Teachers-some advice please

[barkley]

dd has an excellent teacher (who also is principal of the school) in most respects.

dh and i going to have a parent-teacher conference (at our request) today about missed/not done school work (in class, not homework). teacher has a practice of providing students/parents with a list of all items "not done" a few weeks prior to report cards being issued as an opportunity to get the work done (and likely get a better grade). every semester we end up in a huge meltdown with dd who insists she's done the work and turned it in (small school, has had the same teacher 1st-5th grade), we've always worked with her to get the missing stuff done and submitted in time.

so last week the list comes out again-and i notice that some of the stuff is stuff i KNOW dd did cuz i turned it in myself (we took a vacation and she did work during it which i personaly handed in to the teacher), i mentioned this to the teacher and she made a comment about having excellent organizational skills and if she had received it she would have marked it accordingly in the grade book...fast forward to yesterday- i had happened to get in the habit of putting all of dd's returned work on a shelf of a bookcase at home. i decided to see if by chance the missing stuff from vacation was in it and maybe got returned without being graded. not only is the missing stuff from vacation in there, there are math pages (identical) that have been done multiple times, vocabulary sheets done as many as 4 times (not do-overs, originals have an A-dd said she redid them cuz teacher insisted she had never turned in the originals). all are graded so i know the teacher saw them.

dh and i were able to figure out math, spelling and vocab but there are hundreds of photocopied workbook type sheets that would take days to go through and sort.

we are thinking we will bring the stuff in and politely point out all of the duplicate work the teacher has required dd to do (and all of the missing items from the list that we've located so far). do you think it is inappropriate to say we will have dd do the math that we know is missing (maybe 4 of the 20 pages teacher had listed), spelling (she did the 2 word lists last night-we found the 4 others), and vocab (has 1 to do, have 3 to show to teacher) but say "no" to all of the photocopy stuff? our thought is it would literaly take us 4 full days to go through the stuff to figure out what is actualy missing and since its not (even per the teacher' list) anything that shows a severe deficiency in one subject area.

this has gotten very frustrating-i would like to think i might be able to keep on top of the situation by going through dd's returned work each night so when these issues come up i could easily look through them. unfortunatly the teacher tends to hold on to stuff and return it maybe 3 times per semester (in a huge pile that again would take several hours to sort).

any input from teachers would be appreciated.

 

[jbdreamer]

I am not a teacher, but I have to say how frustrating. Your DDs teacher doesn't sound as organized as she claims to be. I would think you could work out a compromise with her and have your daughter make-up less work. And I don't think it is rude at all for you to ask.

Let us know how the meeting goes. I am interested to hear what the teacher says after seeing all the multiples of graded homework assignments.

Maybe she is mixing your daughter up with someone else. I had a teacher once that kept thinking I was another student and continually "lost" my assignments. At least she admitted to her mistake.

 

[In a hurry]

1st grade teacher. I would gather up the obvious papers that are an issue, put the rest into a manilla folder, and take the whole batch in. Then I would politely point out the re-do's etc., and ask her how she feels the issue should be dealt with since it would take a considerable amt of time to go through the stacks. Then work with her, and stay on top of the issue a bit more for the rest of the year. (I know it is hard!!)

Your poor DD! She should know those lessons well!

 

[MI mom of 3]

DS has had the same problems. He swears he turned it in, teacher has no record. The way we solved it was that every assignment, either in class or homework, must be written in an assignment book. When he turns the paper in the teacher must initial the book next to where he has written it.

We have had a few instances where she says he is missing a paper, we check the book, if her initials are there she gives him full credit regardless of the fact that she can't find it. If there are no initials he has to re-do the paper and cannot receive full credit for it.

Obviously she had to agree to this and I think she did it to appease us. I'm sure she didn't really think that she was the one who lost the papers. So she was quite embarrassed and more than a little defensive the first time but she kept her end of the bargain.

Just what worked for us.

 

[barkley]

i'll update after the meeting (in 3 hours). i feel realy bad, there was another parent having a conference yesterday when i arrived-her kid blew a gasket and was yelling "i don't care what she says (same teacher)-i did the work and turned it in" (they were in a private conference area and we heard it cuz the kid threw the door open and stormed out of the conference). i overheard the mom near tears saying "i just don't get this-he's always been good at doing his schoolwork and he's not the type to lie, why are we going through this now?"

 

[In a hurry]

Awwww! That poor kid!

 

[budbeerlady]

After a really bad PTC a little over a month ago I hope yours goes better! (Sorry I am a horrid speller, we need spell check ) Good luck!!!!

I have resorted to emailing, gives me time to collect my thoughts and word it nicely but firmly. Apparently DD was having a really hard time in school and was recieving alot of extra help from the volunteer staff for number and letters. HMMMMM! Please let me know before school is half over that this is going on so I could help her. (I knew dd knew her stuff and kinda argued the point that dd even though young knew her stuff. Come on, she knows her numbers 1-10 or she wouldnt be there) So I asked DD whats going on at school, are you getting extra help. Oh yeah!!! (Maybe not so funny ) She likes the student teacher who would help her, he is cute! Guess what, she doesnt get the extra help and is doing great. I know teachers are busy but alot of us parents would love to help if we know there is something going on!

Good luck tonight! Too bad she isnt a spread sheeter that could email you something weekly about work turned in, then it would be fresher in the memory and easier to find then.

 

[golfgal]

After a really bad PTC a little over a month ago I hope yours goes better! (Sorry I am a horrid speller, we need spell check ) Good luck!!!!

I have resorted to emailing, gives me time to collect my thoughts and word it nicely but firmly. Apparently DD was having a really hard time in school and was recieving alot of extra help from the volunteer staff for number and letters. HMMMMM! Please let me know before school is half over that this is going on so I could help her. (I knew dd knew her stuff and kinda argued the point that dd even though young knew her stuff. Come on, she knows her numbers 1-10 or she wouldnt be there) So I asked DD whats going on at school, are you getting extra help. Oh yeah!!! (Maybe not so funny ) She likes the student teacher who would help her, he is cute! Guess what, she doesnt get the extra help and is doing great. I know teachers are busy but alot of us parents would love to help if we know there is something going on!

Good luck tonight! Too bad she isnt a spread sheeter that could email you something weekly about work turned in, then it would be fresher in the memory and easier to find then.

ppssttt...download the Google toolbar and there is a spell check that works with this site on there ( I need it too).


To the OP, is there another person that is this teacher's boss? You need to have that person in on the conference, too. It also might be helpful to have the other parent that had the problems with the "missing" assignments come along. This teacher obviously doesn't have great organizational skills OR she has the wrong information in her grade book. DS13 had a teacher like this and I kept hearing from other parents that they just couldn't understand why their child didn't turn in their work, they always did. DS isn't that reliable so of course, we were on his case about this. Then I helped in this teachers class one week and OH BOY was I mad. Not only did the kids turn in the work but half the time she had it graded WRONG. Unbelievable. Unfortunately we didn't get much help from the principal and ended taking DS out of that school for this and a few other reasons.

 

[golfgal]

http://toolbar.google.com/?promo=mor-tb-en

Here is the link for the Google toolbar with the spell check. Webmaster Alex told us about it a long time ago and it doesn't contain spyware. I LOVE this toolbar!!!

 

[dmslush]

I would take in the papers and show her how much your dd is duplicating. I would then see what she feels should be done to put an end to this problem. If you are not satisfied with her response, I would take it to the principal. I would also talk to the other parents and see if many other kids are experiencing this same issue, considering you saw the other child upset and claiming to have done his work.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

First off, I would be mad if my dd had a ton of work to blow through. I would want a better system in place because last minute work makes me crazy.

Next I would photocopy every assignment...then I would make a list of all homework done everyday & organize it in a binder.

If this happens again and there is duplicate work she asks to do, I would go to the principal. Something is wrong.

 

[Marseeya]

The OP said the teacher IS the principal!

FTR, I would just take the whole stack in with the relevant papers on top and let her sort through it with you there. Sounds like her organizational skills need a little refreshing.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

The OP said the teacher IS the principal!

She did, didn't she...she is hosed..

I hope you get things figured out! I hope the meeting went well.

 

[taramarie]

I am a teacher and I know that I would like to see the work that you had at home. I know I have misgraded a few things in the past too but I think she should see what kind of big error she has made. I think also that you should make a copy of them just in case she takes them to record and loses them again.

She should really be told how hard this was on your child and you.

Tara

 

[KAMLEM]

Good luck. It must be difficult being in such a small school. In my older daughter's class everything is on-line so we can check daily to see if they are turning classwork and homework in. It shows all homework for the current day and sometimes for the entire week. It also keeps a running tally of their grades for the current term. It's the greatest thing.

 

[Teacher03]

I am a parent and a teacher. I would make copies of everything and take it in. If you have it there in front of you, there isn't much she can do other than give your daughter credit for the work she has completed. Good luck, I hope it all goes well for you.

 

[daisyduck123]

Waiting to hear how the conference went......

 

[barkley]

dh and i went and conferenced with her for an hour. we sat there and had her put the grades in the book for the stuff we had.

we got a number of "reasons" (excuses in our minds)-"dd is terribly disorganized and have had to go into her desk and pull piles of unsubmitted work routinly" (yeah-dd is disorganized but that does'nt explain why the work she submitted or you pulled from the desk was not recorded -also told her that i go through dd's desk once a month myself and make her reorganize it while i wait-and we hand in any papers not yet submitted) "dd doesnt do math pages correctly-some assignments can be done on 1 page, some must be broken into 2 pages" (ok-but she does her math at school and if a paper is submitted in the wrong format shouldnt it be returned timely-not 2 months later-and have something written on it indicate there is a problem to be addressed?), "some subjects are handled by asst. teacher-this could explain why she never received pages to record in book" (does this teacher ever put stuff in kids return to home box? "no, only i put papers into the return box" well then how is a corrected paper in there if you have'nt put it in yourself-no answer), "the OTHER teacher (ta) must be doing something wrong in making her do the same work multiple times" (but you just said that ta only works with her in math-this is happening in 4 or 5 subjects-......(can you hear the crickets during the silence ).

upshot-she got credit for the work done, will do the math and vocab we can confirm she is missing but not the other subjects because neither she nor we are willing to go through the hundreds of papers.

i'm going to stay on top of the work we get returned home. i can't copy or keep track of in class assignments, but i can batch the stuff together for any future problems (and i am going to start marking my calendar for a month before the end of each term and putting a request in writing for her "list" of missing assignments -no more of this panic a week before the end of the term).

thanks for all of the support and advice!

 

[SandiH]

Glad she at least put in the grade book papers that were turned in. If I were you, I wouldn't wait until a month before end of term, I would request a weekly or every two week update on any missing assignments. You could make your daughter responsible for asking for the report but hold the teacher accountable for giving the report. As long as the teacher is staying up to date on what is graded and recorded - this shouldn't be a problem. If she's not grading and recording at least weekly - then it's no wonder assignments are showing up missing - that's a lot of papers to grade and record at once.

 

[KAMLEM]

I'm surprised that she is allowed to make-up missed assignments. I my girls' schools once you miss the deadline that's it, you get a zero.