purchased supplies for those who can't, and regularly feed students who come hungry. We stay late with those who have no supervision, come up with lesson plans to meet those who have never been in school (when they are currently in 7th or 8th grade), and work tirelessly to try to give those kids a fighting chance at success.

Do not bring up candy or movies to anyone until it is a major issue this year. If the worst thing you can say about he teacher is she gave out too many lollipops, that's a fabulous 1st year teacher. The principal has bigger fish to fry than micromanaging individual classroom sugar policies.[/quote]

Staff at Title I schools are compassionate and really go the extra mile for students in need.  Unfortunately my experience was that students who were not considered in need were not getting educational basics.  I spent a lot of time volunteering in the classrooms, and noticed the efforts to help those who were struggling while the others were largely ignored during writing centers, etc.  I saw how it happens, I'm not blaming anyone because it's human nature to help those in need.  Even now in middle school there is so much catering to the weakest links in the class, even cancelling assignments or giving special roles that would normally go to a high performer just so the other kid could "feel what it's like".  There is only so much attention to go around, just like in parenting- you can love all your kids but the ones who need more get more.  Every kid deserves a chance to grow regardless of whether they're meeting benchmarks or not.  We only had a couple of teachers in 8 years who really made this work well.  It wasn't just about academic differentiation, it was about how much a teacher focused on certain kids and barely acknowledged others.  I'm sure this happens at non-title I schools too.  Just my observations.[/quote]

This is OP.
YES I noticed this, too! If you don't give anyone trouble you are ignored. I couldn't really formulate that vague feeling, you just nailed it.
Even though my kid needed quite a lot of help, he wasn't getting much. The two "troublemakers" in class managed to divert so much attention. It's not their fault but still. 
I am now thinking I may need to switch schools altogether if this is a tendency. I thought maybe it was a combination of teacher and class composition that was to blame.

I wonder if there is a way to help secure a bit more teacher attention for my generally non problematic kid?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics