Was the teacher wrong?

[NotUrsula]

Was she maybe a wee bit snarky? Yeah. Is that really that awful when the students are between 11-13 years old? I don't think so. Kids this age tend to dish out a heck of a lot of snark; if this is the worst example of descending to their level that this poor teacher indulges in, then I'd be happy for my kids to have her.

FWIW, my DS' learning disability and Asperger's were not diagnosed until he was 12. The primary reason that we had him tested was that he was failing classes for not turning in homework -- work that I stood and checked was completed before he headed off to school with it. His grade-school teachers had simply not assigned him homework very often, probably for that reason. I had a lot of difficulty getting his teachers to send me copies of all of the rubrics in middle school; they wanted to cut parents out of the loop so that the kids would learn that the important relationship was between student and teacher; that they had to learn to work things out with teachers directly. While I applauded that for most kids, mine had issues, and there was no way I could back-stop making sure he did the correct assignments and turned things in if I wasn't told about them. I told the teachers at the time that it was to their advantage to give me those rubrics, because if they did, their aggravation level in dealing with DS would go way down. I also made it a policy to tell them that once I had it, they would not hear any questions about it directly from me, and I stuck to that. (If we found out he missed doing some homework we would make him do it anyway and turn it in, with a note on the top that told the teacher that it was understood that he would get no grade credit for it. We made him do it partly as punishment so that he would know it wasn't acceptable to blow off homework, and partly to be sure that the teacher could judge whether or not he was understanding the material.)

Kids who ask for extra credit work at the last minute are kids who are afraid of punishment for bad grades. Typical kid logic; it's not that strange. It takes kids quite a while to truly learn how to plan ahead in order to stay ahead of school work.

FWIW, DS' issue is an executive-function disorder related to his Asperger's. We had to institute very specific routines for handling paperwork that he sticks to to this day in order to get his college work done. One strategy that we used very successfully was to have him scan and email every bit of homework that he did. He still had to turn in the paper version as usual, and most teachers docked him if the email was all they received, but at least that way he wasn't getting zeroes.
He had one teacher in HS who was notoriously disorganized and tended to lose papers before recording the grades; just about every kid in his class ended up scanning and emailing homework in order to have proof that it was turned in on time.
(DD, at a different school, had that problem this year as well.) Most kids who forget or blow off an assignment *will* try to lie and say that the teacher must have lost it, but if you use the scan/email system, both sides are protected, both from lying and from screwing up.

 

[Disney Doll]

Yes, and 34-19= 15. I can use an algorithm, including the US standard algorithm to solve this efficiently and accurately, which is why it is a standard in the CCSS-M. I love algorithms and there are many algorithms in the world that are fast and efficient. However, before teaching these algorithms, it is interesting to allow children to come up with a strategy on their own. "How would you approach this?" I might put it in a context I have 34 pencils and give 19 to a friend. Now how many pencils do I have? Some students are at the concrete stage and require counters. Some will use drawings. Some will be at the abstract stage. As a student, I can decompose by place value, or compensate by changing one of the numbers to easily calculate. This involves using the properties of operations, such as the commutative and associative properties. These are not new to the Common Core.

If I use the standard algorithm and regroup (or borrow and carry), I am essentially recomposing the problem as 20 + 14 minus 10 + 9. I can now subtract either the ones form t he ones or the tens from the tens. Understanding several ways to approach a problem allow a student to better understand the steps in algorithms. Most students will not automatically attempt to subtract the ones places before the tens place. They will intuitively try to work with the tens place first.

Another example is comparing fractions. Before teaching students to find common denominators, a good class discussion might center around deciding which is larger, 3/5 or 4/10, and proving to a partner why we are correct. If I think about the fact that 3/5 is greater than one half and 4/10 is a bit less than a half, then I am building conceptual understanding. Students can then be taught to find common denominators using a procedure if they don't automatically make the connection to multiplication, but this can be taught after the conceptual understanding is there.

I learned it the 2+2=4 way and I’m a gainfully employed rational thinker. RN. Able to calculate medication doses. Never killed anyone. Even saved a few lives in my day.

That being said, I started kindergarten in 1968. Graduated high school in 1980. Much of it spent in Catholic school. I don’t recall a teacher giving extra credit to allow a student to “last minute fix” laziness that had occurred throughout the semester. They offered extra credit throughout the year to enhance some assignments and maybe the points would allow you to bump your grade up from a B to a B+ or a B+ to an A. But “you need to give me a ton of extra credit that I can do in the next week to pass because I’ve done nothing all semester”...Sister Helen Mary would have laughed in my face.

I can totally see pretty much every teacher I ever had writing something like this.

Now days, with everyone getting an award, everyone getting praise for existing, everybody making the team etc., I can see why the little snowflakes and the parents who raised them are up in arms.

 

[Disney Doll]

It's fairly easy…

"No, there is no extra credit in this class."

"Your grade is what it is since I do not offer extra credit in this class."

It's not hard to not be rude. She put much more effort into that rude letter.

That letter probably took her about 20 seconds to write. I’m sure she’s spent a lot more time explaining to children
And their parents why tteyre not special

 

[CarolAnn856]

To me this is the most salient aspect of the issue: "This note was not approved by district administrators and was distributed without district permission."

Now I'm not sure if she would get in trouble (here in my area I'm fairly certain she would even if publicly the school districts around here opted to support her which I'm not 100% sure they would in this case) but it comes off to me like an impulsive reaction.

I will assume she was just at her wits end and thought perhaps this will wake them all up. But I'm not sure the optics of it look all that great. I know the bold, different font sizes,etc are to emphasize but they just come off in a certain way to me.

Either way I'm not 100% ok with it but not 100% not ok with it. I think she should have run her thoughts through the District first if nothing else she might have had more weight to throw around.

Teachers aren't required to get letters to parents approved by admin before sending them in my district. I wonder if her district actually requires that, or if they're just putting that statement out there to cover themselves.

 

[BLAZEY]

I am always shocked, although I guess by now I shouldn't be, at how many parents of middle schoolers expect teachers to not have consequences for late assignments. They constantly demand that their kid get full credit for stuff that was due at the beginning of the quarter and turned in just before the end. Entitlement at its finest.

We just went through something like this with our 4th grade daughter. She did her science project it was due on April 18, the day before the 4 day Easter long weekend. She stayed up late the night before putting the finishing touches on it to have it ready when it was due. She comes home from school the next day to half the class getting an extension until Tuesday. She was mad that we had made her do it as the class got more time. I told her "We're not the ones you should be mad at, if the teacher gives full marks to the kids that got the extension, the teacher is the one you should be mad at." She came home Tuesday and said the kids that handed in the project on Tuesday lost 10% of their base mark for it being late.

I would not have been upset at the teacher it that note came home. It's obvious that its a last straw thing, having answered multiple requests from failing students (or their parents) to bring up their grade last minute. Teacher's have deadlines to meet with marking and reporting, if you can't get the assigned work in on time ,WHY should the teacher bend over backward to create special assignments for you to bring up your grade? If you know you child is a good student you would know this letter is not for you. Ifit ruffled your feathers it because they needed to be.

We have to sign DD's school agenda each week, the teacher emails a copy of any big assignments to the parent email list so we can add it to the family calendar. I certainly would not blame a teacher for my child failing to turn in work. as she gets older I expect DD to take on more responsibility for completing and turning in assignments with less cajoling from us and her teachers.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Teachers aren't required to get letters to parents approved by admin before sending them in my district. I wonder if her district actually requires that, or if they're just putting that statement out there to cover themselves.

Yeah I'm not thinking the district actually requires each and every letter to be run by them. Most require lesson plans to be all laid out long before school starts anyways.

However, if she had run it past them it's entirely possible the letter would have been much more formal and professional sounding, leave less room for others being affronted AND there would have been the backing of the school district. Perhaps if it wasn't worded like it was and with the presentation like it was the district wouldn't have felt the need to make such a statement. As is it looks like a teacher gone rogue who had a rash decision to vent her frustrations (right or wrong).

 

[CarolAnn856]

Yeah I'm not thinking the district actually requires each and every letter to be run by them. Most require lesson plans to be all laid out long before school starts anyways.

However, if she had run it past them it's entirely possible the letter would have been much more formal and professional sounding, leave less room for others being affronted AND there would have been the backing of the school district. Perhaps if it wasn't worded like it was and with the presentation like it was the district wouldn't have felt the need to make such a statement. As is it looks like a teacher gone rogue who had a rash decision to vent her frustrations (right or wrong).

I personally have no problem, as a teacher or parent, with her letter. But I agree, admin would have had her tone it down.

Re. lesson plans, I've never heard of submitting them all at once before school starts. Here, we submit monthly if tenured, weekly if not. I definitely prefer our way, because it allows for flexibility.