Parent Reportcards...whats your grade?

[Susie Q Roo]

Okay, all you educators out there... what ARE parental responsibilities as you see them? The article mentions a handful of items. Is that it, or are there more?

Ginger brings up a good point about learning that there are consequences to your actions, I think. Is it a parents responsibility to keep a child from experiencing those consequences?

[kirbyfan]

Originally Posted by KelliG

"They" are talking about adding BMI to each child's report card, and sending a note to parents that their kids are obese. However, while AT SCHOOL, they have decreased PE to 3 days a week, decreased playground time, AND they dare to serve them fried chicken, fried beef, nachos, hotdogs, and fries for lunch...the hypocrisy just KILLS me!

I couldnt agree more. Our school just started 2 different programs to have much healthier foods for our kids to eat. Most of the kids have gone with the change without any problems.

[SunKneeMarie]

I think school lunches have always been crap. I can't honestly look back on what we ate and think "Wow, what a healthy lunch that was." Most of it was refined sugars and starches. Plus, burgers, fries, pizza, sloppy joes were all served when I was in all grades, elementary through high school. And the burgers back then smelled like god knows what kind of meat. Even if they threw that "healthy" mix of peas and carrots in the designated section of my tray, I didn't eat it--right into the trash it went. Saw a lot of piles of green and orange in the trash cans.

In high school, I would sometimes take my lunch money and buy a Snickers bar and a Dr Pepper for lunch... my parents never knew that's what I was doing.

In our schools, they still serve the same pizza, burger, fries crap in schools now, but they also offer a baked potato and salad bar. Kids can choose that option. Or they have the typical hot tray lunch that we remember from "the good old days." Kids can choose that option. The drink machines in our schools no longer serve soda. They dispense water and power ade types of drinks only. There is no candy offered at the middle school during lunches, not sure about the high school.

[kirbyfan]

Originally Posted by Susie Q Roo

Ginger brings up a good point about learning that there are consequences to your actions, I think. Is it a parents responsibility to keep a child from experiencing those consequences?

Yes I think for the most part it is, but they are going to get themselves into certian situations regardless that allow them to experience this. I make every effort to help my children (my own as well as my students) make good choices. I try to help them understand that their are negative as well as positive consequences to all choices they make. That IMO is just one part of your job.

[PlayadelSoul]

Originally Posted by kirbyfan

Its not a stretch at all, but the problem is that the playing field isnt level and we have yet to see a system that takes that into account. Attempting to measure the job a teacher has done by student achievement scores is not a good way.

Student achievement scores are a very good indicator of teacher performance. You take them on a micro level, first. Are the students showing improvement? Even if they start at zero, there should be some improvement if the teacher is doing his job. How do this teacher's students compare to the rest of the teachers in his school? How do they stack up to the rest of the school district? The state? The country? It is a measurable criteria that is used worldwide to evaluate teachers. We use it in our language school. Students don't learn, teacher finds a new line of work.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by NorthMinnesota

But when the same teacher is reported year after year by students and parents alike for not teaching, leaving the class room every day and being incompetent there needs to be a process for dealing with the problem rather than waiting 4 more years until he retires.


What happened to using common sense?

Yes of course they should be taken care of by whatever steps are in place. I think there are usually processes in place to do take care of such situations. Certainly there have been in any teaching situation I've seen, from private language schools to public universities. And for that matter, there are processes in place to essentially "fire" parents by taking their children from them in the extreme cases that they demonstrate themselves clearly to be unfit and severe neglect or worse, abuse, is evident. There are many steps before you get to that firing in either situation, but there are processes to follow. That doesn't mean teacher or parent report cards are a good approach.

The more typical situation I'm referring to involves evaluations that consider scores on standardized tests to be all-important, for example, or involve other such apparently (but not really) objective factors that may (or may not) reflect how good a teacher is as a guide to learning. I'm not at all as convinced about the value of those things Mark's referring to in assessing a teacher's performance, myself. Particularly improvement can be very hard to see, and is of course easier to see if you start with students who are in whatever way lower on the scale, just as it's easier to see improvement when a manager takes over a poor team than a good team. It's a very complex mess that doesn't lend itself easily to any kind of quantitative assessment, imo.

Steve

[NorthMinnesota]

We just had this discussion last night at book club. There are several teachers in our group and the rest of us all have volunteered many hours over the years. Our discussion centered around many problems the teachers are encountering. Lack of respect for authority, sleepy kids, angry kids, hungry kids, hyper kids, etc. We just had parent/teacher conferences and it was sad that many parents didn't bother to come. But then there we also several "aha" moments when they met parents.

[SunKneeMarie]

Originally Posted by Susie Q Roo

Okay, all you educators out there... what ARE parental responsibilities as you see them? The article mentions a handful of items. Is that it, or are there more?

Ginger brings up a good point about learning that there are consequences to your actions, I think. Is it a parents responsibility to keep a child from experiencing those consequences?

I think time management is one of the most needed skills for a child, and it's one of the last skills to develop in a kid's brain. That last big study on teen brains revealed that. Made total sense to me. They just don't have a great concept for how long something is going to take, or how to break down a big project into manageable parts.

As a parent, I have tried to help my kids learn that, which is a HUGE part of homework management. I do not do their homework for them, but have asked how much they have, how long they think it will take... reminded them to make time allowances for soccer and piano, etc. Find out if any major projects are coming up.

At 16, Ryan is just now mastering the art of breaking down his assignments into manageable pieces and giving himself enough time to do things. He still messes up, as one "quick thing" for Chemistry took almost 2 hours the other night. And he still hands me things to quiz him on, as he is more of an auditory learned and likes to be quizzed. I remember handing my mom vocab sheets to quiz me on.

So that's been my involvement with homework. Knowing that they have it and helping them get it done in a manageable time frame. It's a microcosm of the Time Management Big Picture---a life skill that they will need.

[Rissask]

Originally Posted by kirbyfan

OMG Ris! Many of our students only get 2 good meals a day and thats the 2 we feed them at school!!! It may not be necessary in some areas but in our district its a lifesaver! For many students not just in my district but all over, school is the only warm, safe place they have.....

OMG Kirbyfan! I wasn't referring to your school district!
I was talking about why are there cafeterias in schools all over the country, in areas with all income levels, not only inner city schools! Not talking about school breakfast lunch programs! So chill!

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by Rissask

OMG Kirbyfan! I wasn't referring to your school district!
I was talking about why are there cafeterias in schools all over the country, in areas with all income levels, not only inner city schools! Not talking about school breakfast lunch programs! So chill!

Nice avatar, Maggie.

I don't know if that's part of it, but there is this kind of "magic pill" mentality about education: we pay our taxes, don't we? OK, so that whole education thing should be taken care of! The more you come back with the notion that it's not as simple as that and that parents need to be involved and are also responsible in various specific ways that require some focus and attention and time, the more you seem to get that answer. I'm sure that's even moreso as work has taken over more parents and more time.

I also see this as sort of the "blame somebody" mentality that often crops up in US society, at least. But teachers don't like being the focus of that any more than anybody else does (as I think the parents' reaction to this idea in the article shows!).

Steve

[Ginger]

Char, that's such a good point. I never realized it, but I think that is what Kelsey's problems with homework are (when she has it, which isn't often because she is very studious in class). She doesn't seem to plan well for how long it will take, and ends up being up real late to finish. Now that you've said this I'm going to watch that and see if I can catch it ahead of time.

I do get involved in homework to some degree. I do the quizzing of the kids, I read over their drafts of stories, book reports, etc. Jorden works two grade levels ahead in Math and Spelling and tutors grade 7's (he's in grade 6) so no homework there, but it's the sitting down and writing things out like Socials, Science or language arts. He does fine with these during the school day (on his meds ) but struggles at home with homework. It basically would come down to a huge struggle with voice raising, punishments, etc. and it still not getting done after hours of us arguing at the kitchen table. That's when I was told it shouldn't be that way, and to leave it in his hands instead. If he chooses to play instead of do his homework, he doesn't get to play the next day at school.

[SunKneeMarie]

Originally Posted by Ginger

Char, that's such a good point. I never realized it, but I think that is what Kelsey's problems with homework are (when she has it, which isn't often because she is very studious in class). She doesn't seem to plan well for how long it will take, and ends up being up real late to finish. Now that you've said this I'm going to watch that and see if I can catch it ahead of time.

I do get involved in homework to some degree. I do the quizzing of the kids, I read over their drafts of stories, book reports, etc. Jorden works two grade levels ahead in Math and Spelling and tutors grade 7's (he's in grade 6) so no homework there, but it's the sitting down and writing things out like Socials, Science or language arts. He does fine with these during the school day (on his meds ) but struggles at home with homework. It basically would come down to a huge struggle with voice raising, punishments, etc. and it still not getting done after hours of us arguing at the kitchen table. That's when I was told it shouldn't be that way, and to leave it in his hands instead. If he chooses to play instead of do his homework, he doesn't get to play the next day at school.

and see, knowing all of that about your children shows that you are very involved in what they're doing... it's not like he's losing school priveleges the next day and you're making phone calls demanding that he get to play as he shouldn't have to do all that homework... he's made the choice and gets the consequences... I happen to have a child who cannot STAND to be called down in class for anything, so he stresses too far to make sure everything is done and in place before he walks out the door... i fear for his stomach, actually...

[SunKneeMarie]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Nice avatar, Maggie.

I don't know if that's part of it, but there is this kind of "magic pill" mentality about education: we pay our taxes, don't we? OK, so that whole education thing should be taken care of! The more you come back with the notion that it's not as simple as that and that parents need to be involved and are also responsible in various specific ways that require some focus and attention and time, the more you seem to get that answer. I'm sure that's even moreso as work has taken over more parents and more time.

I also see this as sort of the "blame somebody" mentality that often crops up in US society, at least. But teachers don't like being the focus of that any more than anybody else does (as I think the parents' reaction to this idea in the article shows!).

Steve

I'm not sure why an educator would be upset at getting a job assessment. Every job has those measures in place. Yearly evaluations to determine performance levels and merit increases, etc. It's a professional assessment.

Being assessed on a personal level as a parent is more difficult because parenting is so subjective. So many factors that have no right or wrong. Discipline, diet, TV, sports, extracurricular activities, etc, etc. What is too much, what is too little? Think how many debates on here about what is the RIGHT way to raise the obviously crap-shit generation of kids we are producing (sorry if I'm bitter, but that seems to be the attitude I get from reading all of these parenting threads and posts).

[Rissask]

HOME for lunch!?!?
Great idea, assuming there was a parent at home....not like today where both parents work...
UGH...school lunches!
"They" are talking about adding BMI to each child's report card, and sending a note to parents that their kids are obese. However, while AT SCHOOL, they have decreased PE to 3 days a week, decreased playground time, AND they dare to serve them fried chicken, fried beef, nachos, hotdogs, and fries for lunch...the hypocrisy just KILLS me!

I guess we must still be living in the past up here. Not many schools have cafeterias, many kids bring their lunches, and yes, some go home at noon. If they are too young to go home to an empty house, the parents have a deal with (and pay) another stay at home parent they know, and they go there.

Letting the parents know their kid has a dangerously high BMI might be a good part to include in the PE part of the report card, I can see that, maybe, but ideally that info should come from their family doctor, not the school...in a perfect world I guess.

You work at a reservation school right kirbyfan? You likely deal with a lot of the same issues that friends of mine who teach at reserve schools here do...the poor nutrition and all the issues that stem from that, like tiredness and inability to concentrate, FAS kids, , the unstable home lives, switching from school to school because the kids travel from household to household willy nilly...this is a bit of a different case from the parents on this board, right?

Like others have said, the parents who truly need to hear some constructive criticism from their child's teacher about their parenting aren't going to give a crap about a report card. Sad but true.

Kind of off topic, but my GFs son is in grade 2 and he got the dumbest assignment this year, to write on on foolscap all the numbers from 1 to 1000. After working at it for 45 minutes he wasn't even at 500 yet. She said he didn't have to finish (naturally!) and then he got in trouble with the teacher for not doing his homework....ridiculous! Subjective indeed!

[ryberg]

Your assessment there re time management and kids is right on target, imo, SKM. And I've been focusing on that with him, too, a lot. And I can't say that I'm a great time manager, so...

The point about individual variation is crucial, too, and is something a parent with 1-5 kids at home and a lifetime of experience with them is much more equipped to see, understand and deal with intensively than a teacher who's just been introduced to, or has worked 6 mos with, 20-25 kids (or often more!). Benjamin is just often careless and will leave a section of the homework blank and not check after claiming he's finished to spot that little problem. Or by the same token, he'll miss a key point of the instructions and not explain his answer or not finish out a comparison of the initial part of the answer with something else or whatever. Or he'll just plain forget to take the homework with him back to school to turn it in, or will lose a rough draft in his desk before he gets to the final draft and finishes, etc. I wasn't like that at all as a kid so it's particularly frustrating to deal with, but there it is.

And you know, to what extent is his teacher to be held responsible for my son doing those types of things? Or for the son of a friend who recently, for example, read 3 Harry Potter books and got himself halfway through a 4th but failed to ever go and take a computerized test in his advanced reading system on it, and thus got zero points, and thus failed that part of his language skills grade for the semester? But that sort of thing will definitely pull down kids' grades and then can make the teacher look like s/he is not doing the job properly, if the kids' grades are low. I wouldn't want to be the teacher getting a poorer evaluation in such a situation!

Steve