I email them regularly, as I feel like it’s less of an intrusion than asking for a call or a meeting (which I have also done , outside of conferences).

One of the main reasons we switched from public to private school was because in public school communication with the teacher seems to be discouraged, other than the once/twice per year parent teacher conferences.

My kids spend hours (this is elementary school) with their teachers every day. If o have questions or concerns about their education that my child can’t answer, I want to be able to get additional information. Parents shouldn’t have to feel bad about that. My kids classes are about 10-12 kids per teacher, so this feels like it’s a reasonable ask for a teacher to respond to email.

Even at our local public elementary school, class sizes are around 28 kids - I can’t imagine all of the parents are emailing the teachers, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable for teachers to be asked to respond to emails from parents. Middle school is very different, as teachers have many more kids they teach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once this year, to explain ADHD, ask for some light accommodations (preferential seating near high achievers at the front of class rooms and just a few check-ins to make sure he's not daydreaming), and advise on how to support him at home. He was almost failing the class, so I felt I had to be proactive.

How annoying - this mom is dragging down my high achieving kid with her troublemaker.

As a teacher I don’t agree with “preferential seating” and only comply to the barest minimum. I’m definitely not letting someone disrupt kids who otherwise do their work.

I understand this be her ADHD kid is inattentive and easily distracted, but not disruptive. She wants her kid sitting near the front and near high achievers bc he would be easily distracted by the naughty kids (probably also adhd) in the back. I can see why she asks, but someone has to sit next to those kids… so whether it’s fair to comply, probably not.

Everyone is distracted by the disruptive kids. That’s why I don’t subscribe to preferential seating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once this year, to explain ADHD, ask for some light accommodations (preferential seating near high achievers at the front of class rooms and just a few check-ins to make sure he's not daydreaming), and advise on how to support him at home. He was almost failing the class, so I felt I had to be proactive.

How annoying - this mom is dragging down my high achieving kid with her troublemaker.

As a teacher I don’t agree with “preferential seating” and only comply to the barest minimum. I’m definitely not letting someone disrupt kids who otherwise do their work.

I understand this be her ADHD kid is inattentive and easily distracted, but not disruptive. She wants her kid sitting near the front and near high achievers bc he would be easily distracted by the naughty kids (probably also adhd) in the back. I can see why she asks, but someone has to sit next to those kids… so whether it’s fair to comply, probably not.

This year, my kid’s teacher moves seats about every 4-5 weeks. It’s been great. When DS complains about his table, I remind him that they’ll switch in just a few weeks. Flip side is that great tables also will be switched up in a few weeks.

I like it when teachers do this, too.

I can't stand when parents try to optimize their kid's classroom experience like this because all the kids should be experiencing a variety of classroom set ups and figuring out strategies for dealing with any of them. That's actually part of what school is teaching kids -- how to adapt to imperfect situations.

Your job as a parent is to work with your kid to help them adjust and deal with it. It's not to call the school and ask them to please make sure your kid has an optimized experience at all time. It's so frustrating to me that parents don't get this -- if they put half the effort they currently put into pulling strings for their kids instead into parenting their kids and helping them deal with imperfect situations, all the kids would be more resilient and adaptable and everyone would benefit -- kids, teachers, and parents.

It's just so short sighted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to email about absences and change in dismissal plans (usually takes bus but is being picked up by car) because that's what it says in the handbook, but the 4th grade teacher rarely responds. I get the sense she doesn't care so I stopped emailing her for that type of stuff.

Yeah…ours doesn’t.

There’s hundreds of kids in our elementary. Kids getting rides go to one section for dismissal, kids taking bus go to another. Absolutely no one is making sure each individual kid goes where and it’s been verified.

+1. We switched from a school where it was very carefully checked to one where it isn't and that took some adjusting. I was used to emailing for every change of plans and that's still the official rule, but my kid just comes home however she wants now.