Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
Ohhh so wrong, PP. The taecher should not set a precedent. The teacher acted appropriately. Kids don't get rewarded for what they are *supposed* to do.

I am a teacher. My email signature line includes something to the effect of "I read and answer emails during my working hours (__am until __pm) when I am not teaching class or otherwise committed."

Oh please. You are not getting inundated with emails from 8th graders wanting assignment clarifications. He emailed teacher his question several days before assignment was due, allowing plenty of time for her to respond during business hours. Which she did take the time to respond, just with snark, instead of anything helpful. OP, she is a crap teacher and the year is almost over. Yea!

.

Not for an unexcused absence!

Entitlement.

Parents need to say to their kids “you will be missing school. You will be getting a zero on the assignment.”

Anonymous wrote:^^^
Ohhh so wrong, PP. The taecher should not set a precedent. The teacher acted appropriately. Kids don't get rewarded for what they are *supposed* to do.

I am a teacher. My email signature line includes something to the effect of "I read and answer emails during my working hours (__am until __pm) when I am not teaching class or otherwise committed."

Oh please. You are not getting inundated with emails from 8th graders wanting assignment clarifications. He emailed teacher his question several days before assignment was due, allowing plenty of time for her to respond during business hours. Which she did take the time to respond, just with snark, instead of anything helpful. OP, she is a crap teacher and the year is almost over. Yea!

Good for the teacher for putting her foot down. OP, you have a lot of nerve questioning why the teacher didn’t just catch your kid up on an assignment he missed because you decided to go away for the weekend. Good for kids to learn boundaries and how school works.

Doesn’t he have a friend he could ask?

^^^
Ohhh so wrong, PP. The taecher should not set a precedent. The teacher acted appropriately. Kids don't get rewarded for what they are *supposed* to do.

I am a teacher. My email signature line includes something to the effect of "I read and answer emails during my working hours (__am until __pm) when I am not teaching class or otherwise committed."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If its an unexcused absence the teacher is not required to spend additional time to explain things they explained in class that was missed.

THIS.

While she isn’t “required” to explain..seems poor form to be so dismissive and rude. If she is going to take the time to type out a snarky reply, she could have just used those few sentences to clarify the assignment. 99% of 8th graders DGAF about missed work. So here is a kid that cares and is trying to do the right thing by turning in a correctly completed assignment on time, a good teacher would just answer the question. It doesn’t need to be like this

A public school is just that -- a group lesson. They (we) do not do tutoring/ individual instruction for an unexcused absence. I have 120 kids, plus 2 of my own at home. My off-duty time is for my kids, not yours.

Anonymous wrote:This is a life skill learning moment where he should have figured it out on his own. Think of a work situation- it’s always more impressive if someone just figures something out without bothering their boss. Ask a classmate or use context clues for the assignment and wing it. Asking the teacher to spend time sending a email to one of many students was not a savvy choice.

+100000

Kids like OP’s and parents like OP are the height of mediocre entitlement

This is a life skill learning moment where he should have figured it out on his own. Think of a work situation- it’s always more impressive if someone just figures something out without bothering their boss. Ask a classmate or use context clues for the assignment and wing it. Asking the teacher to spend time sending a email to one of many students was not a savvy choice.

Good for that teacher. She's sick of entitled kids expecting concierge service. That's their parents' fault. They think that everyone should accommodate their schedules. Doesn't work that way moms and dads.

I just read an article that some schools in Britain are charging parents for unexcused absences.

https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

Your child is not the only one who was out that day or a day that week. It is frustrating to have to respond to these emails. Classes and assignments are not designed to be completed in isolation or asynchronously. It is difficult to change the work to allow students to complete without attending class. I design my lessons and assignments expecting students to be present. The work that it takes to take a lesson/assignment and make it asynchronous is no easy task.

Emailing the teacher was completely out of line. The world does not revolve around your child and your family. You choose to pull your child out of school and expect that the teacher is going to take time to explain what she already explained in class because you claim it wasn’t your son’s fault. It was indeed your family’s fault. He needed to have emailed or texted a friend for the directions and not pester the teacher.
Technically it’s an unexcused absence so your child should receive a zero on whatever they did in class on Friday.
Your son came across as completely entitled and clueless and the teacher put him in his place. It’s a good lesson to learn before high school and college.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone’s, I know you’re right. The thing is, now not only did she “waste time” sending the email, but on Tuesday she will “waste time” again when he asks her how to complete the assignment then. Why not just answer the kid in the time it took to send what she did?

Because if she does that for one kid, she will suddenly be expected to do that for every kid whose parents take them out of school for vacation. Since that can’t be done during classroom time, everyone else’s vacations will start eating into her personal time and that’s not ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone’s, I know you’re right. The thing is, now not only did she “waste time” sending the email, but on Tuesday she will “waste time” again when he asks her how to complete the assignment then. Why not just answer the kid in the time it took to send what she did?

Because it’s the end of the year and annoying when kids miss school and then want a one on one explanation. The teacher shouldn’t have replied at all. But your kid was out of line writing and expecting a response over a holiday weekend. Doesn’t your school have some type of help or remediation block in the day? This is the time to ask. Better yet, your kid could text someone in class and ask for clarification. It’s been an entire year, surely he knows someone else who has this teacher.

I mean yes, but also no. I was at a gathering yesterday and stepped away for a minute to take a work-related call. It’s really no big deal.

It’s no big deal for YOU. I have over 140 students. Your child is just one of them. If I’m taking individual requests from each one of them, I’ll see my own family even less than I do now. I intentionally create a barrier to protect myself from being overworked or abused.