Friday, December 18, 2009

Raving's of a TICKED OFF mom!!!!


My son came home with his mid-term report card. As a parent I take grades very seriously in our house. So we sat our son down and asked him what was going on.
When we give our children cell phones they have to fill out a contract with us and part of the contract is they only get to keep their phone as long as their grades are above a C average at mid-term and on Final report cards they must have A’s and B’s, nothing less. This is all written out and signed by our child and us as parents.
This is my problem. We enforce the rules we have set with our kids, but our son said, “Mom I don’t know why I got a bad grade. We pulled up his grades he was missing four assignments and a test. We turn our bulging eyes onto the boy. Holding up two hands he says, “No way, I’ve turned in everything. I don’t know why there missing.”
So we fire off an e-mail to his teacher, on Friday afternoon the day we got his mid-term. I wait patiently. My toe starts tapping, in waiting for a response. Two days later still no response, then three, then four days and nothing. I’m trying to give this woman the benefit of the doubt, making up excuses for her. She’s probably busy, maybe she’s ran her car off the road and into a ditch. After five day’s my toe is no longer tapping it’s ready to kick some hinny. We send our son in to ask why his grade is so low. We’ve done the math of the grades listed on Skyward, and according to it he should have a C+. Now before you think I’m against teachers, I am not. However I do expect a little responsibility on their part.
Okay here’s where I get really angry. She tells my son that she hasn’t put in all the grades yet, she hasn’t had time, but as soon as she does he’s grade should go up. WHAT?
Aren’t mid-term grades supposed to be accurate? Aren’t they supposed to be a representation of what he has done up to that point, not the week prior or the week before that. Don’t teacher’s know when it’s mid-term? And don’t they start preparing so they can give their students parents a clear representation of what is going on in their student’s scholastic world.
With both hands gripping my hair, I want to scream at this woman.
A week later, I went back on Skyward. She’d put in his assignments and test which brought his grade up. We gave back his phone. However, if his grades had been put in when he’d turned in his assignments. None of this would have happened. We could have avoided a lot of drama at my house.
And in case you’re wondering; she never did email me back.

4 comments:

  1. Teachers are stupid. ha ha. Okay, sometimes students are stupid too. It can be a toss up! But man I hate it when people don't email you back, call you back etc. I've been trying to do better at that myself. he he. They say what bugs you most about yourself is what will bug you in other people---or something like that. blah!

    I'm getting so excited for Christmas. I know that has nothing to do with anything...but I am. YAY!

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  2. You are a good and thorough mama. I once heard someone say parenting is "love, limits and leniency." What a great lesson of limits and leniency Keaton learned that you take it seriously but you want to trust him. The teacher thing will always be an issue, but now he knows you mean business AND you are in his corner. Good stuff and its free!!!
    Love you

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  3. Yup...4 out of 7 teachers at Ft Herriman Jr High have done the exact same thing to me. They have time to send notes home stating that they didnt get the grades posted, but not time to post the grades. I cant be the only one that is asking for clarification. How do I teach a child responsiblity when the teachers are not? Its a pickle. Its frustrating pooh. And that is all I have to say about that.

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  4. Leslee - we learned the hard way!! Have your kids keep a copy of everything they turn in. Megan was organized enough to do that and saved her grades a couple of times; Kyle argued his way out of this situation and Kaden just took the lower grade. Oh the joys of raising kids. There are wonderful teachers out there, but I fear a few, who really don't like being teachers, slip through the cracks!

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