Teacher situation (long) -- UPDATES #26, #56, #141 (mini), #151, #165

[MyFamily]

This is the administration's fault as much as the teachers, IMO.  No one noticed that her teaching has stalled and her class has been watching a movie for days on end?  No one noticed that this new program is failing?  No one noticed that she has not updated the grades?  No one asked her how many kids are on track for each layer of teaching?  No one asked her how she's managing so that students have equal access to the limited materials?  No one asked her if going on the trip would adversely affect her students?

Not to excuse administration too much, but the fact is that they are probably understaffed and overworked.  They can't follow-up with every teacher and it isn't unheard of for a good teacher to have a good reason for being late for turning in their grades.  In fact, the late grades for progress reports may be their first clue that there is a problem.  Depending on the history of this teacher, it may be looked at closely or it may not be that much of a concern for them. 

[Sharnita]

This is the administration's fault as much as the teachers, IMO.  No one noticed that her teaching has stalled and her class has been watching a movie for days on end?  No one noticed that this new program is failing?  No one noticed that she has not updated the grades?  No one asked her how many kids are on track for each layer of teaching?  No one asked her how she's managing so that students have equal access to the limited materials?  No one asked her if going on the trip would adversely affect her students?

Not to excuse administration too much, but the fact is that they are probably understaffed and overworked.  They can't follow-up with every teacher and it isn't unheard of for a good teacher to have a good reason for being late for turning in their grades.  In fact, the late grades for progress reports may be their first clue that there is a problem.  Depending on the history of this teacher, it may be looked at closely or it may not be that much of a concern for them.

Conversely, it could be due in part to them. They could have basically told her to go on the field trip, putting her behind, they might be instituting a tiered system that they haven't trained her on or that they don't understand - who knows.

[Coley]

DH and I were talking about that, and we're wondering if the insertion of the movie on Friday, today, and tomorrow as a class activity is to keep the kids who are done with the C work occupied during class time because they don't have anything to do. That's just a guess though. The kids can work through Wednesday on their projects, but if they want to work today or tomorrow, it will have to be during study hall. They can work Wednesday in class, which is the last day of class time she is allowing.
[/quote]

I gather from your other post that the teacher seems to be behind in her paperwork.  I suspect that she is showing the movie so that she can work on this stuff during class.  I wonder if she is showing movies in other classes, too.  I think her use of this movie is thoroughly unprofessional.
[/quote]

I had the same suspicion, so I asked DS about it the other day. He said she is watching the movie with them. It is hard to connect the dots between this movie and the current science unit. I would have to talk with her to understand the logic behind it.

[Coley]

This is the administration's fault as much as the teachers, IMO.  No one noticed that her teaching has stalled and her class has been watching a movie for days on end?  No one noticed that this new program is failing?  No one noticed that she has not updated the grades?  No one asked her how many kids are on track for each layer of teaching?  No one asked her how she's managing so that students have equal access to the limited materials?  No one asked her if going on the trip would adversely affect her students?

Not to excuse administration too much, but the fact is that they are probably understaffed and overworked.  They can't follow-up with every teacher and it isn't unheard of for a good teacher to have a good reason for being late for turning in their grades.  In fact, the late grades for progress reports may be their first clue that there is a problem.  Depending on the history of this teacher, it may be looked at closely or it may not be that much of a concern for them.

Conversely, it could be due in part to them. They could have basically told her to go on the field trip, putting her behind, they might be instituting a tiered system that they haven't trained her on or that they don't understand - who knows.

Yes, all of this possible. I can't fairly point a finger anywhere because I don't have enough information to do that. All I can do is go in there and report the experience from our perspective. I would think the late grades might be a signal of a problem to the administration, but I can't know that for certain. At my institution, late grades are highly frowned upon, and instructors are expected to correct the problem immediately.

[Marisol]

To me it sounds like the B and A levels ought to be used as extra credit for kids to advance their grade, but it shouldn't be a requirement to pass unless the kids are given enough time to go over each level and the teacher dedicates working time for the whole class to use.  This system just seems flawed. 

Is her class made up of different skill levels?  The only time I hear about levels a student can complete is when the class is made up of several groups of kids with different skill sets.  The advanced kids are given more to do while the less advanced work through the lower levels.  But in those situations the kids should all still be able to achieve an A within their level.  Although, I think it is to no ones advantage to have kids all mixed in the same class.  It makes it hard for the teacher to teach and the kids to learn. 

[Dr. F.]

OP - did you contact the school today? I'm super-curious what the administration's response is going to be.

[Coley]

Sorry for my delayed response. We were doing some pre-Halloween activities last night.

Mini-update:

I sent an e-mail to the principal this morning. It looks like we will meet tomorrow or Thursday. I asked to meet with her alone initially -- without the teacher. I have spent the better part of this morning editing my notes from the timeline in my OP so I can share them with the principal and also trying to do some of my own work. 

After school yesterday, DS told me that he submitted his research paper for his experiment. He still hadn't turned in the other work  that he completed at home a week ago because the teacher told him it should be uploaded to the class website. He didn't know how to do that. He asked her yesterday for instructions on how to upload, and she told him it could be turned in "either way." He surmised that she meant it could be submitted by hard copy or an upload to the website. She didn't give him instructions on how to upload it. After school, I helped him get it uploaded because we don't have a printer at home. I asked DS what was happening the room when he asked for upload instructions. He said there were a bunch of kids there who were missing work and trying to talk to her.

The homework website was finally updated yesterday with a statement that the work for this unit will be due "no earlier than 10/31." DS still says the last day of class time for the unit will be 10/31.

As of a little while ago, a chunk of missing grades had been entered for B- and C-layer work in the online gradebook. It appears that the teacher is working furiously to enter the grades. I will be watching like a hawk to be sure everything is entered.

In the meantime, the only assignment DS has remaining is a quiz over the A layer. He should be able to take that today or tomorrow.

I will continue to post updates as I have them.

[snowdragon]

wait she has grades entered and the work is not yet due? That does not seem right to me.

[Sharnita]

wait she has grades entered and the work is not yet due? That does not seem right to me.

if the work gets turned in why wouldn't she grade it and enter the grade?

[GSNW]

I think why Coley meant is that individual assignment grades have been entered, not that final grades have been entered/posted.

As a side note, most admin have site-specific rules about how often online grade loos must be updated/uploaded.  The fact that this teacher is so behind in her gb should have been noticed.  However, some admin are very hands-off.  Mine pretty much take the "if you're not screwing up we never bother you" approach, which has pros and cons.  I'll be interested to hear how your meeting goes, Coley.  Good luck!

[Coley]

I think why Coley meant is that individual assignment grades have been entered, not that final grades have been entered/posted.

As a side note, most admin have site-specific rules about how often online grade loos must be updated/uploaded.  The fact that this teacher is so behind in her gb should have been noticed.  However, some admin are very hands-off.  Mine pretty much take the "if you're not screwing up we never bother you" approach, which has pros and cons.  I'll be interested to hear how your meeting goes, Coley.  Good luck!

Yes, the kids have been submitting assignments all the way along for each layer of work. The C-layer in particular had quite a number of individual assignments. Each individual assignment has to be graded. After that, the kids will know what their overall grade for the unit is.

Thanks for the good wishes. 

[snowdragon]

wait she has grades entered and the work is not yet due? That does not seem right to me.

if the work gets turned in why wouldn't she grade it and enter the grade?

because the student has time to give her ALL of it - even in grad school it's not uncommon to upload load parts of assignments as they get done so they don't get lost, most teachers i know don't grade until the day the assignment is due.

[artk2002]

wait she has grades entered and the work is not yet due? That does not seem right to me.

if the work gets turned in why wouldn't she grade it and enter the grade?

because the student has time to give her ALL of it - even in grad school it's not uncommon to upload load parts of assignments as they get done so they don't get lost, most teachers i know don't grade until the day the assignment is due.

Given how slow this teacher has been in grading the assignments that have been turned in, waiting until the due date would be a disaster. Also, we've been talking about the due date for one specific assignment. What the teacher has been doing is grading assignments that have earlier dates (in other words, there are multiple assignments, each with different due dates, so it's not clear that she is grading anything "early.")

I really don't see why she should have to wait in any case. I've never heard of uploading a partial assignment in order to keep it from getting lost. I figure that backups and taking care of my in-progress work are my responsibility. That's what Google Docs or a thumb drive are for.

[blarg314]

I've never heard of uploading a partial assignment in order to keep it from getting lost. I figure that backups and taking care of my in-progress work are my responsibility. That's what Google Docs or a thumb drive are for.

This is actually really common in my profession, for research proposals that have a firm deadline, and the only way to submit is via upload, with a complicated form and multiple attachments, each in their own form.

The main benefit is that people tend to upload final versions at the last minute. Being able to increment protects you from problems on the server end - the server crashes, the net goes down, the power goes out, a typhoon hits...  That way you have a record of the last upload, and it's clear that you weren't lying about there being problems, and if there are problems, you're not out of luck.

[And yes, I know, submitting a week in advance would be better, but not always practical when you're writing a document that has contributions from half a dozen different people on multiple continents who are each writing their own PI proposals, and you're doing this for several different facilities, and your collaborators send important comments three hours before the deadline.

[kherbert05]

If a project has multiple parts that can be turned in over a period of time, I will put the grades in as kids turn in their work. I can't wait till the end and put them all in at the same time. It would be overwhelming. I have a button I have to click for a project to counted as graded. If they haven't turned it in and the due date hasn't passed. The button is unclicked