To OP: I am a teacher and that amount of work is too much. I would suspect you are at a private school. I absolutely would let the teacher and administrator know, at the same time, that this is too much and ask how you can get reduced work for your child, if indeed he is getting grades. I would use the buzzword of mental health stressors and the need for more movement and outside time, which is developmentally appropriate (another buzzword). The admin can let you know what the school expectations are and can be alerted to guide the teacher to back off. If it doesn’t mean your kid won’t be promoted to the next grade or get kicked out, just tell them you will be shortening assignments yourself if needed, if you don’t have success.

There is no reason for your son to be made crazy by this and schools need to be flexible. Reach out to the guidance counselor or school psychologist, other parents, and the PTA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With distance learning I have a lot more time for grading so I’m providing more specific feedback than usual on work. I’m not grading any harder, but may seem harder because of the volume of comments, but this is a good opportunity to help students improve things that might be overlooked when grading 50 essays during my planning vs during hours of office hours that students may not show up for.

And also we are getting about 1/10th the volume of work. Most kids are barely turning in anything at all so if I only get 5 pieces of writing I can spend 10 minutes on each giving really useful feedback (which is not a grade). That’s a luxury I don’t have when I’m getting 115 assignments.

In one of my two preps, I’m getting the regular volume of work back from kids. It took about 2 hours per class to grade their short essays this weekend. Revisions are due Friday. It is much harder though to get work from the other set of students. This is the group that we used to say needed to build grit. I don’t know what the current jargon is, but they tend to give up as soon as they experience any level of frustration with the task. I write a lot of emails begging for work and offering one on one assistance. So, less grading from them, but no increase in downtime because of all the emailing and documenting the emails.

Anonymous[b wrote:]I am veteran high school teacher and I do think parents are a lot more hands off at that level, so I say this with that caveat[/b]. But I have never really parents complain, before COVID or after, other than one or two of the infamously difficult/mentally unstable parents who come through every once in a while and everyone, including admin, is well aware of. Honestly, I think that most effective teachers don’t get a lot of complaints because effective teachers are pragmatic, reasonable and efficient. They don’t pile on busy work or have unrealistic expectations (like expecting group work to go smoothly in a virtual setting). I love teaching and there are many great teachers out there. There are also plenty of mediocre ones and a few terrible ones. I think the OP has run into a mediocre teacher who isn’t coping well with this new situation. Just my 2 cents.

And I’m thinking you don’t have a lot of experience with elementary school parents. It’s pretty crappy of you to assume that this teacher is mediocre and not coping well with this situation. It sounds to me like this teacher has been hearing too many complaints from parents and/or admin that they want “real” work that occupies their kids and they want their kids to be “challenged“, and the teachers are told to make sure that this is happening.

Pp above...excuse the typos, on my phone in the sun...not a great idea!

I am veteran high school teacher and I do think parents are a lot more hands off at that level, so I say this with that caveat. But I have never really parents complain, before COVID or after, other than one or two of the infamously difficult/mentally unstable parents who come through every once in a while and everyone, including admin, is well aware of. Honestly, I think that most effective teachers don’t get a lot of complaints because effective teachers are pragmatic, reasonable and efficient. They don’t pile on busy work or have unrealistic expectations (like expecting group work to go smoothly in a virtual setting). I love teaching and there are many great teachers out there. There are also plenty of mediocre ones and a few terrible ones. I think the OP has run into a mediocre teacher who isn’t coping well with this new situation. Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous wrote:With distance learning I have a lot more time for grading so I’m providing more specific feedback than usual on work. I’m not grading any harder, but may seem harder because of the volume of comments, but this is a good opportunity to help students improve things that might be overlooked when grading 50 essays during my planning vs during hours of office hours that students may not show up for.

Whose grading anything at all now? Are there really schools that are still grading?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade and his teacher is assigning book reports and projects left and right. He just turned in a project which was a PowerPoint on a topic of his choice and she critiqued the hell out of it and he got a 70% on the project. I read the rubric and we made sure each part of the rubric was met, but she had a lot to say that was wrong with it.

She has also assigned a group project which isn’t working too well because they are doing it over video chat and unable to meet up in person. On top of these projects he is assigned up to 40 math problems from the textbook per night which must be done on loose leaf and scanned into the system. Last week they had an assignment for science which had over 50 questions and on Friday, she told the students that she felt like they had worked in groups on the project and this is effectively cheating so she wouldn’t accept it and is assigning a new packet of science questions from the several chapters that they must answer.

Does this sound normal or is it a bit much??

I'm completely ignoring school. I paid attention and seen the assignments are useless and a waste of time.

My kid has been left to his own devices. If they finish they finish. If they don't they don't. If the teacher needs some dub assignment finishes she can email me.

I have my kids going to the math center 2xs a week, we are doing sentence diagramming at home, I'm having them read quality literature and discussing with them, and they are watching 1.5hrs of history and science documentaries a day.

The content at school is pathetic.

Are math centers open now?

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade and his teacher is assigning book reports and projects left and right. He just turned in a project which was a PowerPoint on a topic of his choice and she critiqued the hell out of it and he got a 70% on the project. I read the rubric and we made sure each part of the rubric was met, but she had a lot to say that was wrong with it.

She has also assigned a group project which isn’t working too well because they are doing it over video chat and unable to meet up in person. On top of these projects he is assigned up to 40 math problems from the textbook per night which must be done on loose leaf and scanned into the system. Last week they had an assignment for science which had over 50 questions and on Friday, she told the students that she felt like they had worked in groups on the project and this is effectively cheating so she wouldn’t accept it and is assigning a new packet of science questions from the several chapters that they must answer.

Does this sound normal or is it a bit much??

Where are you located? Are grades still being taken? I haven’t heard of a single school district that is taking grades now.

Anonymous wrote:No , not much work here for my 5th and 9th grader MCPS, like 5-10% of usual school work
Also the whole school day becomes free time - no zoom session for 9 Th grader

Same in LCPS. Total joke.

My 5th grader - in private school - works about 10 hours a day weekdays and one day on the weekend, another 8 hours. This was a kid praised for her efficiency. Most of it is from a few teachers. The good ones are very reasonable. And those same teachers assigning all the work send nasty emails to her and to the parents for the slightest mistake (often because the instructions were not clear in the path of emails and google classrooms and videos). I have another A student in high school where her grades and other kids grades are rapidly dropping significantly in part because of all the irrational grading. Oh and the work levels are more too. And the teaching isn’t clear I’ve given up. The good teachers are all reasonable. The administration is painting that everything is great and we are getting our tuition value.

The only thing that makes me feel better is sending thank you’s individually to every great teacher and when this is over sending gift cards or something. Their dedication and adaptability is inspiring. I also tell my kid in middle school not to stress and it’s ok to have grades drop. Your sanity is more important. I’m very sad for my high schooler with everything taken away, they have to deal with this.

I for one really appreciate the teachers who are pushing kids to continue to learn. Op, if you think it is too much, contact the teacher and talk to them. There are likely other parents that want thier kids to have work. But you may be able to figure out what is important and what is less than important.

This definitely sounds excessive, both in workload and attitude. My 4th grader in a CES (public school magnet) doesn’t have nearly that much work and her teacher is always positive.

I would contact the teacher and point out that the workload has increased dramatically from before and it’s not sustainable. Moreover, the group work is challenging due to technical issues, and you feel her cheating accusation is inappropriate. CC the Principal. There is something going on with this teacher.

Anonymous wrote:With distance learning I have a lot more time for grading so I’m providing more specific feedback than usual on work. I’m not grading any harder, but may seem harder because of the volume of comments, but this is a good opportunity to help students improve things that might be overlooked when grading 50 essays during my planning vs during hours of office hours that students may not show up for.

And also we are getting about 1/10th the volume of work. Most kids are barely turning in anything at all so if I only get 5 pieces of writing I can spend 10 minutes on each giving really useful feedback (which is not a grade). That’s a luxury I don’t have when I’m getting 115 assignments.

No , not much work here for my 5th and 9th grader MCPS, like 5-10% of usual school work
Also the whole school day becomes free time - no zoom session for 9 Th grader

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, understand, those of us who back off get parents mad we are getting paid for “not doing” anything. They say we are getting a paycheck and not working. If we do assign work and say it’s optional and ungraded, some parents think we are being demanding. We have to take one approach, what our school tell us - you the families can decide how much or how little of it works for you to do.

This.

We are never going to please 100% of parents. I have to do what my principal expects. He seems to be listening to the parents who want more and not less, but he also has pressure from the district regarding limits on how much can be assigned.

Oh please. If you are a decent teacher you have a good understanding of child development and what is reasonable and what is over the top. Such defensiveness.

Yes of course we do. That doesn’t mean that’s what we are allowed to do right now. The district has a policy and we have to follow it. Even though I disagree with a LOT of it.