Education Questions and Answers
I had asked what you thought of my sons teacher...?
Question:the teacher told students that all of their essays had been destroyed and she had deleted that assignment from the books...(see my profiled questions for more detail) when I inquired about it she told me that it was just something she told students to get them off her back about grading them. But then she told students that she had given them all an A. I think that this has gone on long enough.!But what should I do about it?Its been amonth and a half, she has had plenty of time to get things graded. What is her problem?
Answers:
As a teacher, I am appalled. That is ridiculous, irresponsible, and violates a contract that she made with her students. When a teacher assigns an assignment, we have the responsibility to see it through. If the teacher wants to give everyone an A, they have the right to do that, but I have never heard of a teacher saying "oh well, I will just give everyone an A" (ahhh that would make my life soooo much simpler!)
I would schedule another meeting with her. Find out what is going on. Go in with an agenda of questions: Go in planning on having a conversation - NOT a confrontation. Teachers hate it when people try and tell them how to teach!! So you don't want her to be on the defensive, you will get no where. Go in under the guise of being concerned about your son and his performance and what advice can she give you
Open with the easy ones:
When was the assignment given?
What were the expectations?
How did your son perform based on those expectations? What advice can she give you about motivating your son to do better in class?
If she isn't giving you adequate answers to alleviate your concerns you may need to be more direct
Where is the class syllabus - does your son have a copy that he can give you before the meeting so you can look over it and see if she says anything about points on certain assignments? A syllabus is a contract, if she gives an assignment and then retracts it or changes it in some way she needs to let everyone know that.
What does the syllabus state about assignments?
Why did she lie to the students about the assignments burning on her stove (her answer is NOT acceptable - get a real answer)
Why did she decide to give everyone an A, what was her rationale - maybe she felt that the students had all put in a great effort and she was rewarding them for that (not a great reason for an A, but . . .)
Did she REALLY give the students an A?
If so, ask for your son's paper back with the A on the paper
Write down her responses. If you still are not satisfied with her answers then let her know. Tell her that you are not happy with her responses and feel that you need to talk to the principal about the issue. Then schedule a meeting with the principal and see what he/she has to say. And then if he/she feels it is warranted, he will schedule a meeting with the teacher alone or he may want you there too.
Good luck!
If you've already spoken to her on the issue take it up with the principal. It's within reason to expect assignments back and with a grade.
incompetent teacher... if it happens again she should be suspended for a while... not a quality educator : (
time to take it up with the school board!
You definitely need to have a conversation with the head of the English department and the school principal about this. This woman is clearly not doing a good job of handling her responsibilities. If the papers were actually destroyed through her negligence, then she is obligated to find a more creative solution to this situation than simply to give all her students As. (She should also not be trying to cover her tracks by lying to *you*). If the papers were not destroyed, then she is obligated to grade them. It is unprofessional of her to lie to her students about destroying their essays in order to avoid performing the job she is being paid to do AND which she has an ethical responsibility to do.
Do note that this situation is complicated by the fact that it *can* be more difficult and time-intensive to grade essays than to grade, say, multiple choice or short answer tests. (I'm speaking from experience here: I teach college English). Remember that teachers have to prepare to teach multiple different classes every day of the week; this preparation time is on top of the time actually spent teaching in the classroom and does not include time needed to grade stacks and stacks of papers. (As a point of reference, there were times during spring semester when I spent 12 hours on campus... and came home and did more work). So, leaving aside the question of whether or not the story about the papers having been destroyed is true, 6 weeks isn't necessarily an unreasonable amount of time to turn around a batch of papers.
BUT: this time figure also depends on what the teacher is doing with said papers. If she's writing extensive comments on the essays, then it may well take 6 weeks. But if she circles a few things, writes a few brief remarks at the end, and slaps a grade on it -- then 6 weeks is definitely way too long to be sitting on top of these essays.
I mention all this for two reasons:
(1) to remind readers of EducationAsk.coms that the vast majority of teachers -- including English teachers -- really do try our best and want our students to succeed. Your original question seemed to unleash a vein of "I hate my bad English teachers" sentiment, which is discouraging to see.
(2) to suggest that, as with grading, there's a bigger context to be considered here. This woman's behavior seems pretty erratic, which may be a sign that she's struggling with some significant personal problems. That doesn't absolve her of her professional responsibilities, but it's useful to keep in mind in your dealings with her.
Best of luck.
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