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I'm just curious to know if your child's school uses a website (or has their own) where each teacher has their own "page" and where they can post daily homework - usually for the elementary grades - and/or grades for middle school & high school? If so, do the teachers use it/keep it updated?
In my experience, some teachers do & some don't. Which I find to be more than annoying & don't understand why it isn't required by my kids' school to have all teachers participate in. How long can it take? It's data entry.
It seems to be, & only in my experience, that the longer the teacher has been at the school the more resistant they are to inputting grades (in the MS or HS) on the website until they have to.
My current 4th grader's teacher stopped updating her page (with homework/project info, etc.) in December. He had a grammar quiz last week. What sections of the unit, I asked him. "I don't know, she didn't say". Ok, which sections have you already been quizzed on? He had his workbook in front of him & I was on the Sadlier.com/Orange site to go over the online section quizzes, etc. with him. "I don't remember". I checked his assignment book. All he had written down was "Grammar quiz tomorrow". I checked his teacher's page - still stuck in December. I called a fellow 4th grade parent and she was having the same issue I was. Called another 4th grade mom, who was happy to know her kid wasn't the only one who had no idea. All 3 of us emailed the teacher, I emailed her around 6:30pm, but she didn't get back until the following am. Little too late. Quiz was postponed.
The problem is that it also benefits my current HS'er to know if he missed a surprise quiz due to an absence and he finds a "0" listed for a quiz he didn't know took place while he was out. I have no idea why some teachers don't let a student know he or she missed a quiz while absent, but it's happened more than once & also to my oldest (now in college, but while attending the same HS). It also has helped my current HS'er to see his grades & find that a quiz/test grade posted was incorrect. For some reason the HS teachers at this school don't let the kids have/keep their tests and quizzes any longer. They take them back after "going over" them in class. Too lazy to create new tests/quizzes for the following years? So he's had to insist on a teacher or two digging out his test/quiz and rectifying the grade - always in his favor.
The funny thing is that a student's grades for homework/projects/quizzes/tests/exams EVENTUALLY have to be put in to "the system" in order to generate a report card. 2x per year. So why wait until the last minute?
You want me to be involved? Give me the chance to be involved & on my child's rear-end BEFORE it's too late.
You don't want me to hunt you down and ask how my child is doing, every few weeks? If you don't want me to ask you why I never knew my kid wasn't turning in homework assignments and you didn't care to let me know until conferences & at that point it's a little too late? Put the grades in the tool the school spends $$ for teachers, students and parents to utilize....how hard can it be?
Am I the only parent who feels this way?
Last edited by Informed Info; 05-10-2018 at 08:53 PM..
I'm not defending anyone, but one reason teachers might not keep up online is that the system is too time-consuming.
Unless the system has enough network and something robust, like Blackboard 9.0 (or later), it can take 30 seconds or longer to enter each grade, as the computer cycles through the process. That's a worst-case scenario, as it's usually a lot faster, but not always, especially if the teacher is working from home.
For many with a slow network, it's a lot faster to enter grades into an old-fashioned grade book.
I think most schools have grade portals and such now. Depending on which one is used, it may be easy or difficult to update a class page. My school's portal, called Sapphire, has the class page integrated with the gradebook and I find it very easy to keep up to date. I update my grades usually daily as I check homework for points every day. I try to have a test or quiz graded and updated within a few days of giving it. Usually, I post the grades before I get a chance to give the tests back because of people being absent, etc.
In my experience, I always let kids know when they miss a test or quiz, but I find that if I don't nag them they don't come to take it. If they let it go on for too long, I enter a 0 in the gradebook until they come to make it up...motivates them to do it . I have over 100 students and it's easy to overlook who owes what at any given time when they are sitting in front of me since I am making so many other split-second decisions in one period.
As for not getting to keep tests, yes it is for test security, but also just for reasons that you mentioned. If the test was given back and the kid threw it away (happens all the time!) and I made a typo (very easy to do when you are entering grades for 25-30 students in one class all at once) there would be no way to correct it. This way, the tests are in the folders and it can easily be referenced.
There are so many countless things that a teacher must do in a day, with such a short prep period many times, that class page updating takes the back burner some times. It's just the nature of the beast.
I'm not defending anyone, but one reason teachers might not keep up online is that the system is too time-consuming.
Unless the system has enough network and something robust, like Blackboard 9.0 (or later), it can take 30 seconds or longer to enter each grade, as the computer cycles through the process. That's a worst-case scenario, as it's usually a lot faster, but not always, especially if the teacher is working from home.
For many with a slow network, it's a lot faster to enter grades into an old-fashioned grade book.
Some gradebooks update grades in real time like you say, in which case, yes, it is slow. The one my school uses, Sapphire, doesn't get updated until I click a button. Which makes it VERY easy to enter them.
I keep all grades on paper before I enter them online, it's just easier to do that first and then enter them already in alphabetical order.
You know... The web didn't exist for a long time and kids managed to do alright anyway.
I don't maintain a website because by 9th grade mommy and daddy need to stop holding their children back from developing self efficacy.
Well, it's not 1982.
Are you a teacher?
If so, at what grade do teachers stop whining about "lack of parental involvement"? You know, given the fact that it's 2018 & updating a homework/grade website doesn't take any more time for them to do than posting on their FB/Snapchat/Instagram?
You don't think that keeping the parents of your students (supposing you are a teacher) abreast of their child's grades that it would benefit the kids you "teach"? So both parents & students could see their grades, and the parents could push them/punish them? It's all "eh, you're in HS" to you? You're too busy to help the parents of your students/students stay on point?
My oldest just had is last exam, today, of his freshman year in college.
I don't know a thing about his classes/teachers/grades unless he tells me.
But college teachers/professors aren't typically the ones whining about lack of parental involvement and how hard they work and how hard their lives are due to the profession they chose.
If so, at what grade do teachers stop whining about "lack of parental involvement"? You know, given the fact that it's 2018 & updating a homework/grade website doesn't take any more time for them to do than posting on their FB/Snapchat/Instagram?
You don't think that keeping the parents of your students (supposing you are a teacher) abreast of their child's grades that it would benefit the kids you "teach"? So both parents & students could see their grades, and the parents could push them/punish them? It's all "eh, you're in HS" to you? You're too busy to help the parents of your students/students stay on point?
My oldest just had is last exam, today, of his freshman year in college.
I don't know a thing about his classes/teachers/grades unless he tells me.
But college teachers/professors aren't typically the ones whining about lack of parental involvement and how hard they work and how hard their lives are due to the profession they chose.
Are you interested in how often teachers update their websites, or in venting?
Mine is updated weekly. I enter grades every week. I send home progress reports (detailed) every 3 weeks. I keep a running "missing assignments" list on my whiteboard. Our students keep all graded work in their binders. they chart grades as they get them. Parents sign the log each week that they have seen the grades/work. Yet, every week, I will get a parent emailing asking why Johnny has a XX in math. Why is the assignment showing as missing, he was absent that day.
Are you interested in how often teachers update their websites, or in venting?
I'm interested in hearing from other parents whose children's teachers don't use the given/available website to update their homework page on a daily basis or bother to input grades until report cards are on their way - and it's a little too late (that goes for interim reports as well).
Those teachers who don't want to be "annoyed" by "involved parents", but could stave them off by taking a few minutes to update the homework to the class page on the website & on a daily basis or their "grade book" to an online source, once a week - at minimum. The same teachers who complain about parents who couldn't care less.
I'm interested in hearing from other parents whose children's teachers don't use the given/available website to update their homework page on a daily basis or bother to input grades until report cards are on their way - and it's a little too late (that goes for interim reports as well).
Those teachers who don't want to be "annoyed" by "involved parents", but could stave them off by taking a few minutes to update the homework to the class page on the website & on a daily basis or their "grade book" to an online source, once a week - at minimum. The same teachers who complain about parents who couldn't care less.
Which way do teachers want it?
I am both a teacher and a parent.
As a parent, I knew the homework policy for my children's classrooms. In elementary school (k-4), my kids always had a packet to bring home on Monday that was turned in on Friday, so there was no need for any website information. In middle school (5/6), the children were expected to write assignments in their planners, but that did not always happen. Most of the teachers had a page with assignments, but this was not always up to date so the children ended up calling classmates if they forgot what they were supposed to do. This was not too often as my kids were good about writing things down. In jr. high,again, the kids were supposed to copy their assignments into their planners and teachers did not always have the assignments on the website. In high school, the kids were totally responsible and parents were not expected to keep the kids assignments at all.
As a teacher, I taught high school and the students were responsible for getting assignments done without parent intervention. I taught Math and handed out a syllabus at the beginning of the term with all assignments given though on occasion dates due did change and that was on the website.
If so, at what grade do teachers stop whining about "lack of parental involvement"? You know, given the fact that it's 2018 & updating a homework/grade website doesn't take any more time for them to do than posting on their FB/Snapchat/Instagram?
You don't think that keeping the parents of your students (supposing you are a teacher) abreast of their child's grades that it would benefit the kids you "teach"? So both parents & students could see their grades, and the parents could push them/punish them? It's all "eh, you're in HS" to you? You're too busy to help the parents of your students/students stay on point?
My oldest just had is last exam, today, of his freshman year in college.
I don't know a thing about his classes/teachers/grades unless he tells me.
But college teachers/professors aren't typically the ones whining about lack of parental involvement and how hard they work and how hard their lives are due to the profession they chose.
I'm sorry you felt a teacher complained about your lack of involvement one time. I know that must have hurt you real bad. That teacher was not me.
My students, parents, and administration all seem to be very happy with my practice and pedagogy... So if it's okay with you I'm not going to bother myself with helicopter moms on citydata.
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