School Question High School

JessicaR

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OK I am going to explain the situation with as many details and I can. I am trying to get a feel for how this should be handled. My instincts may be incorrect.

My son is a junior in high school. He is a good student. Friday, his English teacher said he was getting an F for the third quarter. The first two quarters he got an A and a B+. She said he didn't turn in three assignments. These were graded as tests this quarter.

He told her the assignments were all handed in and proceeded to tell her the subject of each assignment.

A little back story - this teacher came to the school after his initial English teacher had to leave suddenly in February. The present teacher came into the class more than half way through the year.

During the class on Friday the teacher told him she found one of his assignments so she raised his grade to a D. He still insisted the other assignments were handed in.

The end of class on Friday they spoke again. She told him to go home and look for the assignments. He told her they were never returned to him he wouldnt find them at home.

So, he comes home Friday and he is obviously upset and frustrated. We discuss what took place.
I tried to catch her at school. No luck. I emailed her Friday afternoon.

More back story - I have instilled a, its your responsibility and your job to resolve your issues with your teachers since he was little. He is 17 so far so good. We have had maybe two issues where I have had to intervene.

So then over the weekend I tell him he has to spend the weekend re-doing the two assignments. He does. All weekend long he checks to see if she has returned the email. No. I didn't expect her to sine it was the wekend.

Today comes and he goes to her class early to talk. He said she was annoyed with him. Referencing the email from me. He tells her he re-did the work. She said do you have it on you now? He said yes. He believed she would not accept the work but she did. She told him the best he can hope for is a C-. He tells her that the D kept him off honor roll. She tells him well the C- is the best since the work is late. My son said its isn't late it was handed in on time the first time. She said if you are implying that I lost your work you are wrong. He said but you found one assignment that you originally said was lost. With that he got a, sit in your seat class is starting.

So class is over they speak again briefly.Basically she said I will grade these assignments and talk to you tomorrow.

I'm a bit ticked that I received no reply. I'm a parent that contacted my child's teacher and asked questions politely. I feel a reply to at least say you received an email would be a good start. Nothing?

So tomorrow is another day and we'll see what happens.

Thoughts? Please. :)
 
Is he the ONLY student that had this issue? Or did other students have lost work?
 
Is he the ONLY student that had this issue? Or did other students have lost work?

I asked the teacher and my son the same question. The teacher hasnt replied and my son doesnt know.
 
I would have him ask around (discreetly of course) to see if there are more, a united front would be better. If he is the only one with lost assignements, I would lean more toward the teacher. If there are others he can prove she lost them. It is obviously skethcy that she found one of the missing assignments. Would he have them saved to a computer or something? Did the other kids get theirs back? Did he think it was odd that he didn't get his back? Or did NO students get them back?
 

I would be thoroughly irritated if the teacher didn't have the common decency to respond. Totally unprofessional. At the very minimum, she needed to acknowledge your correspondence, even if all she said was "I am handling the matter with your son.". That's just bad manners.
 
I would have him ask around (discreetly of course) to see if there are more, a united front would be better. If he is the only one with lost assignements, I would lean more toward the teacher. If there are others he can prove she lost them. It is obviously skethcy that she found one of the missing assignments. Would he have them saved to a computer or something? Did the other kids get theirs back? Did he think it was odd that he didn't get his back? Or did NO students get them back?

Were you here while I was grilling him? :rotfl: Verbatim almost! The works werent saved because they had to be hand written. The prior teacher did not hand work back. This teacher did. I questioned why he didn't notice. He said he didn't notice because she collects homework as well and hands that back so he was under the impression it was just other work being handed back collectively.

I'm seconding guessing the whole thing because she found one of the three. But more than that because he hands in his assignments always. Why the heck would he choose the third quarter to slack off in one class only.:confused:

My stance right now is they split the difference and he gets to make honor roll. This last quarter she will sign that she received each assignment. Or something that works for both of them.
 
Yeah, she got the email and ignored it? I would prob go above her. At least start a paper trail. At the very least if it happens again they will see a pattern.
 
I would be thoroughly irritated if the teacher didn't have the common decency to respond. Totally unprofessional. At the very minimum, she needed to acknowledge your correspondence, even if all she said was "I am handling the matter with your son.". That's just bad manners.

Bad manners is a thing with me and I am irritated. Mostly because she didn't acknowledge me.
 
Maybe the teacher didn't see the need to email you since she spoke with your son. I would think that being this close to the end of the year she is busy, and thought that speaking with him resolved it.
 
Maybe the teacher didn't see the need to email you since she spoke with your son. I would think that being this close to the end of the year she is busy, and thought that speaking with him resolved it.

That is very poor form for a teacher if that is the case. Questions were asked that I would appreciate a reply to. A teacher should have time to drop a parent an email. I had the time. We don't end until June 24th. There is plenty of time.
 
i am a high school teacher, and what she did is in no way professional or acceptable. I have been in the situation where I know that a child turned something in to me and I cannot lay my hand on it. It has only happend to me twice. I personally give the child the choice of redoing the assignment or having the grade dropped. It sounds like she is trying to cover her butt here rather than admitting she lost something. I am the first one to defend a teacher who is in the right, but if a 17 year old has never done this in the past and is adamant that he turned it in??? She could have at least returned your email, and not been rude to your son.
 
Escalate it to the next level and be 100% sure your son has done the assignments and turned them in.
 
That's unprofessional on a few counts-- go over her head. This is definitely a situation where you need to meet with or at least speak with the principal.

Best of luck to you and your son-- she sounds like a winner.
 
i am a high school teacher, and what she did is in no way professional or acceptable. I have been in the situation where I know that a child turned something in to me and I cannot lay my hand on it. It has only happend to me twice. I personally give the child the choice of redoing the assignment or having the grade dropped. It sounds like she is trying to cover her butt here rather than admitting she lost something. I am the first one to defend a teacher who is in the right, but if a 17 year old has never done this in the past and is adamant that he turned it in??? She could have at least returned your email, and not been rude to your son.

I hope she doesn't feel the need to protect her butt. I just wished common sense would prevail. I feel like a whiny parent even contacting her at all. I wish she and my son could have worked this out. I too defer to the teacher almost always. Not this time though.

I am definitely put out that she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge my email.

Thanks for a teachers view! I appreciate all replies greatly. I was curious if I was over-stepping my expectations.
 
That's unprofessional on a few counts-- go over her head. This is definitely a situation where you need to meet with or at least speak with the principal.

Best of luck to you and your son-- she sounds like a winner.

In our district there is a process they ask the parents to go through before going directly to the principal. If there are unresolved issues with a teacher, the counselor for that studend is the next level of escalation, then on to the vice prinicipal, then principal.
 
Escalate it to the next level and be 100% sure your son has done the assignments and turned them in.

How do I do that? All I can do is believe him based on his past actions.
 
In our district there is a process they ask the parents to go through before going directly to the principal. If there are unresolved issues with a teacher, the counselor for that studend is the next level of escalation, then on to the vice prinicipal, then principal.

This is what I told my son I would be doing by the end of the day tomorrow. I think that would be adequate time to respond.
 
I hope she doesn't feel the need to protect her butt. I just wished common sense would prevail. I feel like a whiny parent even contacting her at all. I wish she and my son could have worked this out. I too defer to the teacher almost always. Not this time though.

I am definitely put out that she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge my email.

Thanks for a teachers view! I appreciate all replies greatly. I was curious if I was over-stepping my expectations.

Believe me, you are not being "that parent". You tried having your son deal with it, and she didn't respond well to that. I would make one more attempt to contact her, and then ask to see the principal if she won't talk to you.
 
I guess I don't understand why so many parents email the teacher, and go to the principal. My mother never did these things, and I am an honors student finishing a master's degree. And yes there were times I had run ins with teachers, and there were times I got grades that were lower than I deserved.

OP it sounds like your son is very mature, and handling this whole thing really well. He talked to the teacher, he re did the assignments, I don't know what more he could do. I think it is great that at 17 he is handling things like this himself, it is great practice for college or the work place. This is a great (but not so great KWIM) lesson about how sometimes you keep going and make the best of a bad situation.

Not to mention this type of thing can easily be explained in a college application, and make the student look GREAT while doing it!
 


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