<p>Early yesterday morning, I e-mailed ds’s teacher about wanting a mtg to discuss ds’s performance (or lack thereof) in his class. I rcv’d a response about 2:30 saying he could meet any day after school this week, except Friday. I responded last evening after talking with dh that we could do today. I hadn’t heard back from him by 11 a.m. I e-mailed again late this morning, asking him to confirm the mtg. I still haven’t heard back. Lunch time is over. I don’t know when his planning period is because he doesn’t have it listed on the website like he’s supposed to. :rolleyes: I tried calling ds to go ask the guy and call me back if today is OK, but he won’t answer his phone since lunch is now over and they’re not supposed to answer during school hours.</p>
<p>Questions:</p>
<p>1) Was I wrong to expect that he’d check his mail at some point in the day? Is that unreasonable?</p>
<p>2) Would you just show up, hoping that when he said any day after school was OK, that meant he’d be there and ready to meet? It’s a 40-mile round-trip, not like it’s just down the block at the neighborhood school.</p>
<p>3) Should I call the number listed for him on the school website? I feel like a phone call plus two e-mails is going to make us look more worked up than we are and set a bad tone for the mtg.</p>
<p>I completely understand your frustration. I am guessing that you work in an office or a business setting where people respond in a reasonable time frame to emails. In my experience, this is not always the case with teachers. They seem to check email infrequently; they often don’t respond; they don’t sit in front of a computer where they monitor email often. Email is just not part of how they see their day unfolding. I think your best bet is to call until you get him on the phone. Don’t just show up – you might waste a trip.</p>
<p>Actually, our HS teachers were excellent about answering email. It was their preferred method of communication and they seemed to check frequently.</p>
<p>I would call the office at the school, explain the dilemma and ask if there is someone who could go ask him if he can meet with you today.</p>
<p>I know that I live on e-mail, and that’s just me. However, if e-mail is part of your profession, I think it’s reasonable to expect you to check it three times a day – in the morning when you arrive, at midday and before you go home. I mean, what if there was a change in an assembly or something? To remain incommunicado during the day is unprofessional, IMO.</p>
<p>I had to call the school today on a completely unrelated matter and asked if he was out today, but they said no. Dh said we shouldn’t go up there without confirmation. I gave him the guy’s phone number and asked him to call. I think this is the kind of guy who responds to men better. Grrrr.</p>
<p>ETA: My dh is a teacher and checks his school account from home most nights. And I’ve gotten e-mails from various school personnel from home. That is wonderful and some would day it’s over the top. Agreed, but responding with a “see you then” at some point during the day isn’t too much to ask, I think.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your frustration, but your experience is par for the course at our school. Although a minority of teachers are very responsive, most just don’t have a sense of urgency about communications. I’ve gone days waiting for replies, after following up with more emails and phone calls. Although I hate to do it, I’ve even resorted to “telling on them” by contacting the principal.</p>
<p>And then they have the nerve to tell parent they’re teaching our kids “21st Century Skills”.</p>
<p>PayFor, maybe the 21st Century Skill is outsourcing? ;)</p>
<p>Interestingly, I e-mailed another teacher at the same time I e-mailed this first guy and got a response back within a couple of hours. I don’t expect an immediate response from everyone all the time, but when a parent asks for a mtg ASAP, and you’ve already had a previous e-mail exchange a few weeks ago on this same issue, I’d think a sense of urgency would come into play for the guy. Interestingly, ds has been working him on his own to get some resolution to some of these issues, and I wonder whether he realizes the left hand (dh and I) didn’t know what the right hand (ds) was doing. I think he’s feeling a little ganged up on at this point. Still, no excuse for not being responsive.</p>
<p>I don’t have frequent opportunity to be communicating with my kids’ teachers (in fact, I don’t and haven’t in several years) but this was also my experience with teachers. They just don’t think of e-mail as something to check / respond to immediately, the way those of us in the business world do. Moreover, I doubt many of them have work-issued smartphones like many of us in the business world do (which means that when we’re on the go, with one click we can still check our e-mails and keep things rolling).</p>
<p>I think if you expect business-like professionalism, you will continue to be disappointed. I’m don’t think teachers strive to achieve efficiency and responsiveness. I think they think about their job differently and we make a mistake if we impose our expectations on them. Their job is a mix of helping the needy students and keeping the brighter students interested and interfacing with parents and keeping within the administration’s guidelines. I think that mix occupies most of their time.</p>
<p>Actually, all of my son’s HS teachers have indicated that they PREFER e-mail and will get back to us much faster through that method than calling. All teachers have said they check frequently and promise to respond within 24 hours.</p>
<p>Both my daughter and son even had a teacher that has “evening” email hours for students - if they send him an e-mail before 11pm with questions on homework or any other assignment, he promises to respond to them that night.</p>
<p>Yeah, if he preferred to communicate via phone, all he had to do was say so, and we would have gladly called to set up an appt instead.</p>
<p>Class, it sounds like you’re down on teachers. Most of my kids’ teachers have been quite responsive, in my limited experience. This is only the second conference we’ve requested for one of the kids, who have 24 years of public school between them. I think that’s a pretty hands-off track record. I guess my wrong assumption is that he realizes that if I’m contacting you there must be a major issue. I’m sure teachers get inundated by parents all the time who think everything is a crisis. One time, my dh got an irate call at home from a parent mad that her ds tore his jeans while playing during recess. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>As you know, I’m a reluctant Texas Cheer Mom. The moms in the cheer booster club are the most unresponsive group of people I’ve ever encountered. They email everyone about all kinds of insipid things, but ask a question and it’s eternal dead silence. The only one who ever responds is one other freshman mom who hasn’t drunk the cool-aid yet.</p>
<p>“Class, it sounds like you’re down on teachers.”</p>
<p>Wow – you misread me then. I was giving an honest opinion based on what I’ve experienced. And compared to your comments, mine actually show some attempt to understand what a teachers’ day is like and an acknowledgement that not everyone defines professionalism the same way. Your OP showed frustration (which I empathized with) and also a certain amount of intolerance that their response time wasn’t up to your standards. Good luck.</p>
<p>Laughing at this thread. My kids HS teachers and GCs were always impossible to get in touch with. Call the school? Voicemail he’ll and no call backs. Emails ignored. In business it would not be tolerated. Luckily I lived nearby and was self employed. Countless times I had to drive there to get any response. It wasn’t a slow burn for me. Once I went over there with steam coming out my ears.</p>
<p>In our massively huge school district, teachers have e-mail addresses, but they get so many useless e-mails from the district, that it’s painful to check too often. Some of them give out their personal e-mail addresses or check their district address frequently and those teachers tend to be more responsive. The ones who don’t give it out are impossible to reach. It feels like the stone age to leave a message in the main office that will go in their box which they will get hours later – the turn-around time can be a day or two. My own daughter is a teacher and she uses her laptop constantly for lessons, so I know she quickly will glance at her e-mail account between periods, etc. to see if there is anything pressing as her computer is already running. She’ll often get back to me on something time-sensitive at lunch.</p>
<p>In the system for which I teach the policy is that we are to respond to emails within 24 hours. I respond to student emails from home but rarely emails from parents. </p>
<p>I also always request that parents set up any conferences through guidance. I am willing to meet with any parent. However, if I set up a conference independently and then guidance makes an appointment for a parent conference I am required to attend the one arranged through guidance. The end result is I would wind up leaving the parent in the independently arranged conference hanging.</p>
<p>Sometimes emails get lost in cyber space for a while before they show up in my inbox. I’d give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. HOpe the meeting went well.</p>
<p>Some teachers do not have a planning period every day. If you’re teaching straight through, it can be hard to find time to go to the bathroom, much less answer e-mails.</p>