WARNING…this will be a rant.
Make popcorn or don’t, but I’m not going to be Suzy Sunshine and talk
about unicorns and puppies and rainbows.
First of all, this isn’t my first rodeo. This is my (by my possibly faulty
calculations due to memory and denial) 9th High School Curriculum
night as a parent. I have three more to
go before I’m done with high school; I am too tired to count how many elementary
and middle school nights I’ve attended.
2nd, I hated High School. It still gives me a cold dread in the pit of
my stomach. Yes, I’ve been out of High
school for a few years now, but I
still hate it. I hate the crowded
hallways, the lockers, the endless shuffling from class to class (across the
campus mind you – several times). And I
hate, hate HATE the popularity play that seems to never end (the “it” crowd
stays together as they age, it seems).
Thirdly, we live in Redmond; home of MICROSOFT and several
other technological powerhouses. Technology
is a tool; unless it doesn’t work and then it’s a doorstop. A HUGELY EXPENSIVE doorstop that wastes time
and causes frustration…a doorstop that I’ve apparently paid quite a bit of my
taxpayers dollars for.
Our school has three forms of communication with parents
(not counting mail, phone and website):
Email, Standard Score/Webgrader and Haiku.
Standard Score is how parents look at the grades in the
classes and see what work/projects/tests have or have not been completed. Standard score is only useful if it’s
USED. Not updating it regularly is of no
help to the student or the parent.
Incomplete or outdated information is not useful either. Not using the notification system of late or
missing work defeats the purpose of the system.
Haiku is supposed
to be the “portal” (another failed technological tool, but never mind) to the teacher’s
classroom. This is supposed to contain a
calendar of what the teacher is covering in class along with notes or
worksheets for students to access in case the dog ate their homework or they
were out with meningitis or broke up with their love interest and couldn’t
handle going to school. In an
enlightened age it might also contain a link to the class textbook, other references or information about the subject for further study.
This is my 2nd year with Haiku. Or perhaps I should say without Haiku. Last year
parents had no access except through their student’s log-in. We are three weeks into the school year and
parents still have no access to it without student information. Yes, I have my student’s password but I’m “supposed”
to have my own. And for those of you
that say “my son/daughter won’t give me their password” I say; who pays the
bills in your house?
This leaves me with email as the only consistent form of
communication. As unpleasant as it is
for me to write to the teachers every week asking for updates on my student;
imagine if all 1900+ parents emailed all the teachers asking the same
thing. I think that’s what centralized
communication systems are meant to be used for.
At least that’s the theory because I’ve yet to see one of them work in
almost 8 years of being used.
A few notes I took during curriculum night, September
2013:
- Curriculum night should
be focused on learning about the class and the curriculum. Shocking, I know. It is NOT a night to tell me about your
favorite sports team, all the countries you lived in or that you like French
fries. That’s all fascinating and I know
it helps you connect with the parents, but I just want to know what my student
will be expected to learn in your class.
- 10 minutes per class is not enough time. It’s not enough time especially if you’re going to tell me about your background,
interests and favorites things. Tell me
about your PhD and your extensive traveling experiences and your summer work in
Mozambique on your Haiku page (portal) or on a hand-out that I can read at
home.
- Curriculum night should not be about politics or money or
introducing new programs or procedures to the parents.
It’s about curriculum. Don’t give me a 10 minute slide show on Lake
Washington Schools Foundation or the upcoming Levy proposal or Common Core
standards or the Senior Portfolio guidelines.
And don’t expect a teacher that has no information about any of those
things to actually be able to answer questions (and there will be MANY) about
the topics. I don’t want politics or
fund-raising at curriculum night.
In every High School curriculum night I’ve been to, I’m
supposed to mimic my student’s schedule and move seamlessly from class to
class. Why is it EVERY night I’ve
been to the classes are from one end of the campus to the other and rarely
logically laid out? For instance my son has six
classes. First period is in the new
building, 2nd floor. Next
class is in the band room – not too far away and I have the luxury of knowing where
the band room is from previous experience with my older son. 3rd period is on the second floor
on the OPPOSITE end of the campus. I
have about 5 minutes to walk through the hallways, up the stairs, locate the
correct hallway and enter the classroom.
Imagine those same hallways during school hours with 1900-plus students
doing the same exact thing (don’t forget to imagine the overstuffed backpacks). Now I have 4th period, which is
back at the other end of the campus in the new building, first floor. 5th period and I’m back across the
campus, upstairs on the other side of the wing.
6th period I’m downstairs from the 5th period
class, but in a different section of hallways.
It’s no wonder these kids are stressed and crabby and have back problems
after carting their backpacks up and down and over and around all day long for
6 hours. Thank goodness he doesn't have French 2 this year or he (and I) would have to access one of the four portables on site.
Periods 1 and 5 were the only teachers who finished their
presentation before the bell sounded.
There is NO TIME to talk to the teacher because you feel the need to
hurry to the next class (not to mention there are already 5 parents in line
ahead of you even though the bell just sounded).
Teacher #1 does not use Webnotes (yes he actually said that). He does use Haiku and we’re supposed to check
Haiku – but we’ll need our student’s pass code and ID to do that – no word on
when parents will be given access. He
told us that he’ll "probably" start sending out weekly emails with what’s coming
up in class in a week or so. It’s so
hard, you know, to communicate with the parents right now because there have
been so many scheduling changes. (boo.hoo) He was unclear on how often he'd update Standard Score with assignments.
Teacher #2 finished his presentation (almost) but it’s band
and I’ve heard it before. Only new item
was someone needs to help determine the 9th grade uniform for band
performances. Oh, and practice,
practice, practice. Except in my case,
we can’t rent a Tuba/Sousaphone from a music store (at least not in my budget)
and he doesn’t have any extras for us to take home and use (a benefit the
Middle School band had that I’m missing horribly).
Teacher #3 was home-room.
We had a whopping 25 minutes in this class, but it was all taken up by
“Pass the Hat”, slides on the Levy vote in 2014, introducing the Portfolio
program (to 9th grade parents) and blowing the horn of Lake
Washington Schools Foundation. We also
were handed an emergency form to verify, correct and sign. This left the teacher about 5 minutes to tell
us about her interests and her love of literature. I understand from my student that she doesn’t
use Haiku – not sure if it’s because she won’t or she can’t. She wasn’t very complete in the small bit of
information we were able to get from her; so my overall impression wasn’t much. I found it interesting that one of the texts
the students will be reading are selections from the Old Testament
(Bible). I wonder how long before
someone complains about separation of church and state. She had no information on student passwords
for career cruising (the portfolio site) or the portfolio other than what was
on her slides. Thankfully three parents in
the class (including myself) had older students and had some knowledge of the
program.
Teacher #4 was the math teacher. Her message was “No cell-phones, buy a
scientific or graphing calculator (for $100) and learn to talk to each other”. She plans on updating Standard Score by
Friday every week. She didn’t finish her
presentation because the Vice Principal came over the intercom and announced
that three very special people had parked in places that were so special they were blocking about 50
cars from getting out of the lot. They
were instructed to grab their keys and move their vehicles. That took 5 minutes of intercom time. Whoops!
Time to move to period #5.
Teacher #5 is the French teacher. Overall, I liked her. She finished her presentation, complimented
the students, related to the parents and talked about the planned trip in 2015. She even had time for us to ask a couple of
questions. I was irritated that she mentioned
three times that she had a PhD, but whatever.
Teacher #6 was probably my favorite of the entire evening;
although I was late getting there because it wasn’t so easy to just go down one
level and across the wing to find the class.
She is a huge ball of energy that was so funny, I’m sure the kids think
she’s either on drugs or crazy (my son loves this class, although doesn’t
really like history). She didn’t finish
her presentation because she talked too much and all over the board about her
life experiences, French fries, chocolate and beer. Oh, and her husband is an Oregon Duck. I have no idea how she’s going to teach kids
history in the last period of the day after they’ve walked the campus twice;
but I know she’ll give it a try. I did
find it interesting that she had signs with several major religions EXCEPT
Christianity in her classroom. I
understand it’s a history class, but Christianity is history too. I suppose it’s balanced out by the Old
Testament sections read in English class.
Solutions? I have a
few. I’m sure the School
Board/District/Administration/Union doesn't give a fig about my solutions; but I’ll
offer them as I don’t like to complain without a suggestion of how to fix “it”.
Communication:
Every teacher has to use the tools given. EVERY TEACHER. (I don’t care about union regs and how long
they work and blah, blah, blah.) I – or my
student – should be able at the end of every school day to access the
portal/website for the specific class and know what’s due, when it’s due and
any notes, worksheets or presentations to help my student do their homework and
study. Every Day.
If my student is late turning something in (or doesn’t turn
it in at all) the system that alerts the parents to this MUST be used. Otherwise I feel that you only want my money
and the rest of the parent involvement speech is just bunk. If you want my help in keeping my
student on track, focused, organized and doing well in class, then YOU NEED TO
PROVIDE ME with the tools (and USE
them) to do this. (Don’t tell me how
many students you have. It’s your job.)
A bit of (ancient) history:
if there was a problem when I was in school, the teacher sent a note
home through the student. If the problem
continued, the teacher called the parent.
I don’t remember my mother having to wait for progress reports to come
home before she knew what my grades were in a class or if I was struggling or
not. And, although I always turned my
homework in on time (it never occurred to me not to???); I’m sure that a call
would have been made if my homework was missing or incomplete.
Technology:
If you don’t know how to use the technology, learn it. I spend hours every week learning how to get
onto every new system that I’m required to access. I manage to do this in between two jobs, the
mom-gig and the wife thing. I’m tired of
hearing “He/she is a new teacher and they haven’t learned the system yet.” Bah.
We are required to have our students use netbooks. My tax dollars paid for this. Put the textbooks on the netbooks and quit
expecting our kids to carry the textbooks around (or open them at all). Have them turn homework, worksheets, math
calculations and journals in on the netbooks too. There are software programs for these
things. I’m not against hand-written
assignments, but we live in the 21st century. “Every child future ready”, right?
Curriculum:
Every middle school student should have a mandatory class on
organization, study skills and using the agenda – every year. Make it a 7th period or make it a
Saturday once-a-month class, but make it mandatory. If the students don’t know how to organize,
use a day-planner/calendar/agenda and study for their classes, they have no way
to succeed. Give them the tools to
succeed and the knowledge in how to use them.
If they haven’t learned by 8th grade how to study and
organize; they’re going to have a really difficult time in High School with the
added stresses and expectations.
Class schedules:
Based on my personal experience from the past two years,
before you change the schedule that the parent and student have requested
because of out-dated testing results; why not a) re-test the student to see
where the progress and holes are and/or b) CONTACT the parent and talk about
solutions and suggestions. Two years in
a row I have had to re-arrange my student’s schedule because of faulty or
out-dated testing results. If you had
contacted me the first year, I could have provided you with the testing results
I had after four months of tutoring that brought him back up to speed (Why was
he behind? See
here) And why put him in a safety-net ENGLISH class
when his MATH skills were clearly the scores of contention? WHY?
This year I received (in a very round-about way) information
that scores from two class years ago (outdated) put him, yet again, in an
English Safety-net class. If you had consulted
the grades from his last semester 8th grade, OR retested him; you
would have seen that his English scores were much improved. And, if you had contacted me (instead of me
calling you in a defensive and mama-bear mode) I would have again, gladly
provided you with current test results from yet another year of tutoring to
keep him up to speed.
We’re in this together:
Finally, I’d like to ask that the administration and staff
stop treating parents as if we are the enemy.
This is MY child we’re talking about; not just another number in the
1900+ student body you have to teach. I
truly want to help you in any way possible by creating a home environment that
is favorable to complete homework and assignments. I want to make sure they do the best they can
and follow your class rules. I want to
help them succeed (and yes, I’d like them to graduate).
I realize we live in a society where every
child is a precious snowflake and deserves an award just for being (end
sarcasm), but there really are parents who believe that their child is not
perfect and doesn’t always deserve the benefit of the doubt. I’m well aware that my son doesn’t listen to
the entire instructions and usually hears only what’s fun and interesting to
him. I’m also aware that not everything
he says about you is true or accurate – just as you should understand that not
everything he says about his life is factual.
He’s a 14 year old boy with hormones raging through his body that
renders his logic center useless and his entire focus is on girls, sports,
video games and food; not necessarily in that order.
I have three more curriculum nights left in my mom
career. Is it too much to ask that they
actually be about curriculum and
nothing else?
