Reply to HS Teachers Aren’t Keeping up on Grading

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]and to think parents think teachers are doing nothing. [/quote]

The problem is for a strong student who does everything well the first time, it probably looks like that. Obviously they don't see all the behind the scenes hoops we are jumping through for kids who aren't their own.

I have a student who has missed over 75% of class periods this year, due to "anxiety".  I don't doubt the anxiety is real. But there's also nothing I can do to improve it, as I'm not a trained psychologist or psychiatrist or counselor. This is a child who needs specialized supports beyond public school.  Yet we have had 3 meetings so far this year (to discuss this child and how to keep them up to date and passing classes/start coming to school), where all 8 of their teachers, their counselor, their administrator, the school psychologist, school social worker, and attendance specialist all sit around the table to discuss this child. We are coming up with alternative ways to assess the child from home, to get them work, to give them instruction.  (Even a year ago that would be a homebound kid, but homebound is basically nonexistent and is just edmentum these days--so now the classroom teacher is responsible for assigning, monitoring, and assessing work in an alternate system vs. just sharing schoology log ins with the homebound teacher).  Each meeting is 13 people giving 30 minutes of their time for a single student. 6.5 man hours devoted to 1/3000 students in the school.

And it's not just 1. I teach at a "good" fcps high school, and i have 6 students with over 30% of days missed. Attendance monitoring doesn't start until a child has 10 full day unexcused absences (so missing 1st period 50 times but coming to 3-7 doesn't count), so imagine how many have crummy attendance and aren't on that list. It's why teachers groan when you ask if it's okay to extend winter break or take spring break early or go to disney for a few days in February.  It's so much added work for us if we're doing what we're told to do.

Old days: Kid doesn't come to school, kid doesn't graduate.  Today: Kid doesn't come to school, school is labeled "failing" in attendance metrics, loses autonomy and funding, housing values plummet, etc.  Again, the responsibility for getting an education has moved from the kid to the school.

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Old days: teachers actually taught/lectured/had kids take notes, had textbooks to read from, no YouTube videos. Parents could easily see the work and help kids study.

Today: No textbooks, crappy presentation slides, virtual learning, no tests returned for kids to learn from mistakes, over reliance on computers.[/quote]

Teachers don’t determine whether a class has textbooks. The district does. The district also has a heavy hand in technology use, a decision that is also not always left to teachers.

I get that “the teacher” is all you see and that you aren’t aware of what our jobs are and how little we actually control.

But teachers above are trying to explain that to you. Perhaps it’s worth a 2nd read.
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