Monday, December 15, 2008

A Question for Parents -- Communication?

In the last couple of weeks, I've modified my approach to my weekly parent memo. Instead of filling in the number of missing assignments for each child (on a hard copy of the report that many parents never seem to see anyway), I've started simply listing those students who have missing work -- by name. My intent, on a week to week basis, is to keep parents informed about the work that is going on in my classes, and to make it easy for all of you to monitor the level of your student's performance. I think it is important for parents to know when work is turned in, graded, and returned to their student. Unfortunately, 6th graders are capable of making that simple bit of communication very difficult if they decide to do that. Listing students names is a simple, direct way of giving parents a "heads up" that there may be an issue. To tell the truth, I sort of feel that students who don't turn in assignments should know that we KNOW they are missing the mark. At least that is how I see it, but today, I got an email from one mother suggesting that I am hurting people's feelings and creating an issue. Since she is the only one to contact me about this, I am unsure whether this is a widespread perception that almost no one is talking to me about, or really just something that one parent is worried about. I need your help on this one... I am not interested in embarrasing anyone or causing an uproar. I really need to know -- Does seeing your child's name on a list of students who have work missing cause you great distress? Am I shining light on something that people would rather not have be seen? Is this something I need to rethink? Have I taken one problem and created another, worse one in the process of trying to fix it? I suppose the prudent thing to do is to suspend this practice until I know how parents would like me to proceed... Thanks for your consideration of all of this, Sue

1 comment:

Ms. Daniel said...

I've heard from a few parents in response to this question. So far, this is what I'm hearing:

"I've read the blog and we are not offended by you placing (our student's)name on the list, honestly his name should not be on the list :-)"

"I firmly believe that printing the students names are both a blessing and a curse. I support printing (our student's)name for all to see. If his feelings are getting hurt, then I suggest he do WHATEVER it takes to insure that his name does not appear on the list. I applaud your efforts for trying to help guide these young minds and thank you for taking action. Please Do NOT change a thing."

Other thoughts?

Sue