Observing elementary classrooms unannounced

[marcyinPA]

I agree I never understood the don't take things to them stand. As adults if we forget something we can usually turn around and go back and get it or make arrangements to get it to us why shouldn't kids be allowed to do the same.

And guess what that sec. should be happy to help because that is part of her job, she may not like it but I'm sure greeting the public is in her job description and helping parents and students. She may not like it but there are parts of every job we don't like. too bad.

Seriously??? Delivering forgotten items to students is part of the school secretaries JOB? Hmmmm....not sure our school secretaries would agree with you on that one. How about the parents job: helping their kids be more responsible?

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Really kids need to learn to deal with distractions. When they get into the real working world I think most jobs have distractions.

So the kids who aren't in classes that have parents popping in and out of the classroom aren't learning how to deal with distractions? There are distractions all over the place in life, including classrooms, even without the added distraction of parents coming and going.

while you might only occasionally bring an item left at home, it honestly becomes a habit for some students and parents. It is so easy to wonder what the big deal is when you can't see all the other parents who drop things off, or the parents who come everyday because little Johnny left his lunch at home for the third day in a row.

I agree.

Seriously??? Delivering forgotten items to students is part of the school secretaries JOB? Hmmmm....not sure our school secretaries would agree with you on that one. How about the parents job: helping their kids be more responsible?

Having said that...I could probably count on two hands how many times I HAVE brought something to my 3 kids. My youngest is a HS senior now. Recently, I brought him two things...his wallet (with his driver's license) (and I read him the riot act when he got home) and his soccer uniform because I told him the night before I'd wash it and then forgot, but I brought it at the end of the day, left it on the office counter, and told the secretary not to call him...he knew it would be there and would come when school was over.

 

[MushyMushy]

Once again, the big picture is being missed here. When parents drop things off, the student has to be summoned to the office to pick it up. Someone has to walk to the clasroom or use the intercom to get the student both of which are interruptions during class.

I've only known a few school secretaries, but I've never seen it be a part of thei job description to distribute items to students. Most secretaries are kept very busy in the office. And, while you might only occasionally bring an item left at home, it honestly becomes a habit for some students and parents. It is so easy to wonder what the big deal is when you can't see all the other parents who drop things off, or the parents who come everyday because little Johnny left his lunch at home for the third day in a row.

Intercom interruptions are a fact of life in a school. Honestly, it's really not as big an interruption as some would make it out to be. There is constant in and out of a school office, with kids coming and going from classroom to office. Our offices have student assistants who run notes and other things to classrooms.

Maybe if his mom had not bailed him out as a kid in this way you would not have to do so now that he is an adult (not that I really have any idea what his mom did when he was a kid).

This is the kind of attitude that drives me crazy. Sorry, but it does. At what point do you stop bailing your kids out? When they are 10? 11? 15? Never? We live in a "it's not my fault" society, and this kind of thing with our kids is NOT helping.

I'm not sure why the attitude of helping loved ones drives you crazy. It's not like any of my family members are calling me 5 times a day with forgotten items. My daughter forgot her literature book three days in a row and it sat on the dining room table the entire time. That's what I consider teaching consequences. Forgetting a band instrument, picture money, something big or important, sorry, but I'm helping out. I think it's odd that a parent wouldn't do that for a kid or spouse. My husband forgot the power cord to his laptop last week. He could have come home on his lunch break, but it was no skin off my back to take it to him. He does plenty for me.

 

[Minnesota!]

Minnesota. Private school.

Must sign in and we can't just "drop by" for an extended period of time. Dropping off lunch or gym shoes or something is one thing. Staying to distract the class...heck no. I wouldn't ever do it and I would be mad if it was allowed.

 

[marcyinPA]

Intercom interruptions are a fact of life in a school. Honestly, it's really not as big an interruption as some would make it out to be. There is constant in and out of a school office, with kids coming and going from classroom to office. Our offices have student assistants who run notes and other things to classrooms.








I'm not sure why the attitude of helping loved ones drives you crazy. It's not like any of my family members are calling me 5 times a day with forgotten items. My daughter forgot her literature book three days in a row and it sat on the dining room table the entire time. That's what I consider teaching consequences. Forgetting a band instrument, picture money, something big or important, sorry, but I'm helping out. I think it's odd that a parent wouldn't do that for a kid or spouse. My husband forgot the power cord to his laptop last week. He could have come home on his lunch break, but it was no skin off my back to take it to him. He does plenty for me.

The thing is, we should be teaching our kids that if it is IMPORTANT, then it should be a priority to remember it. The band instrument should be by the front door with the back pack. The picture money should be in the backpack the night before. The power cord should be with the laptop in the laptop case. It requires a certain amount of planning ahead, but if it's important, then that's what you do.

I love my family, and I help them do all kinds of things. But they also need to take a certain amount of responsibility for their own stuff. I don't see how my bailing them all out is really helping them?! It just makes them more reliant on me!

 

[Wishing on a star]

I've taken quite a few things....

Hey Mushy, I totally agree with you about how people are exaggerating the 'distraction' factor to justify their 'no parents' viewpoint. (Many of you know how I might feel about a 'no evil parents' frame of mind.)

But, I think it is the 'taken quite a few things' in your post that may have set some people off.....

We know why you have your screen name!!!!

Once in a great blue moon.... I can understand.
But, really, an adult should be responsible....

Would I take something my son needed???? (He is 12)
Yes, possibly, if I felt that the consequences of the missing item were too heavy. As a matter of fact, as we were getting ready to head out to Karate, my son had jumped into the car with no thought to his bag of Karate gear.... I purposefully did not just grab it and bring it out the door with me... It was 'Where's your gear.... How are you supposed to do Karate without your gear!!!!'... He had to troop back inside and get it.

With kids, I think I see a middle ground until they are teenagers.

 

[MushyMushy]

Hey Mushy, I totally agree with you about how people are exaggerating the 'distraction' factor to justify their 'no parents' viewpoint. (Many of you know how I might feel about a 'no evil parents' frame of mind.)

But, I think it is the 'taken quite a few things' in your post that may have set some people off.....

We know why you have your screen name!!!!

Once in a great blue moon.... I can understand.
But, really, an adult should be responsible....

Would I take something my son needed???? (He is 12)
Yes, possibly, if I felt that the consequences of the missing item were too heavy. As a matter of fact, as we were getting ready to head out to Karate, my son had jumped into the car with no thought to his bag of Karate gear.... I purposefully did not just grab it and bring it out the door with me... It was 'Where's your gear.... How are you supposed to do Karate without your gear!!!!'... He had to troop back inside and get it.

With kids, I think I see a middle ground until they are teenagers.

LOL, doesn't take much to set people off around here, especially when anybody perceives some type of "helicopter" parenting, which I am FAR from being.

 

[mhsjax]

My kids go to a very small school. Everyone in the building knows who I am.

Gotcha, we have people like that. They volunteer for a lot of things and everyone knows who they are.

 

[torinsmom]

Gotcha, we have people like that. They volunteer for a lot of things and everyone knows who they are.

I seriously thought one parent WORKED at our school for the whole first year I was there. She was in her child's classroom EVERY DAY!

 

[SaraJayne]

Gotcha, we have people like that. They volunteer for a lot of things and everyone knows who they are.

No, they know who I am because it's a small town and everyone knows everyone.

 

[mhsjax]

No, they know who I am because it's a small town and everyone knows everyone.

Oh, well, that can be bad sometimes. lol

 

[KiminChicago]

At our elementary school, you could sign in and then go to your child's classroom, but you had to have a reason for being there, you couldn't just pop in on a whim.

At the middle school, you can't get past the office unless it's lunch time and you are eating lunch with your child. Even when I've volunteered to chaperone field trips, the chaperones waited in the office until the teacher came to get us.

As far as bringing forgotten items to school, we can drop them off in the office, but the students are only called down at lunch time or at the end of the day to limit disruptions. I haven't taken anything to school since my kids finished 5th grade. During 5th grade, I told the kids that I would only run something to school 3 different times -- if they forgot anything after their third strike, they were on their own. By middle school they were both expected to remember to pack up their backpacks the night before, and instruments were supposed to be waiting by the front door. DH has a 1 hour commute to work, so if he forgets anything, he has to do without. So far the only issue has been when he used my keys to open his car and forgot to put them back so I had to find the backup set when I wanted to run errands.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

You all would probably be shocked to know that our towns public library is located inside our highschool! Until this year, when they remodeled, it didn't even have a seperate entrance!

Plus, all last year I took my 4 yr old nephew to speech in the elementary school. I actually walked into the school to the class, and waited in the hall 20 minutes for him.

 

[gina2000]

I've never seen it be a diversion to the kids. I think they are so used to volunteers/visitors/administrators coming in and quietly sitting in the back of the room that it doesn't even faze them.

In all the years I observed as an education student, I only ever had one time where it was a disruption. One kid (middle school) kept turning around and talking to me. Well, that kid was a disruption on a good day, so it wasn't just me. I also observed a class my daughter was in. I was actually doing a research paper on her reading habits.

When I did a long-term sub assignment, I had different people come in and observe (this was middle school level). Principals, psychologists observing their patients, guidance counselor, education students. It's really not as big a deal as some of you are making it out to be. They slip in the back of the room, sit quietly, take a few notes, then leave. The kids don't care and I've never seen a teacher that it bothered.

As a counterpoint to your observation, I've had students whose uneasiness left them silent and nonperforming in a classroom situation. I've had students ask why they were being watched after an administator left the room. I explained to them that the administrator was watching ME not them...but it affected their learning and concentration. And that's with someone they know and recognize in the room, not a parent they don't know. The opposite also occurs. Many kids will engage in greeting parental visitors in the room....definitely not if it's their own....but a friend's parent is always an opportunity for a child to pull a class off task by welcoming the visitor.

Students in middle school are still easily distracted especially those with learning disabilities. They don't need the constant revolving door in a classroom. I have no problem with anyone observing me but thank goodness our parents realize that the students don't need the upheaval that visits can cause.

 

[aprilgail2]

Public school NY - no way in heck do they let parents just walk into kids classrooms here- I don't see why they would even need to--little snowflake can manage a whole day without mommy being in sight...
You have to get buzzed into the school- straight into the office- you can do whatever your business is there but you just can't go walking around the school- thats a lawsuit waiting to happen!! Whats to stop some parent from walking into the hallway bathroom where little suzy/johnny is?? I would not like that policy in our schools at all!

 

[palavra]

Intercom interruptions are a fact of life in a school. Honestly, it's really not as big an interruption as some would make it out to be. There is constant in and out of a school office, with kids coming and going from classroom to office. Our offices have student assistants who run notes and other things to classrooms.

I didn't know you were a teacher. Maybe at your school intercom interruptions aren't that big a deal, but in my classroom, I can tell you that they are. As soon as the intercom comes on, some student turn off or becom so distracted that it takes several minutes to get everyone back on track. In a class period of 45-50 minutes, a couple of intercom interruptions could cut into class time by 5-10 minutes. That's 5-10 of lost learning time. And that is for an average class. If there are several ADHD or other highly distractable students in the class, getting back on track can be very difficult.

Fwiw, we do not have office aides or student assistants to run messages or other things to classrooms.

 

[daisyduck123]

Fwiw, we do not have office aides or student assistants to run messages or other things to classrooms.

Neither do we. I've been teaching for 20 years and I've never worked in a building that had any such thing.

 

[emma'smom]

I walk in and out of my dd's school all the time with just a quick "head in the door "hello" to the principal when I walk in. I supervise student teachers in classrooms in their school (and often even in their classrooms) so I'm in and out all of the time. My dd's know I am there to do my work and they have their own work to do-- so I usually just give a quick wink or wave to my dds and that's about all of the interaction I have with them..... and then sit down to observe my student teacher.

In that school, nobody signs-in though....a receptionist is sitting right inside the door who will greet any parent and direct them to the right classroom. Formal visitations are limited to no more than 1/2 hour if you are there to visit your own child.

 

[MushyMushy]

Neither do we. I've been teaching for 20 years and I've never worked in a building that had any such thing.

Not even in your high school? We've had office aides for as far back as I can remember (even in my dad's 1950s yearbooks there were student aides). There were always kids working in the main office, guidance office, library and the school store. At the middle school, there were always 2-3 office aides.

 

[daisyduck123]

Not even in your high school? We've had office aides for as far back as I can remember (even in my dad's 1950s yearbooks there were student aides). There were always kids working in the main office, guidance office, library and the school store. At the middle school, there were always 2-3 office aides.

Not sure about the high school...I could ask my DD16.

I assumed that the OP was talking about elementary school but anyway, no, at our elementary schools (my county has 76) and middle schools, there are no "aides"...just secretaries. At my school their titles are "Principal's secretary, Attendance secretary, and Bookkeeper". Their is no one that is designated to go running back and forth with forgotten homework, band instruments, etc. None of them even has time for that in a school with over 600 students.