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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So what's the recourse against teachers that don't reply?[/quote]

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

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.

[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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?  [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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