Should this have been brough to my attention earlier????

[newmommy1]

This past Thursday my daughter brought home a 57% on her practice city wide test. When I was picking her up on Friday, I came up to her teacher and asked if there's anything specific I need to pay attention to and what I heard in returned shocked me. She told me that my daughter's behavior is unacceptable and that she doesn't pay attention in class and that is the problem. My daughter is a very bright girl, she is in the gifted program, this is the first test with such a low score. She is in third grade and all her teachers before never complained about her behavior. Ofcourse she is grounded, but shouldn't have the teacher mentioned this before to me. Parent teacher conferences are coming up in 10 days. School started almost 3 months ago, why wait that long to tell me. She didn't make it seem like it happened all of a sudden, she made it seem as if it's been a problem since the beginning. I was so shocked by what she told me, that I didn't even think of asking, why I wasn't notified earlier.

[Teresa64]

Yes I think the teacher should have brought it up earlier. I would defintely see if you can get to the bottom of her behavior too. Why is this happeding all of a sudden? I would also tell the teacher that you want a note sent home on days she is having problems. That or a phone call.

[jessiehannan]

The teacher should have notified you earlier. Waiting until her behavior was completely out of hand is only going to make it harder to get her back on track.

[nicurn]

How many students are in the class?

[CatSoup]

Does she go to my kid's school? :nono:
I've had the same kid of problems with my son's teachers. His teachers didn't bother to inform me of any problems the year before either, so this year I've been checking in every little bit. They don't return my calls, and quite honestly when they do I don't even think they know which kid they are telling me about. His math teacher told me he was getting A's, then the report card showed up and it was a C. I tell his homeroom teacher to let me know of problems all the time, but they only show up on his report cards.
You have to stay on them ALL THE TIME. Call every week if you need to. There are a lot of great teachers who will go the extra bit to inform parents of what's going on, and then there are the ones who don't care, even when the parents are invested. Stay on them and keep an eye on her homework.

[newmommy1]

There are 26 kids in her class. From now on I'll definately will be checking every few days with the teacher. I've never had any problems with her, her 1st and 2nd grade teachers had nothing but great things to say about her and they were also much more approachable and notified the parents right away if there were problems, it was my mistake to assume that this teacher will do the same.

[RaisingThemLeft]

Yes, she should have. That's quite the bomb to drop on you. And you had to ask too, she didn't even come out and tell you.

[Tiffearni]

That's terrible. The teacher should have definately contacted you. I'm so glad our school does a communication calendar everyday along with a homework calendar. If there are any problems that day, the teacher will write a note on it. If things are good to go they get a sticker or smiley or whatever. I love that they started doing this. It really helps. The note could anything simple like DD forgot something or a reminder, or something severe like she did something bad. It also lets me know if she is ever tardy or anything really. I love it. It's a great way to communicate quickly and easily. If it's ever something really severe, then they just write see me or something like that. Oh and you have to initial it everyday as part of their homework.


I'd suggest mentioning this system to the teacher and maybe even the principal.

[Firemom]

I had this same problem with my son, especially in 6-7 and 8 grades. They waited for 3 months to tell me he wasn't handing anything in and getting failing grades in tests. then they were pissed when I went there every other day to talk to his teachers to get help in getting him on track.

Basically, they did not like my son and told him frequently what a bad kid he was. I think he just lived up to their megar expectations.

He is in High school right now and is well liked by all his teachers and is doing very well in school. Everyone knows him, because he got hurt really bad in football about a month ago (its a small school).

He had help from the students and the teachers after missing so much school and has been able to keep his grades up.

I am finding from more and more people that a lot of schools don't communicate what is going on in school.

[Michele]

Does she go to my kid's school? :nono:
I've had the same kid of problems with my son's teachers. His teachers didn't bother to inform me of any problems the year before either, so this year I've been checking in every little bit. They don't return my calls, and quite honestly when they do I don't even think they know which kid they are telling me about. His math teacher told me he was getting A's, then the report card showed up and it was a C. I tell his homeroom teacher to let me know of problems all the time, but they only show up on his report cards.
You have to stay on them ALL THE TIME. Call every week if you need to. There are a lot of great teachers who will go the extra bit to inform parents of what's going on, and then there are the ones who don't care, even when the parents are invested. Stay on them and keep an eye on her homework.

What grade is your kid in? I get the third grader issue. When kids at that age act up like that when they are in a class of 30 kids or so all day, the teacher should have called. However, if your kid is in secondary school and the teacher deals with 200+ kids every day, then report card grades and comments are considered parental notification. Plus, there are mid-term conferences--about the 10th week of school--if you need to meet. Otherwise, if you are concerned about your child's performance or behavior, then write the teacher a note in the child's agenda or call to schedule a conference between reporting periods. Have your child present during conferences so that everyone is on the same page--often what the child tells you and what actually goes on are two very different things.

It always amazes how people who have never taught think that people need to "Keep on the teachers". Keep on your kid. You've got just a handful of them at most. Teachers deal with hundreds. Plus grading. Plus record keeping. Plus testing. Plus professional development. Plus families of their own where they keep on their own kids as well.

[CatSoup]

What grade is your kid in? I get the third grader issue. When kids at that age act up like that when they are in a class of 30 kids or so all day, the teacher should have called. However, if your kid is in secondary school and the teacher deals with 200+ kids every day, then report card grades and comments are considered parental notification. Plus, there are mid-term conferences--about the 10th week of school--if you need to meet. Otherwise, if you are concerned about your child's performance or behavior, then write the teacher a note in the child's agenda or call to schedule a conference between reporting periods. Have your child present during conferences so that everyone is on the same page--often what the child tells you and what actually goes on are two very different things.

It always amazes how people who have never taught think that people need to "Keep on the teachers". Keep on your kid. You've got just a handful of them at most. Teachers deal with hundreds. Plus grading. Plus record keeping. Plus testing. Plus professional development. Plus families of their own where they keep on their own kids as well.

We definitely keep on Jonas. He has to come home with all of his books and his agenda signed by both teachers everyday or he gets no free time. His teacher has a regular sized class, less during math. The thing is, the teachers at his school don't let you know what's going on when you out right ask. They always say everything is fine, then the report cards say differently. They do not return phone calls or respond to notes. Believe it or not, there are just some teachers who don't care.

[Tweet]

With just this information, it seems like yes, she should have called far sooner.