I think you need to consider if the teacher is a dud to everyone or just not clicking for your kid. My kid has a teacher this year who he is having a hard time working with—hard to know if it’s my kid or the teacher. Either way it’s good practice for when you have to work for or with people with whom you don’t click.

Anonymous wrote:A bit of an off-topic question, but since there are teachers on the board...what is customary (if anything) for a gift for a teacher in high school at the holidays? Our prior school used to do a collection and then split evenly among all teachers. Do high schoolers give holiday/end of year gifts?

I’d suggest starting a separate thread with your question. It’s totally off topic.

Anonymous wrote:We had brilliant teachers in pubic but also a lot of duds. Every year of middle school there were at least 2 duds. This is my kid's first year in private and no duds so far.

That's promising. I decided to apply for a private after a couple of years of little instruction. This year/semester of middle has started off with great teachers and instruction (now that we're going through this process). I feel like I should have switched years ago but not sure about now.

We had brilliant teachers in pubic but also a lot of duds. Every year of middle school there were at least 2 duds. This is my kid's first year in private and no duds so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In English at our kid’s big-3, the new teachers are phenomenal and the ones that have been there forever are the ones calling it in. Times do change. Teachers need to stay fresh and update materials and methods a little occasionally.

I’m a private high school English teacher. I’m going to be completely honest: this job takes 60-70 hours a week to do WELL. The younger teachers still have energy. I’ve been pulling these hours for 14 years. I’m slowing down and can no longer devote all weekend to commenting on essays and planning new lessons.

Please take a moment this holiday season to thank those phenomenal teachers in your life. What they are doing in the classroom comes at a great personal cost.

Planning should not be too difficult for you after many years? I understand that grading is a huge time suck but don’t you have a total of approximately 60 students? Is it really that bad? Also you get 3 months off in the summer. And another month with winter break and spring break.

Sigh. I should have known better. This is DCUM, after all.

I have 110 students. Most teachers will tell you the job had gotten much harder now that technology is involved. I have 8 weeks off during the summer, and 4 of those weeks are spent in full-day training. I get 6 days off for winter break and another 6 days for spring break. I work through both.

Thanks for playing, through, and thanks for diminishing the challenges of this job. I can’t tell you how demoralizing your comment was.

Don't be demoralized. DCUM just gotta DCUM. Most parents recognize that this is a hard job. Given the teacher attrition I am really thankful there are still dedicated good teachers around. Thank you!

I think many teachers needed a couple of years to get it together again after covid shut downs. I swear one of them must have been having a breakdown but I didn't get all the terrible details from my kid until a year passed.

A bit of an off-topic question, but since there are teachers on the board...what is customary (if anything) for a gift for a teacher in high school at the holidays? Our prior school used to do a collection and then split evenly among all teachers. Do high schoolers give holiday/end of year gifts?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In English at our kid’s big-3, the new teachers are phenomenal and the ones that have been there forever are the ones calling it in. Times do change. Teachers need to stay fresh and update materials and methods a little occasionally.

I’m a private high school English teacher. I’m going to be completely honest: this job takes 60-70 hours a week to do WELL. The younger teachers still have energy. I’ve been pulling these hours for 14 years. I’m slowing down and can no longer devote all weekend to commenting on essays and planning new lessons.

Please take a moment this holiday season to thank those phenomenal teachers in your life. What they are doing in the classroom comes at a great personal cost.

Planning should not be too difficult for you after many years? I understand that grading is a huge time suck but don’t you have a total of approximately 60 students? Is it really that bad? Also you get 3 months off in the summer. And another month with winter break and spring break.

Sigh. I should have known better. This is DCUM, after all.

I have 110 students. Most teachers will tell you the job had gotten much harder now that technology is involved. I have 8 weeks off during the summer, and 4 of those weeks are spent in full-day training. I get 6 days off for winter break and another 6 days for spring break. I work through both.

Thanks for playing, through, and thanks for diminishing the challenges of this job. I can’t tell you how demoralizing your comment was.

Just know that not all of us are clueless a-holes. I am constantly amazed by my child’s teachers and how much they juggle, and how cheerfully they provide so much attention to each student at the cost of their own time and families. At least some of us see you, and can’t thank you enough for what you do.

That is why we teach. Make sure your DC's teachers here that at least once per year. Sometimes we seem to go a while giving out lots and lots and not getting much direct support. The rest of the time, we can remember that it's there.

fortunately not many duds (a few for sure) but the 8th grade teacher who asked my daughter’s class who was watching white lotus took the cake for me.

DD is in 10th grade at Field. My DS graduated 2 years ago. He had such dynamic teachers who inspired him, which is why DD wanted to go there, but it's just been one failure after another with the current crop of teachers. All my DS teachers who inspired him have left, and DS teachers are lacking in skills to meaningfully engage with the students. I'd pull her out of there but even with the dud teachers she enjoys it there. The only reason I can find for the change in teacher qualities is due to the new Head who has been less engaging than the interim one was, or even the prior Head.

In our case, one of the duds is head of the department. Sigh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In English at our kid’s big-3, the new teachers are phenomenal and the ones that have been there forever are the ones calling it in. Times do change. Teachers need to stay fresh and update materials and methods a little occasionally.

I’m a private high school English teacher. I’m going to be completely honest: this job takes 60-70 hours a week to do WELL. The younger teachers still have energy. I’ve been pulling these hours for 14 years. I’m slowing down and can no longer devote all weekend to commenting on essays and planning new lessons.

Please take a moment this holiday season to thank those phenomenal teachers in your life. What they are doing in the classroom comes at a great personal cost.

Planning should not be too difficult for you after many years? I understand that grading is a huge time suck but don’t you have a total of approximately 60 students? Is it really that bad? Also you get 3 months off in the summer. And another month with winter break and spring break.

Sigh. I should have known better. This is DCUM, after all.

I have 110 students. Most teachers will tell you the job had gotten much harder now that technology is involved. I have 8 weeks off during the summer, and 4 of those weeks are spent in full-day training. I get 6 days off for winter break and another 6 days for spring break. I work through both.

Thanks for playing, through, and thanks for diminishing the challenges of this job. I can’t tell you how demoralizing your comment was.

Just know that not all of us are clueless a-holes. I am constantly amazed by my child’s teachers and how much they juggle, and how cheerfully they provide so much attention to each student at the cost of their own time and families. At least some of us see you, and can’t thank you enough for what you do.

I feel very fortunate that my two kids had mostly good teachers all the way through. The worst duds were both in elementary school (4th grade for both -and 2 different dud teachers - absolutely terrible and untouchable apparantly. With so much time spent with the homeroom teacher, this was a enough of a problem that we moved them both to a private K-8 for 5th. In later years, there was a bad Chemistry teacher (11th public), a bad French teacher (middle school private) and honestly that's it for bad. Another interesting point is my kids were split for HS (one returned to public/one stayed in private) and I think they both had excellent instruction at the HS level (All AP/Advanced levels) with no complaints for either. I'm thankful for the amazing teachers that helped my kids attend colleges that they both loved and where they thrived.

I’ve had very few duds in either the regular K-8 or high schools. Now the special ed schools were full of dud teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In English at our kid’s big-3, the new teachers are phenomenal and the ones that have been there forever are the ones calling it in. Times do change. Teachers need to stay fresh and update materials and methods a little occasionally.

I’m a private high school English teacher. I’m going to be completely honest: this job takes 60-70 hours a week to do WELL. The younger teachers still have energy. I’ve been pulling these hours for 14 years. I’m slowing down and can no longer devote all weekend to commenting on essays and planning new lessons.

Please take a moment this holiday season to thank those phenomenal teachers in your life. What they are doing in the classroom comes at a great personal cost.

Planning should not be too difficult for you after many years? I understand that grading is a huge time suck but don’t you have a total of approximately 60 students? Is it really that bad? Also you get 3 months off in the summer. And another month with winter break and spring break.

Sigh. I should have known better. This is DCUM, after all.

I have 110 students. Most teachers will tell you the job had gotten much harder now that technology is involved. I have 8 weeks off during the summer, and 4 of those weeks are spent in full-day training. I get 6 days off for winter break and another 6 days for spring break. I work through both.

Thanks for playing, through, and thanks for diminishing the challenges of this job. I can’t tell you how demoralizing your comment was.