Why does son's school assume all mom's stay home?

[ilovesugar]

Gotcha. That hasn't happened to DH yet, but we've gotten a few calls at home. DH won't do a Facebook page and this is one of the reasons.

I think we can ALL agree that there are always those parents who are a little wacky. They are wacky in everything they do and god help you if your kid is on their kids sports team.

 

[sunnyday123]

At our school, the first morning appts for the P/T conferences are hot items. You have to put your first and your second choice on the forms. They also write on the form that if you get it back the very next day, those forms will be given preference (our school has parents who notoriously last minute LOL) and they also have a space where you can write in special circumstances. Maybe the nursing example above. Only so many parents can come in at that time, so you still hear parents grumbling about their time. They do try to be considerate but I do believe you would have a bunch of parents on the teachers doorstep if you didnt assign times.

Exactly. Which is why I suggested the scheduling of appointments via a form sent home. My Dd's school does this. Don't always get 1st choice, but they do try to work with everyone as best they can. It always goes off without a hitch.

 

[sunnyday123]

Also, ( I didn't feel like editing the above post!) my DD's school has on occasion done a phone conference. Very easy and it was done because I couldn't make the appointment. Unles Jr. is drawing very inappropriate pictures they want you to see first hand, there really isn't a huge reason for you to physically be there.

 

[Mkrop]

I don't disagree that this happens. But they are not showing up are your doorstep of your home, they are showing up at school. Does not make it right, but there is a difference in what you are saying and what the PP said.

Holy literal reading into my post batman.... I meant the teacher's doorstep at school not at their home. Just like the PP said we have people who dont respect the time given and will show up and hoped to be squeezed in. This isnt right and your (not you OP) time is not any more valuable then the person who signed up for the time and got it approved. I joked once at a fundraising meeting that we should auction off these times because every working parent is our school wants/needs the first appt of the P/T. I was joking of course.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Also, ( I didn't feel like editing the above post!) my DD's school has on occasion done a phone conference. Very easy and it was done because I couldn't make the appointment. Unles Jr. is drawing very inappropriate pictures they want you to see first hand, there really isn't a huge reason for you to physically be there.

Phone calls are a wonderful idea!

 

[CdnCarrie]

I joked once at a fundraising meeting that we should auction off these times because every working parent is our school wants/needs the first appt of the P/T. I was joking of course.

Exactly! That's why I was saying it was too bad that they didn't offer 8:30 appointments for this reading assessment for the OP's school.

But supposedly offering early morning appointments are bad for kids because they need to sleep in and we shouldn't be scheduling around the parent's schedules.

 

[golfgal]

Exactly. Which is why I suggested the scheduling of appointments via a form sent home. My Dd's school does this. Don't always get 1st choice, but they do try to work with everyone as best they can. It always goes off without a hitch.

This works mostly fine during the school year but over the summer it would really not be practical--the school send out a notice in say, mid-late July that these conferences are coming up and here are the sign up times. People put the form in the "do later" pile and forget, a few people send them back, others get mad because the school wants the kids in for an hour before school starts and throws it away. So, come mid-August the teacher has maybe 1/4 of the class scheduled then has to either mail out confirmations or call everyone to let them know when they are scheduled to come in and whoops, about 1/2 the people that said they could make it at this time now can't because something else came up....keeping in mind that the teacher is doing this all on non-contracted time. If you have ever headed up a committee for anything you will understand what I am getting at here.

 

[kaytieeldr]

First of all, I think having 18 parents show up or want the same appointment is a tad ridiculous. Could it happen? Sure. Also, a giant sink hole could open up and swallow the school.

Second of all, see above.

Interesting. We just had a 150 foot sinkhole open in a street here, earlier this week. Had there been a school butting up right against the street, it's entirely possible the building could have - not been "swallowed up", since that's hypberbole - been severely damaged.

 

[kaytieeldr]

And teachers here do appointments in the evening for parent teachers conferences.

Ah, okay. That's what I wasn't understanding. That makes sense for that purpose, but not for assessing incoming students' reading ability.

And as for teachers setting their own hours - that is going to differ between every school board in North America. Silly to argue over what teachers can and can not do as it would be different between my province and your state and everyone in between.

I have to admit, since a teacher's job is to teach students - presumably during scheduled school hours - it seems unusual to me that any teacher anywhere would be able to set their own hours, school board rules or not.

Even so, even every conference period has night hours. The teachers just start later that day and work from 1-9 or something. Duh, it's not rocket science!

Again, the OP doesn't have an issue with conferences; that wasn't the original topic here. But if the teachers start teaching later in the day and 'work from 1-9 or something'... who teaches the classes in the morning? High school classes here start at 7:15 and end at 1:45. Forty-five minutes of class time and almost six hours of study hall seems somewhat asinine, even just two or three days a year, doesn't it?

 

[design_mom]

This works mostly fine during the school year but over the summer it would really not be practical--the school send out a notice in say, mid-late July that these conferences are coming up and here are the sign up times. People put the form in the "do later" pile and forget, a few people send them back, others get mad because the school wants the kids in for an hour before school starts and throws it away. So, come mid-August the teacher has maybe 1/4 of the class scheduled then has to either mail out confirmations or call everyone to let them know when they are scheduled to come in and whoops, about 1/2 the people that said they could make it at this time now can't because something else came up....keeping in mind that the teacher is doing this all on non-contracted time. If you have ever headed up a committee for anything you will understand what I am getting at here.

Have we been able to determine that this being done on "non-contracted" time? I don't think that's been determined. The year that my son entered kindergarten, we did not have a meet-the-teacher time before school began. Apparently, it wasn't in the contract. Individually, I heard several teachers express regret about not having it... but the teachers union wouldn't "allow" the teachers to participate since it wasn't in the contract. (It's in the new contract. So are evening parent-teacher conferences.) I seriously can't see the teacher's union "allowing" these assessments outside of school hours if they're not accounted for in the contract.

Again, the OP doesn't have an issue with conferences; that wasn't the original topic here. But if the teachers start teaching later in the day and 'work from 1-9 or something'... who teaches the classes in the morning? High school classes here start at 7:15 and end at 1:45. Forty-five minutes of class time and almost six hours of study hall seems somewhat asinine, even just two or three days a year, doesn't it?

There are no classes on parent-teacher conference days in our district. The students aren't there.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Exactly! That's why I was saying it was too bad that they didn't offer 8:30 appointments for this reading assessment for the OP's school.

But supposedly offering early morning appointments are bad for kids because they need to sleep in and we shouldn't be scheduling around the parent's schedules.

Please read again carefully: I was referring to the suggestion of doing these assessments in the evening. I have, I thought, made that clear already in a previous response but I'm repeating it here in case it wasn't clear. Many parents (at least, I believe it's parents) in this thread are complaining because the schools won't adapt to their work schedules with evening appointments.



Added response: By nature and definition, there are more evening hours than there are 8:45 AM hours. Plain and simple. There is only one 8:45 AM each day per teacher. I absolutely 100% am NOT referring to morning appointments since most schools are in session by 8:45 AM during the school year.

But for the record: No, actually, the MOST important person in these assessments - remember the specific subject in the original post - IS THE STUDENT. It's not the teacher, it's not the parent. It's the child. So, yes, moan and complain all you want. Demand all you want. Just don't forget who TRULY matters when it comes to getting educated.

 

[ilovesugar]

Have we been able to determine that this being done on "non-contracted" time? I don't think that's been determined. The year that my son entered kindergarten, we did not have a meet-the-teacher time before school began. Apparently, it wasn't in the contract. Individually, I heard several teachers express regret about not having it... but the teachers union wouldn't "allow" the teachers to participate since it wasn't in the contract. (It's in the new contract. So are evening parent-teacher conferences.) I seriously can't see the teacher's union "allowing" these assessments outside of school hours if they're not accounted for in the contract.


There are no classes on parent-teacher conference days in our district. The students aren't there.

No we have not and I honestly don't know. But a friend of my sons mon said she went for hers yesterday and it seemed as if all the teachers and administrators where there, so I am betting they are not there on "non-contracted time". She stopped to see his old K teacher who was there as well as other teachers in their classrooms and in the hall. In the office it seemed the whole staff was there, including the principal.

 

[palavra]

It's hard to imagine a scenario in which people are less happy that they got to choose their conference time than not.

Conferences here are typically on Thursdays, when I'm off. So I take middle afternoon appointments that wouldn't be desirable for working parents.

But choice has to be within reason. Teachers and school officials cannot literally be available around the clock. Work schedules vary quite a bit as well. Let's say that the pre-reading assessment is done in blocks of 30 minutes for arguments sake, and that the appointments start at 10:00 am and last until 6:00 pm. Well, most working parents who have a standard 9-5ish schedule are going to want the 5:30 and 6:00 time slots. So there will still be upset parents because not everyone can have those time slots.

 

[design_mom]

But choice has to be within reason. Teachers and school officials cannot literally be available around the clock. Work schedules vary quite a bit as well. Let's say that the pre-reading assessment is done in blocks of 30 minutes for arguments sake, and that the appointments start at 10:00 am and last until 6:00 pm. Well, most working parents who have a standard 9-5ish schedule are going to want the 5:30 and 6:00 time slots. So there will still be upset parents because not everyone can have those time slots.

I don't think anybody has ever suggested a "choose whatever time you want 24x7" approach.

At 30 minutes per child and 20 kids per classroom, you're going to need a minimum of 10 hours. So you'll likely have to break it up over two days. (Assuming appointments after 6pm are out of the question.) If you did Tuesday from 1:00-6:00 and Wednesday from 8:00-1:00, you would:
1) Allow more "desirable" time-slots: some early, some late to accommodate different schedules
2) Would give people a choice of days in case there's a reason they can't come one or the other.
3) Would give your teachers a lunch break -- and perhaps a sanity break, because I can imagine that an entire day of listening to the same book over and over without breaks would be difficult.

I think most reasonable people would understand that not everyone can get their first choice of times. But if you give people some options, they'll do their best to work with you.

 

[jodifla]

I don't think anybody has ever suggested a "choose whatever time you want 24x7" approach.

At 30 minutes per child and 20 kids per classroom, you're going to need a minimum of 10 hours. So you'll likely have to break it up over two days. Assuming evening appointments are out of the question:If you did Tuesday from 1:00-6:00 and Wednesday from 8:00-1:00, you would:
1) Allow more "desirable" time-slots: some early, some late to accommodate different schedules
2) Would give people a choice of days in case there's a reason they can't come one or the other.
3) Would give your teachers a lunch break -- and perhaps a sanity break, because I can imagine that an entire day of listening to the same book over and over without breaks would be difficult.

I think most reasonable people would understand that not everyone can get their first choice of times. But if you give people some options, they'll do their best to work with you.

Exactly. Conferences are set up this way, and school assessments could be as well. I don't see what the difference is in quibbling between conferences and student assessments. Here, scheduling is the issue.

And from OP's description, they are there on school time now.

Our state forbids starting school before Labor Day, so I'd bet these assessments wouldn't be allowed here before school.

 

[ilovesugar]

Exactly. Conferences are set up this way, and school assessments could be as well. I don't see what the difference is in quibbling between conferences and student assessments. Here, scheduling is the issue.

And from OP's description, they are there on school time now.

Our state forbids starting school before Labor Day, so I'd bet these assessments wouldn't be allowed here before school.

We can't start before Labor Day either but I know that teachers go in earlier than that to start getting their rooms ready and stuff. I have several teachers in my family (not in my district) I will ask them if they are getting paid for that time. I know that my sister is a secretary at a school and she gets paid for the 3 weeks before school starts that she is there getting ready for the school year.

 

[ilovesugar]

I talked to my secretary sister and she said that it is very rare for any of her teachers to do anything like this testing without pay. She said most likely they are either on contract or getting paid extra time to do it, they are not doing it for free. I tend to agree with her but again, I don't know 100%

 

[Mkrop]

I talked to my secretary sister and she said that it is very rare for any of her teachers to do anything like this testing without pay. She said most likely they are either on contract or getting paid extra time to do it, they are not doing it for free. I tend to agree with her but again, I don't know 100%

My guess is if they are getting paid, the times are set by the administration and not the individual teachers. Maybe there are staff meetings before 10 or something.

 

[golfgal]

Have we been able to determine that this being done on "non-contracted" time? I don't think that's been determined. The year that my son entered kindergarten, we did not have a meet-the-teacher time before school began. Apparently, it wasn't in the contract. Individually, I heard several teachers express regret about not having it... but the teachers union wouldn't "allow" the teachers to participate since it wasn't in the contract. (It's in the new contract. So are evening parent-teacher conferences.) I seriously can't see the teacher's union "allowing" these assessments outside of school hours if they're not accounted for in the contract.


There are no classes on parent-teacher conference days in our district. The students aren't there.

I am sure that the actual testing is done during workshop time for which the teacher is contracted, all the PRE-work to do a mailing/sign up for times would NOT be.

 

[bdoyledimou]

How come schools all seems to think the primary care giver is the MOTHER?


My kids school will allow mothers to come in and play "class mother" for a week out of the year. I am a stay at home dad, and when i filled in the form to get my week, i never got a response. When i inquired, i was told it was only for mothers, not Dads...