Should I reach out to a Teacher?

are they on a cell phone?

So I got off the phone with the teacher. She is going to be able to finish the test. And the teacher has offered to give her some extra help - it seems that she is struggling with some of the multiple choice questions - she got a near perfect score on the section of the test that is more difficult - the actual geom. proofs, but did not do well on the multiple choice (maybe why it took her so long to finish).

She acknowleged that my daughter was there as she handed the test in and told her she didn't finish. We did talk about if this becomes an issue with her being unable to finish the test we will address it and work with her to see why she cannot finish in time allotted.

Oh and I also buttered up the teacher. Not that I lied, but I told her my daughter really likes her as a teacher and didn't want me to reach out to her as she didn't want the teacher to think she was mad at her.

I figure it never hurts to butter them up a little.

If you entrust your kids to complete strangers (teachers) for years of their young lives you need to keep tabs on whether the teachers are competent.
If I'd had kids i'd have definitely home-schooled them myself, thousands of parents do it.

I can't look at this at work - it is blocked saying "adult"- what the heck are you saving out there.

Yes you should talk to the teacher.

It's possible that your daughter misunderstood what the teacher told her (but I doubt it), and so you should give her the opportunity to explain what happened.

Bad teachers are seldom evil, they are mostly just stupid. If your daughter misunderstood, then I bet the teacher will be able to explain in a way that you can accept (I base this on a belief derived from your interaction in this forum that your are not the type of mother who believes her kids no matter what).

I'm a huge fan of good teachers but a believer that too many teachers are not good, and I am betting that she will not be able to explain what appears to be an inconsistency.

Having said this, if some kids did finish the test, why couldn't your daughter and the others? Unless she did have a "special need," what's the excuse?

I'm reminded of an Algebra class I had in 11th grade. Our teacher gave us weekly tests and one week I broke three fingers in my right hand playing football. As I had to take the test left handed I was concerned I might not be able to finish it and spoke with the teacher beforehand. He told me not to worry as he could obviously see that my right hand was in a full cast and to do my best.

I made it through a little more than half of the questions when the bell rang, but I turned in the test paper confident of the understanding of the teacher.

The next day the test papers were returned to us and mine scored a 52% which signified that I had the correct answer for all 26 questions I answered. Never-the-less the wonderful Mr A. wrote beside the score the word "Pathetic!"

When I confronted him after class he responded "Oh please you could have finished the test."

Today, part of the story might have been that I called him a dick and stormed out of the class, but back in the day that wasn't done. He was a dick though and so might your daughter's teacher be. There is no guarantee that confronting the teacher will make a difference, but at least you will have a good idea of the truth of the matter.

::::::squints at Finn:::::::

Who are you, and what have you done with Mr. Abuzz?



I sure enjoyed reading most of your posts tonight, Finn. I like this side of your personality, reminds me of my dad, I guess because the wisdom you are conveying tonight is very fatherly and doesn't have the biting anger of some of your political posts. Reminds me of the long ago enjoyed thread where you were taking music suggestions for your father/daughter dance at her wedding. Has she made you a grandpa yet?


Anyway, I'm glad I got to see it again and wanted to tell you.

Thank you.

Politics very often makes me angry and particularly with people who I think are fools about it. I don't suffer fools gladly and I'm not about to take crap from anyone, no matter what their political leaning might be.

People who are hurting, however, are something else entirely.

Compassionate Conservative?

No, she hasn't made me a Grandpa yet. Unfortunately her marriage broke up. It was for the best though, but it's still disappointing.

I really, really want grandchildren and my three kids are all of an age where I could easily have them, but, for whatever reason, it's not yet the case.

My wife and I were married for 10 years before we had children so I guess I'm destined to be on the outside of the curve.

I just want to be able to spend as much time with the grandkids (God bless us with them) as I can, but time marches on.

In the meantime I have the grand-dogs.

I very much appreciate your post by the way.

in HS when they ask you to, or when they are floundering.

It's not dirty at all.

It's an illustration of a young womam in a girly sailor outfit sitting on top of a lobster (about twice her size), and it says "Butter me up baby" It looks like it was an advertisment for a seafood restaurant, and I know you love lobster.

I mean she's really cute, and she's winking and flirty, but it's not obscene or anything.

Sorry.

thank you great information -- and gasp I think I read a complement in there -- huge thanks.

np - just thought it was funny when it said adult content or something - sometimes the blocks at work block the strangest things.

Minimally, the teacher created an ethics situation
for herself, based upon her promise.





David

Well, as a teacher's wife I am going to say that this may be a perfect storm for miscommunication, and your daughter was caught up in it.

Apparently, there is a group of kids who have special privileges when it come to test taking. Fair or not, your daughter must know this and know she is not in that group. So I'm not sure why she thought she would be included in this group's special "perk" just because she was standing there.

So what she did on her test was what she was capable of doing.

Did the teacher see her in the group? Should she have said, "Not you, Mary,, just turn in your test today."? Probably.

In the meantime, your daughter has learned that she has trouble with multiple answer word problems. That can be dealt with, but she should not assume that she is going to get more time on a test because of it in the future.

(There are test taking techniques that deal with multiple answer questions. Perhaps some extra tutoring will help with that. Sounds like she is thinking too much about the answers.)

As I had stated - The reason why she thought this was previously and by the teacher's own admission - she has allowed this in the past with any student (no matter whether they are special needs or not) if it appeared that many students did not have enough time to finish.

And the teacher is going to sit down with my daughter to discuss strategies on multiple choice questions.

You said the teacher replied:

"At the conclusion of the testing period before vacation, there were a small group of students who did not finish. Most of these students are legally allotted extra time, though Lindsey is not one of these students. The majority of the class, however, completed the test in the allotted time. I apologize for the miscommunication, because she may have been standing with this small group as I mentioned coming after school to finish the test. In some cases, if the majority of the class does not finish, I will allow all students extra time. This test was not one of these instances."

The teacher has now changed her own rules to accommodate your daughter.

I am trying to think of how my husband - 36 years teaching middle school - would have handled this. But I really don't know, it's such a mess.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Yeah I think the confusion is that she has given extra time in the past for any and all students and then changed. As a result my daughter would not think that this instance didn't pertain to her.

I think the more important longer lasting thing is to make sure she gets the help she needs in answering questions correctly - as she got the harder part of the test correct, but the multi-choice she had difficulty with.

I have a cousin who was a marked down in language matters and spelling, and she turned out to be dyslexic. This was long ago, and when it was happening, I'm not sure that was a word yet, was sometime later. She flunked latin twice. She aced math.

She worked her way through college with a tape recorder. She got herself reading. Fifty years later, when I saw her again in 2009 (though we know each other in between), we cheerfully traded books.

She became a government mathy, high-ish.

I don't think that even back in the beginning that she didn't get literature, but she had trouble with the reading of it via text, and got past all that by herself.

Good