Accelerated Reader

[Adreamer's_wfe]

Ah, I always think that you should talk to a teacher first, and that is what you need to do.

Leave kids alone: we are instructed to NEVER leave kids alone. I have a papa-pro, or a teacher on planning cover my class if I need to leave for a couple of minutes.

Mole: Wow- that does not sound like a good teaching practice. I would directly ask the teacher about that, and not just go on another parents info. You can certainly let her know how you feel about it, and go on to the principal if it continues, but NO she should not do that, but then again, WHY is she out of the room so much? Is she in the hall testing? I know that outcome based report cards, not grade based, are used in our area, which means the teacher has to do testing all the time. CRAZY?

Spelling tests: I would not want another child grading my child's spelling test. I have to tell you I HATE grading spelling test, it is a huge time killer, but I still do it. Ask her the rational for it, is it just to make her job easier, or does it meet a benchmark/standard for their education.

I would pick my battles at this point. Start with the big issues, like the "mole" and leaving the room, and go from there. Otherwise it seems like you have a laundry list of concerns.

If you really want to know what is really going on in her classroom, volunteer. Offer to come in and grade the spelling tests, or supervise while she does testing, or lead a reading group. There is LOTS of work to be done in a classroom. I used to have parents come in and volunteer to grade papers for me - I LOVED them for it. Two weeks ago I had the kids writing essays to prepare for standardized testing. It took me a week and a half to get them graded, meanwhile I still had papers stacking up on my desk.

I would always prefer if parents addressed their concerns to me, sometimes I can explain why I have a practice. Sometimes, they are right - and I am happy to admit that.

[czechmate]

I've been keeping a mental list of happenings.
I really don't want to be the complaining mom, so I have been waiting to see what other parents discuss with her.

I volunteered when school just started and I will try to get into the class at least once every two weeks. (My new goal for the school year!)

Thanks for your insight.

Jen

[Adreamer's_wfe]

Originally Posted by czechmate

I've been keeping a mental list of happenings.
I really don't want to be the complaining mom, so I have been waiting to see what other parents discuss with her.

I totally understand, I took that approach last year. I tried to wait, see progress, not be the "crazy teacher" mom. Finally I did try to work with the teacher, and ended up in an email war with her. I ended it by requesting testing. I knew that they had to begin the testing within 10 day, and complete it within 30. Turns out I was right, which solved the problem, and the teacher had to make some adjustments in her reading program.

This year I am embracing being the crazy mom - I am crazy - try to keep me happy, and by the way, DD is the first of five kids, so I am not going away soon. This year I started working with the teacher right away. She made a small adjustment, I am giving her a couple of weeks to get to know my child better, then I will start pushing again. Not being "pushy", but pushing. I have a smart kid, which can be worse than a challenged child. She sits, behaves herself and keeps herself busy, so it is easy to let her slide by. Also, they are doing the gifted testing, so I know when they get done they will be doing something with her, I just need to be patient. DH have our own expectations for her, since the teacher cannot meet her needs.

Please don't wait to talk to the teacher. I have had parents come to me when they are at the end of their rope - only to find out that there had been miscommunication, or their child had not understood the expectation. I just seemed unreasonable - until they spoke with me. Also, when parents get to that point, they are harder to please, becuase it just keeps piling up without a resolution.

Get in the classroom. If you establish a relationship with the teacher, she will know you are not a crazy mom - and you will understand why she has the practices she does. Good luck.

[Regina]

I, too, agree that you shouldn't wait to talk to the teacher. You have very legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.

I had to speak to my kids' teacher already about the amount of work given...they are in first grade, and it wa up to 2 hours with the studying and reading. She was so grateful that I let her know, and she had it changed. The problem was that she is new, no one was saying anything to her, so she thought everything was fine. The religion teacher was a priest that typically teaches in a seminary, so he was unaware he was going so fast (memorization of 3 catechism questions a night word for word without any hesitations). we were so stressed trying to keep up, and it could have been fixed right away if I would have discussed my concerns.

Anyway, my point is that even if no other parent has your concerns, they are still valid concerns that at least need an explaination, if not anything more.

[skibum515]

a note with the Box Car Children books - I remember reading those, and I really liked them!

[Regina]

I was just curious what came of the situation?

[czechmate]

Well,
I volunteered this past week and noticed that she's rude to some of the kids.
Example: She knew a week early that I was coming in to volunteer. She didn't have hardly anything written down for me to do. So she stopped class (!) and took her time to look for her books/papers to copy and then to write it down for me. Well, one student came up and wanted to ask her a question and she motioned for the student to go away because she was talking to me!!!!
How rude, she's there to teach those students, not explain what needs to be done to me. She should have had enough time to plan what she needed done by me.

Then, I get home and get the "It's time for parent conferences letter".
Well, I sign up for my three choices and then at the end is a letter from some PHD explaining how to have a great P/T conference.
Number 2 - Complement the teacher!!! Sincere compliments will set the conference off on a good foot. And if the teacher is smart, he/she will complement the parent!!! What?????
Number 4 - Don't criticize the teacher!! If the teacher has something to say about your child you must realize that your first response as a parent is to protect your child, well, you must realize that the teacher is only pointing out what is/could become a problem. After all, 95% of children seeing psychologists are from teacher reccomendations!!!!!!
It was 3 pages long!!! It's upset at least 3 parents in the class. Two of which are teachers and said that they would NEVER send anything like that home.

Other than that it's going ok.

Jen

[POPPY]

Originally Posted by czechmate

Then...
I found out that for the spelling test, the teacher has the kids grade each others papers. That's fine EXCEPT the kids get to determine whether they think best penmanship was used, if not then they consider the word to be wrong!!!! Why would I want my child to determine if other kids are using their best penmanship???? I know that my friend's son had a word marked wrong (even though the word was spelled correctly) due to bad penmanship!!!!

Are these teaching habits "normal"?

Jen

NO, NO, NO! This is not normal, at least not where I come from! I teach third grade and I would never let my students have any input on a child's grade. Now, sometimes if students are doing projects, we do peer reviews before the student turns in the final project. But these are only meant to be suggestions by their peers on ways to make it better before it gets turned in for grading by the teacher. But I would check in to that one, if I were you! Especially if he has ever received a grade that you didn't feel was fair.

[Regina]

Ewww, Jen. It seems like things are getting worse, not better. I would hope that someone steps in before her ego gets any bigger. This behavior simply isn't acceptable.

The conference we had with the prinicpal at the beginning of the year at our school was talking about supporting the teacher and getting your point across before there were any major problems. I think the situation, in your case, is just getting to bigger problems. I would find it very difficult supporting a teacher, especially with a parent-teacher conference note like that....maybe she was trying to be funny? Although, that is certainly not my kind of humor. And what is up with the 95% of students psychologist comment? Is that some kind of threat? That is just plain odd.

When is your conference? I would write down any concerns that you have....after she gives her view on how things are going with your child, you might say, "I have a few concerns that I would like to address with you....etc." This way, she sees that you had these concerns written down before she stated her comments, you can add anything from what she said is going on, and she won't necessarily add any "extra" concerns down about your child. This is just my opinion, but you might want to get some ideas from the other teachers currently teaching on how to go about addressing your concerns at the conference. I would be respectful, begin with something positive (NOT meaning giving her a compliment, but just on a positive note...), and then say the things that you would like to address. Don't feel bad either; this is your daughter. This teacher is with her what 7 hours a day? You have a right for your daughter to be in a positive environment for her time at school. If you aren't going to see that a change happens, who will?

Just my opinion though....