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A meet and greet with the teacher and student. One parent is there, too. 30 min max. Also a time for the teacher to receive school supplies, and probably, check to make sure you bought all the right ones and right quantities. This is about 2 weeks before school starts.
The school didn't really explain, just sent a letter saying we needed to go and this is what time to attend...non much more information that that.
Why can't you go on your lunch break? Many work places understand doctor appts and dentist appts and other things like that during lunch hour. This is just another appt that needs to be scheduled. Sounds like you're the one not wanting to accommodate your child's education, not the teacher.
Many people don't work anywhere near home or their child's school. My dad worked 40 minutes away. At one point, my mom worked at hour away. So how were they going to do something at the school during their lunch? Magic? And plenty of people don't work 9-5.
Loads of people also travel for their jobs. My husband used to be gone 2 weeks at a time. Only home on every other Saturday. Last flight into the airport that night at 1155. Left Sunday morning on the 545 am. How would someone like that deal with the school meetings? Vacations had to be planned a minimum of 3 months out....preferably 6 months. Schools act like the world is going to end if a meeting is missed. No one will die because of it.
Many people don't work anywhere near home or their child's school. My dad worked 40 minutes away. At one point, my mom worked at hour away. So how were they going to do something at the school during their lunch? Magic? And plenty of people don't work 9-5.
Loads of people also travel for their jobs. My husband used to be gone 2 weeks at a time. Only home on every other Saturday. Last flight into the airport that night at 1155. Left Sunday morning on the 545 am. How would someone like that deal with the school meetings? Vacations had to be planned a minimum of 3 months out....preferably 6 months. Schools act like the world is going to end if a meeting is missed. No one will die because of it.
What does that have to do with a teacher taking unpaid time to accommodate you far outside of his or her working hours? Most teachers are done by 3:30 or 4, having been in the classroom since 7:30 or 8 in the morning. Why should they stay until 6pm or later when you are able to take the time?
I don't think anyone is saying that the school acts like it's the end of the world for a meeting to be missed, though there are certainly meetings that it is on you, the parent who chose to have a child, to figure out how to attend (i.e. IEPs, behavioral or academic issues, etc).
I just don't understand why some thing your time and compensation is more important than your child's teacher's time and compensation.
So OP what you are suggesting is that the teachers, who also may be part of a 2 income family, should adjust their working hours to accommodate the hours of your 2 income family?
So OP what you are suggesting is that the teachers, who also may be part of a 2 income family, should adjust their working hours to accommodate the hours of your 2 income family?
Of course, because "We both hold bachelors degrees, and I have a masters degree. We each have completed several certificate programs"
As a follow-up to my earlier rant (posted below). I'll share another story.
One year my school district was really, really on a mission to accommodate parents for TEP conferences and parent conferences. Administrators told us that it was essential for teachers to "work around" the parents schedules. That it is vital for the school to involve parents, we want every parent to attend conferences, etc. etc.. Although, i do not believe that any parent tried to set up a 10 PM conference, many parents requested 7 AM or 5 PM conferences (adding an hour or two hours or more to that teacher's work day) because they "could not attend" on the two different evening conference days already on the schedule.
I had one IEP conference that the case manager set up for 7 PM (because the mother worked until 6:30 PM- BTW a different mom than in my other example). After an hour and a half conference and a half hour paperwork and discussion with other team members I was finally able to go home a little after 9 PM. And, of course, there was no extra pay, no comp time and I had to be at school right on time the next day.
But, that's not the point of this post.
By coincidence, that year my son's high school was trying out only holding day time conferences (usually, conferences were from noon to 8 PM) and that year they were 8 AM to 4 PM. That was my exact work day.
So I went to my principal to ask for time off to pick up my son's report card and to talk to his teachers. My principal was speechless. He said "you can't leave in the middle of the school day you have students.", "can't your husband go instead of you?". Ironically, this was the same week that I had had to work at school until 9 PM and I was only asking to leave during my lunch period & scheduled prep time.
I then parroted back everything that administration had told us "that it is vital to involve parents. etc." So he, very reluctantly agreed to let me leave during the work day to conference with my son's teachers.
That opened a floodgate of other teachers requesting release time to go to their children's conferences.
(BTW we had to arrange for our own class coverage with other teachers or staff members, or leave the school building only during our lunch break, but we could leave to attend the conferences of our own children.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626
Speaking from the point of view of the teacher.
Our school district had many accommodations and events for parents who worked during the day but only three actually involved the teachers being paid for their work time. The beginning of the school year Open House was held at night and two parent teacher conferences were held in the evenings as part of our contract.
However, our district strongly, strongly encouraged teachers to "accommodate" working parents on our own time. No extra pay, no compensatory time, nothing, nada, zip.
So when I was required to do a functional behavioral checklist and other parent forms with a parent who worked until 6 PM, who insisted that she could not come in any other time, guess who had to stay and do this in her classroom from 6:30 PM to 8 PM? Yes, me.
So when I needed to schedule monthly home visits with parents who worked until 5 PM, guess who had to schedule them from 5:30 to 6:30 PM (even though the day care center that my own children attended closed at 6 PM)? Yes, me.
And, I could easier list a dozen more.
I knew teachers who needed to schedule after working hour parent conferences numerous days around report card times. It did not matter if the teacher was a working parent who needed to pick up their child from day care at a certain time or if the teacher was part of two income family. We were required to do all that we could to accommodate working parents.
Frankly, it did not seem right.
The district also strongly encouraged teachers to attend all evening parent events (most principals even kept a check list of whether or not you attended). Again, no extra pay, no compensatory time, nothing, nada, zip, just mandatory "volunteer" attendance.
Hmmm, there was the evening Harvest Party, the evening Holiday Celebration, the evening Spring Fling, the evening Math Night, the evening Book Fair and the Saturday Fun Run.
End of rant.
Last edited by germaine2626; 08-25-2016 at 03:00 PM..
So OP what you are suggesting is that the teachers, who also may be part of a 2 income family, should adjust their working hours to accommodate the hours of your 2 income family?
And we have a winner! OP, unless you're willing to be a little more flexible and be brave enough to talk to your employer about the occasional events/meeting you're asked to attend at the school, you'll just be one of those parents who never shows up to anything. I mean, it's not as if teacher meetings and school events are new to the world- they're pretty standard these days.
My advice? Ask the school about ALL of the dates of every event and meeting for the rest of the year and choose which ones you can attend and which your wife can attend and ask to have the time off way in advance. I made sure that my husband had at least a month's notice on events at our kids schools so he was able to ask (and sometimes he wasn't able to go) for the time off.
Our open house for my kids elementary school is tonight from 4:30-7. We will meet the teacher and drop off the school supplies and fill out any forms needed.
I know one ES nearby had their open house today from 2-4. People go if they can and skip it if they can't.
What does that have to do with a teacher taking unpaid time to accommodate you far outside of his or her working hours? Most teachers are done by 3:30 or 4, having been in the classroom since 7:30 or 8 in the morning. Why should they stay until 6pm or later when you are able to take the time?
I don't think anyone is saying that the school acts like it's the end of the world for a meeting to be missed, though there are certainly meetings that it is on you, the parent who chose to have a child, to figure out how to attend (i.e. IEPs, behavioral or academic issues, etc).
I just don't understand why some thing your time and compensation is more important than your child's teacher's time and compensation.
Where did I say teacher's should be unpaid? Oh that's right! I didn't.
Most teachers around here make well over $80K. They start at over $45K a year fresh out of college. If they have to work late once in awhile, oh well. Plenty of people have to work late periodically. Hasn't killed us. If you don't want to work extra hours, don't ever have a job and make sure you're born independently wealth.
The public schools we went to didn't seem to accommodate working parents. I had flexible hours when I worked, so it wasnt a problem for me. But I saw many many people rushing in and out of meetings, etc in their work clothes. Seemed like a lot of people made it work, but I know not everyone can.
My kids are in private school and they seem to fully accommodate working parents by having everything in the evening or weekends...which is a pain now that I am a SAHM and evenings and weekends are more busy.
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