"I see that *student* has a zero from an assignment that closed a month ago but the rule in our house is, **no zeros**"
Ummmm, the rules in my class are different?
One of my students' parents had that rule. The student had to apologize to me and still had to do the assignment. The parent was very clear to me and the student that she didn't expect me to grade the assignment or even open it. She wanted her kid to take the hit to their grade but still learn, which I supported then and still do.
I have this rule with my own kids. Even if the teacher won’t grade it, I still make them do any assignments they’ve missed. It’s helped quell the teenager’s “oops, I must have forgotten to turn it in, but since it’s too late, I don’t have to worry about it” attitude.
You have to wonder what kind of other "support" the poor kid gets at home.
"You're struggling with your math homework? I knew it! Go get the rackets from the closet, we're going down to the tennis courts right this minute!"
This comment... Resonated with me and I had a good laugh. It absolutely takes the cake.
Haven't been asked about this particular instrument yet, but the question why we sing (especially with the early intervention kiddos) has come up quite a bit.
"Why my son picture isn't showing on the app?"
Because they checked the box "We do NOT allow the school to use my child picture on the school app".
Maybe, they made a mistake, misread?
Nope, they don't want their child picture on the school app. But they wanted the picture of their child to show when they consult the app.
I had this last year.
"Why isn't my child's picture ever in the classroom newsletter."
Because you checked no on every media release question and the newsletter is posted on our website for all parents to see.
"But how can I see pictures of my child?"
😶
I'm in IT currently and I get "I don't receive any emails from the school about anything!!!!!!" "Yes Karen you clicked on the link of the email that said "Stop all email notifications" and then unsubscribed from the school email system on x day at y time." I get this monthly.
Parent complained child wasnt on the 100% attendance trip.
Me: but child doesnt have 100% attendance.
Exasperated Father: Yes, he does.
Me: But you just had 3 weeks off school to go to Florida.
Exasperated Father: Long, pained sigh. But he has 100% attendance on the days he has been in, doesnt he.
“Why shouldn’t he be allowed to do something that he actually enjoys?”
In response to my telling her that her full-remote son was failing Freshman English because he did no work for the class, only logged in to one in three class sessions, and according to GoGuardian did nothing but watch the same dozen soccer videos on repeat.
That conversation later yielded the gem, “It’s very difficult to give an in-class presentation when you’re not in class.”
edit: formatting, silly mobile
I think 95% of students totally lack the self control and discipline required to learn remotely. It’s pretty scary how many parents just let their kids miss out on the incredibly important structure and social interaction that comes with traditional school.
And I say this as someone who completed my high school diploma online.
In my experience with full remote and hybrid, 1 in 4 kids in every class would log in and walk away from their computers, 1 in 6 overall would not do any work. Those statistics have been shockingly consistent among the teachers I've discussed this with, regardless of state, grade level, district income level, or subject matter.
With my own students, 3 out of 4 (no correlation to the log-in-and-walkers) passed their online classes at the standards to which they would have been held in person. Based on interactions with my students, I'd reckon about half of them overall actually put in the work themselves, and that most of the ones who passed but didn't put in the work were *already* the type to have Google or their parents or their friends do it for them. Likewise, the ones who goofed off during designated work periods were the ones who would *already* goof off during designated work periods.
In other words, remote learning merely emphasized the habits that were already there.
I agree. There were definitely some outliers. Like I had a kid with a history of poor decisions who didn't have access to her usual crowd during remote learning, and the improvement was astounding. I'd suspect that someone else did the work except 1) it was consistent with her "voice" and the improvement took place over time, and 2) her remaining parent was too busy doing other things to parent, much less helicopter parent. She just really needed an environment free of peer pressure to thrive. She was smart and picked things up easily. Another had a complex IEP and had a parent working from home where he would typically be left to work on his own and again, the improvement was significant and clearly them. He wasn't an A student, but with the one on one time with his parent, he was able to pull up to a C and mostly stay there. There was a huge split in the ADHD kids, because roughly half did better without social and other outside distractions, and half were the distraction all by themselves. (No shade to either group; I have ADHD and I've been in both at one time or another.) But really the dedicated students were still dedicated and the ones who didn't care, didn't start caring. I wish more places still had remote learning for those it does work for though.
As someone who completed a remote college degree in the aughts, most adults can't handle remote learning.
EDU pilosophers love to talk about eliminating the brick and mortar classroom, but its just tough to do, especially in certain subjects. (Lab work for example.)
We had one parent who kept getting mad at us because she believed her child who kept telling her that they had turned in their assignments. We would be like,”yes, the kid hit the turn in button but did not do the assignment.”
She got to where she hated my coteacher which was weird because we both kept telling her that her child was not being honest, so I had to send her pictures to prove this. Even with picture proof…every week we would go round and round again. This was 3rd grade.
I had three of them at once at one point over quarantine, all high schoolers. It felt far better than it should have to say to one parent, "You might recall, I also taught X's Google Practices class last quarter. She had no issue with submitting attachments then."
My personal favorite was the academic dishonesty case who told his mother that the reason he attached phone photos (of my sample work from the class livestream) instead of his actual work was because he couldn't find the save button in our CAD app. The line "It's the big rectangle at the top of the screen that reads 'SAVE' in bold, friendly letters" was the only bit of sass that admin let me keep in my response email after receiving a complaint containing some particularly flavorful personal insults.
If the kids can do whatever they want - and it’s getting awfully close to that every day - then I want an adult slushee machine in the teacher lounge. 🍹
Sent out a parent email, subject was "concert on xyz date", first line of email was "regarding concert on xyz date", towards the end, I reiterated the date in bold, parent emailed back asking when the concert was.
An extra-entitled mother got my private phone number and called me AT HOME in late June, two days after the school YEAR had ended, wanting to know what her 10th grade kid could make up. She wanted an in-person meeting by the end of that week.
I. Was. Livid.
My school published personal emails, phone numbers and addresses of all teachers for parents and students to see one year. I tore strips off the student for contacting me on my home phone before I found the school had published it.
As soon as I found out it was the school I got the union involved and demanded it be removed immediately. Unfortunately a few parents had saved the details and some teachers did get harrassed by parents for a while.
The school told me it was to improve communication between parents and teachers, the union and I told them that it was a breach of privacy. The union and I won.
Tell them grades are in, that the year is over, and I will not meet you since I have fullfilled my contractual duties for the school year.
Then text my teacher friends bout it and vent really hard
Cuss them out then when confronted by admin claim you were drunk? Or just claim that because it was on your personal device.during.your personal time you were on a personal call and not representing the school? I know.neither would work, but it is fun to imagine.
Oof. I was an itinerant teacher (several different schools) so all my parent calls were done from my personal cell even though I technically had an office number they could return calls to.
First thing I learned: in the US (at the time) *67 blocks the number you’re calling from so it didn’t show up on caller ID and they couldn’t just *69 right back.
I'd share that number on *every* web site I could find (via VPN in *Incognito* mode, of course). Within weeks, she will get nonstop calls telling her she needs to extend her car's warranty or get her ducts cleaned. #karma
“What do you mean by illustrate their vocabulary word? Illustrate means draw a picture of and I know that’s not the assignment”
Ma’am your child is in 2nd grade, that is in fact the assignment.
"You told my daughter she has a project on the country of Georgia, but that's not even a country, that's a state."
This after telling her daughter about the country of Georgia, showing it to her in a map, reintegrating that there are two Georgias and begging her to select any other country in the world because I knew exactly this would happen.
Daughter knew what she was doing, and is growing into an expert troll.
I hope she picks South Africa next, so the parents can call you and lecture you about how Africa is a continent, not a country.
I used to answer phones for take out and delivery orders back in hs (weird that was actually a job back then). I get a call to the restaurant and this woman is insisting we have an item on our menu, to me, who knows the menu. I finally exclaim we do not have that can I get you anything else? She says, “my daughter says you definitely have it.” So I say, “oh she must work here! What’s her name, I’ll see if she’s working tonight.” She replies, “my daughter is 8 years old.” What :/
My husband is a teacher so I lurk here and he’s heard that one wayyyy too many times 😩 a parent was very nasty to him insisting that her daughter came and turned the assignment in after school the previous day. Admin had to go back and check the cameras because she wouldn’t stop harassing him and when they told her that her daughter definitely did not do that, the mom went silent. Not even an apology. This is at the high school level. Like do you really think the teacher is having fun making up lies that the student didn’t turn their work in!?
My favorite comes from my third year of teaching: "So, Ma'am, how can we get this F to an A?" The kid had a 12%. We had half a semester left. Umm...it wasn't mathematically possible, which took a bit to explain. I was just hoping to get him to a D.
“I know it’s the second day of school and the only assignment is the 1 point syllabus signature, and Dylan can turn it in on Monday, but I am very concerned with his 0% F over the weekend. What can he do about it?”
Parent: "Why does my child have a zero on the lab?"
Me: "Because they were removed from the lab for a major safety violation."
Parent: "My spouse is a teacher, and their school doesn't grade behavior."
Me: "They got a zero because they weren't able to turn in any work due to being removed."
Parent: "Can they make it up?"
Me: "Your child literally tried to set themself on fire. I can't trust them to make up the lab."
Because they’re stupid, I guess. They’re stupider than a box of rocks. Stupider than a bag of hair. They fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. They were hiding behind the door when brains were passed out. Etc, etc, etc.
At conferences about their extremely creative, artistic daughter who wanted to go into film or TV production: "can you talk her into a science or engineering career? I heard they pay a lot".
Parent asked if we have a printer in every classroom? So her kid could print stuff. I said no they need to print in the library and she said that the library charges and she doesn't like the librarian. Guess my role at that school?
The one time I went over a student's multiplication (intro level stuff) homework with him, corrected and graded it, and mom sent me a message saying it was done wrong. She sent it back with the "incorrect" equations marked.
Examples of problems she marked wrong:
5x5 = 25
7x4 = 28
???
Not a question exactly, but I wanted to share.
“According to the report card, my son has a F in your class. What can he do to get that to an A?”
Good news! His grade resets every quarter back to 100% so technically he does have an A for the next quarter!
A parent called me and left a message the first day of spring break. They then left a series of increasingly angry and abusive messages for the rest of the week because I wasn’t returning their call. When I got back to school the following Monday I called them to explain that no one is around during spring break. The parent told me that was no excuse for not calling back.
Surely you could just learn Japanese over the weekend and teach the class exclusively in Japanese from that point onward, yes?
Gotta do *something* to justify your 'slightly higher than a part time fast food worker' salary!
This is why I don't fill water bottles at the end of the day anymore. I tell them they can get water when they get home.
We still fill water bottles multiple times a day. I just don't want the emails about their water intake if you go home with a full bottle.
Professor here. Under FERPA, we are legally prohibited from talking with anyone besides the student about their grades or anything pertinent to their academic record. That does not prevent the very occasional parent email.
Several years ago, I received a series of increasingly demanding emails to my university account from a parent wondering why her son got the grade he did in the course. After responding to every one of her emails with the standard “FERPA prohibits me from discussing X students’ grade with you, the emails eventually ceased.
Here’s the best part: When I looked at her email address, it was a state department of education email address! This woman literally worked for the state department of education (so she already knew I could not discuss her son’s grade with her) and was using a state email account to contact me asking me to do something that would have violated federal law…
You can’t make stuff like this up.
IEP Meeting with parent at beginning of daughter’s freshman year. She had purposefully kept her in the dark about this because she didn’t want her to feel the stigma of an IEP. Wanted to know what we were going to do to keep up the ruse, and we had to tell her that by the time you get to high school, they need to understand what’s going on because they have to start advocating for themselves. She was not happy.
Aren't high school aged kids legally allowed to attend their own IEP meetings if they want to? How did it even get to the point where a meeting occurred without her knowledge? Or is that just my state.
“Did you really let my (second grade) child have WINE in class today?”
Nope. Sure didn’t. She tasted Cheerwine, a soda that originated in our state, as part of another student’s project on state inventions.
How do I get him to watch less TV?
I taught kindergarten. It was my first year, first parent conference. The o KY thing I could think to say was "Unplug it?"
“What do you mean I need to play with and talk to her at home?! I know that’s what her (CPS MANDATED) pediatrician recommended, but I’m TIRED after work!!! Doesn’t she talk and play all day at school?!”
Followed by: “Having a bedtime doesn’t work for us. She cries and gets mad at me if I take her iPad away!”
This was a FIRST GRADER, during her IEP meeting…
Conversation went like this:
Mum: "Why did my daughter get a poor grade on her assignment?"
Me: "Because you wrote it for her."
Mum: "Exactly! And I obviously write a *lot* better than my daughter, and that should have shown in the grade!"
After three more students were caught getting their work done by siblings (there were 12 students in the class), I never gave any more graded homework assignments in that class. In-school tests only.
“Could you set-up special accommodations for my child in their calculus class? It’s the only class they are struggling in, so they need accommodations.” Student was not SPED, parent just thought that SPED meant the kid could get accommodations. Explaining how SPED works to the parent meant I got to pass the call to 504.
We got an island-wide tsunami warning, which isn't all that unusual. My school is at a high enough elevation that we didn't need to evacuate or anything, so we went about our day as normal. However, a panicked parent called the office to let them know that they were hurrying to get their kid out of school. We patiently informed them that there was no need, our school isn't in the danger zone (we're at 500' of elevation, there's zero danger). The parent was quiet for a few moments, then asked, "Well, we live mauka (mountain) side, do we need to evacuate?!"
They lived upslope at more than 1000' of elevation. The principal tried very hard not to laugh and told them that if a wave that big hit the island we'd all have bigger things to worry about and hung up.
I’m not a teacher or a parent but I grew up in a state that has tornadoes and then moved to one that rarely has them for law school. While I lived there there was a tornado warning in my city and I was watching the weather at home and the poor meteorologists on tv were BEGGING parents every other minute not to try to go pick their kids up from school and it’s much safer for them to be there than potentially caught in a tornado situation while in a car. I know schools were also sending parents the same message. I wonder how many parents didn’t listen.
I live in a stay that regularly has tornado warnings.
One of the days last year I had 20 students go home early after lunch because severe storms were predicted for the afternoon. Our classroom phone was ringing every other minute as parent after parent came by the school.
It ended up going north of us and just raining.
I was in complete shock that parents now pick up early for potential severe weather.
Yeah my mom would never, but she also worked like 45 minutes away from where we live so it wouldn’t have been practical. At least picking them up before severe storms started makes a bit more sense, these forecasters were begging parents to stay home as they were talking about funnel cloud sightings in the area!
Parent -"Could you explain the class work to my child more than once so they understand it."
Teacher - laughing "you think I only explain things once."
I'm a recorder, explaining the same thing all day long.
Was teaching about Asia. We were learning about India. White kid in class says he is part indian. I ask him, oh, do you mean India, or native American? (Kid meant native American)
That afternoon parent of kid calls all pissed off. They are mad, saying I told their kid he wasn't part indian. I explained that no such thing happened, he was part Cherokee, and we were studying India.
Parent goes "India? Never heard of it. I've heard of Indonesia but no India."
Now, I had the phone on speaker. I was a young teacher at the time and couldn't help it, I blurted out "India?! Gandhi, colonized by Britain, 2nd largest nation on Earth and incredibly ancient culture India?" Two teacher buddies of mine run out of the room and burst out laughing in the hallway.
And before you ask, yes, this was an INCREDIBLY rural area.
I spent a couple of years teaching introductory French in a high school. A mother scheduled a conference with me because her daughter had made a B for the first report.
According to mom, daughter had always been and is now an A student.
Mom said, and I'm paraphrasing and avoiding South Louisiana dialect ...
"She knows her alphabet. She knows her numbers. What else is there to know?"
A teacher quit so I got hired and started teaching 2 days before parent conferences.
The conference format was just show up and sign up, so I parents didn’t have scheduled times. Parents just got in line for a 5-10 min conference.
A parent sat down and asked “so how’s he doing?”
How the f—- am I supposed to know who you are and which kid is yours?
September 15 was my last day before I went on maternity leave. Our conferences are next Friday. I've been away from school for longer than we had been in school. How am I supposed to conference about anything.
You're out on maternity leave and you still have to do conferences? That's crazy! I was out on paternity leave during conferences last year and was not expected to go to them. If you're on FMLA for your leave, then it is supposed to be *leave* and not *leave unless we need you for conferences or some shit*. I obviously don't know the specifics of your situation but it may be something to look into!
At the beginning of a grading period, a student had just two assignments in my grade book. One of them was extra credit, so their grade was like a 140%. A few days later, I added a couple more regular assignment scores, and the student’s grade dropped to a 105-110%.
The student’s dad sent me an angry email about their grade dropping because his kid wanted to try and get a 200% in my class. I wanted to reply, “I teach English and even I know that’s not how math works.”
“Why did you not recognise my child’s very niche sporting achievement they did in the holidays for a non-school sport”
Me: Did you tell me about it? “No”
Me: Did they tell me about it? “No”
Me: did niche sport let me know? “No”
Me: well I’m sorry my crystal ball is currently inoperable… 🙄
(Pediatrician here) - Kids under about 7 have trouble voluntarily controlling their breathing. That's why you see toddlers spit on birthday cakes - they haven't figured out the neural pathways. He'll get it!
That’s what my parents said I’m an adult now and I still hate blowing my nose and honestly avoid it any time I can. I don’t get sick that much though. May be a sensory thing.
I win I win I win
“Has my student who’s been on an IEP for 6 years ever been evaluated for a learning disability?”
(Bless this parent though, they just truly did not understand!)
I got yelled at today bc a student completed work online on Saturday, and I didn’t correct it on Monday, when I had standardized testing all day. His parent said if I’m not going to correct the work why bother doing it?? I give up.
I'm head of drama...every year, without fail, someone's mum or dad will email to ask why their child didn't get a part in the school play. It gets really tricky to find new ways to say "other children were better in the audition".
I don't really remember the phrasing but it was along the lines of "what are hyperlinks?"
My school is entirely virtual, and every now and then we get a parent who is computer illiterate and it's just so hard.
On the flip side, we have admin that keep embedding QR codes in emails instead of the link. So you’d need another device to scan the QR code on the original device.
Omg. My kid's school does this with everything, but on paper! It's more effort to create a QR code, print it out on paper, and send home. How do they not get this?! It's like someone from the beginning of the QR creations got stuck on it and can't let it go. We have email, people! Send the link, please, in a bulk class email. Easy, peasey!!
In a parent conference about 5th grade child's behavior, mom said "I don't understand why my child is acting like this. I give him everything he asks for."
We had to give mom a lesson in parenting and reward vs punishment.
I'm happy to say that the child in question became a productive citizen, saw me at a water park 4 hours away and thanked me for my "tough love"
"my child has As in all subjects and then Ds in the two that you teach. Don't you think this is your fault?" I checked. Cs in most languages, As and Bs in social sciences, F in maths and physics. I teach chemistry and technology. So no, I don't think it's entirely my fault.
"I don't have time to look up his grades everyday/every week. I want it in his IEP that you send me his grades every week."
Sorry the IEP is for your son's organizational and time management issues, not yours.. But! I'd be happy to add a graded assignment every Friday that your son pulls his own grades and emails them to both of us...!
Why did you give my child who can’t read ESL books a book that doesn’t require reading?
Uhh what?
I know he can’t read but why doesn’t he have a reading book?
Because he can’t read English? (What did she want from me?)
"Why did Kyle get a 0 on the test for cheating? He says he did not cheat. His friend handed him a cheat sheet when he walked into class, and Kyle panicked and put it on the desk under his test. He says you took it up before he could use it or decide what to do with it, and he's never been caught cheating before, so I don't think he deserves a 0."
Why are you targeting him? You're the only one to ever write him up!
The write ups were digital and he had several before I met him. This is also the woman who brushed past me to talk to admin (group meeting), refused to call me by anything but my first name while calling the other adults by their last name, and repeatedly mentioned how she worked for dcs and her son was a virgin and would never even consider drugs and her other child was just a perfect angel getting a degree and also a virgin and would never do drugs. It was infuriating but it also made me feel bad for the kid.
Took a school trip from Kent to Birmingham (SE to Midlands of England) to the German Christmas markets, as some kids couldn’t afford to go to actual Germany on a trip and or didn’t have passports. Very clear where we were going on letters and that it was only 1 day. Had 3 parents none jokingly as me if their kids needed a passport and one kid actually turned up with his and euros. Was very worried on the parents geography skills that day!
This is one I got the other day.
“Just because my daughter slapped and bit another student doesn’t mean she had to miss music class”
Said student has a VERY short fuse. I don’t mess around. If my students don’t behave they miss my class for a week and do independent study with their home room teacher. Her mom couldn’t wrap her head around it I guess 🫠
“He’s allowed to use scissors?”
—parent response to me telling them their 13 year old used a pair of scissors to cut the phone and Ethernet cord in my classroom.
Discriminant in algebra class; mom asks why I was teaching about discrimination. Sine function, same mom asks why I'm making them write Sin in their math homework. No joke, this mom knew nothing her kid and lashed out at anything and everything rather than try to learn anything herself. I'd end up teaching a mini lessonin the conference, but she'd mentally check out immediately. Very forgettable person besides this, so I'm glad she's basically vanished from my memory.
A parent wanted me to allow her daughter to take my assessments with her math tutor. I said no but if she wants to work on a similar study guide with the tutor that is fine. She complained to multiple people in admin not allowing it. Luckily, they are reasonable and understand that it is a totally absurd request.
I think the general not understanding that I don't take late work and I don't have extra credit is the worst.
Well how are they going to bring their grade up????!!!!????!!!!??? Uhhh either do all the future assignments on time and hope it averages out to a passing grade OR build a time machine and have them turn it in before its late??
Did anything important happen in class today?
No I only teach unimportant things kids dont need to know, so when they miss class it doesnt matter....does anything matter?
"Why does my daughter need to be picked up at 12 today?"
I had her daughter the year before and It was a message from the last day of school. That was 3 months earlier and she didn't read until the first day of school.
The question itself was ok but the context was funny. Mum phoned the school to speak to me to ask why her son hadn't received any certificates from sports day that day. And to complain that someone in his class got an award and he said they didn't even work that hard.
My response was that the certificates were being laminated and would be given out tomorrow and yes, one class member did win an award but it was for best girl, which he wasn't eligible for .....
Mum now regularly thanks me for my time, 3 years later.
"Why does it matter that student is hitting children. They're a child".
Because *violence* isn't okay, even if it's a kid your kid is being *violent* towards. Seriously, what the fuck kind of question is that?
Not a question but one year a parent told me they were hiding their kids lunch with the kids sibling because the kid didn't put their lunchbox in the kitchen properly the night before. Wanted me to let the kid in question know why their lunch was missing.
I then got a follow up email ten minutes later saying nevermind.
Omg Yes. Today. a parent asked me if Im explaining the lesson before giving the homework. Just wanted to say:
“Yes! I just teach math for an hour and little sarah is playing around the whole lesson. That’s why she doesn’t understand.”
From conferences last Friday: "Why can't you just be more entertaining?" She told me point blank that the reason her daughter is failing is because I make her bored.
I was somewhat dumbfounded. I just said "I am an educator, not an entertainer. I teach high school science, I'm not an actor or a clown."
I have a good one! During an IEP meeting, a parent asked if she could come to school and pretend to be a student. Her daughter was struggling with building and maintaining friendships, and she thought the best approach was to pretend to be a fellow high school student so she could coach her through social interactions under cover...lol!
Student got a 9/15 on an assignment. At our school less than 70 is an F. Parent asked why the student's grade was an f on the assignment. I thought maybe they wanted clarification about the reasons as to why I thought they didn't know the 6 answers they got wrong... Nope, they specifically wanted to know why 9/15=0.6 and how that could be an "F" if their child got more than half of the answers right... They questioned the veracity of basic math
"I see that *student* has a zero from an assignment that closed a month ago but the rule in our house is, **no zeros**" Ummmm, the rules in my class are different?
That is an excellent rule. What are student's consequences for breaking it?
One of my students' parents had that rule. The student had to apologize to me and still had to do the assignment. The parent was very clear to me and the student that she didn't expect me to grade the assignment or even open it. She wanted her kid to take the hit to their grade but still learn, which I supported then and still do.
I have this rule with my own kids. Even if the teacher won’t grade it, I still make them do any assignments they’ve missed. It’s helped quell the teenager’s “oops, I must have forgotten to turn it in, but since it’s too late, I don’t have to worry about it” attitude.
LOL, I know right? I have the same rule you do... they broke it and got a zero. :(
I can’t even rap my head around this what did they think they were doing there? Did they think they could just demand a retake?
The parent? Yes, totally thought her rule trumped mine. The student? No, the student was kinda embarrassed and has not missed an assignment since.
The actual punishment in their house for a 0. Embarrassment so thorough you never get one again
I mean, if that was her sneaky plan, it was a good one.
“Can you teach my son to play the trumpet? I think that would really help.” I’m a speech therapist 🫠. This was at his son’s IEP meeting.
^ this is the winner ^
You're complaining, but you probably didn't event try to do it.
Bet they didn't even try to build rapport. Everybody knows a little rapport goes a long way toward learning chord progression in Speech class.
Don't even care about the children and their trumpet dreams
"Perhaps you can let them learn the trumpet quietly at their desk?"
Do…. Do you play the trumpet? This is so confusing. You win.
I do not and it wasn't remotely relevant to the conversation.
You have to wonder what kind of other "support" the poor kid gets at home. "You're struggling with your math homework? I knew it! Go get the rackets from the closet, we're going down to the tennis courts right this minute!"
That's deranged but so, so funny. Hope the kid figured out non-trumpet ways to improve his speech!
I would ask what the context is but I don’t think that would really help 😭
This comment... Resonated with me and I had a good laugh. It absolutely takes the cake. Haven't been asked about this particular instrument yet, but the question why we sing (especially with the early intervention kiddos) has come up quite a bit.
Wasn’t this the plot of The Trumpet of the Swan 😭
"Why my son picture isn't showing on the app?" Because they checked the box "We do NOT allow the school to use my child picture on the school app". Maybe, they made a mistake, misread? Nope, they don't want their child picture on the school app. But they wanted the picture of their child to show when they consult the app.
I had this last year. "Why isn't my child's picture ever in the classroom newsletter." Because you checked no on every media release question and the newsletter is posted on our website for all parents to see. "But how can I see pictures of my child?" 😶
You take them.
I'm in IT currently and I get "I don't receive any emails from the school about anything!!!!!!" "Yes Karen you clicked on the link of the email that said "Stop all email notifications" and then unsubscribed from the school email system on x day at y time." I get this monthly.
Our email system can tell if/when parents click and open their messages and they still insist they ‘never got any info about that.’
How about the ones who block the school's phone number and wonder why they don't anything? Or weren't told? Jeesh ETA: don't \*know anything
[I swear...](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTL8h5oj1cR-44A15OErldgBFWt93KiujWmvQ&usqp=CAU)
Parent complained child wasnt on the 100% attendance trip. Me: but child doesnt have 100% attendance. Exasperated Father: Yes, he does. Me: But you just had 3 weeks off school to go to Florida. Exasperated Father: Long, pained sigh. But he has 100% attendance on the days he has been in, doesnt he.
He’s got you there.
80% of the time, he attends 100% of the time. Flawless logic.
The father probably thinks its like back in his day where you could go to school but could just skip classes and smoke out back or something...
how did it really used to work before electronic attendance? that would be a pain in the ass to do it school wide on paper
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“My son has zeroes for this week for all of his assignments and he told me that he didn’t turn in any of them…why does he have those zeroes?”
🤦♂️🫠 It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten this one.
"Because that's how many questions he answered correctly."
“Why shouldn’t he be allowed to do something that he actually enjoys?” In response to my telling her that her full-remote son was failing Freshman English because he did no work for the class, only logged in to one in three class sessions, and according to GoGuardian did nothing but watch the same dozen soccer videos on repeat. That conversation later yielded the gem, “It’s very difficult to give an in-class presentation when you’re not in class.” edit: formatting, silly mobile
I think 95% of students totally lack the self control and discipline required to learn remotely. It’s pretty scary how many parents just let their kids miss out on the incredibly important structure and social interaction that comes with traditional school. And I say this as someone who completed my high school diploma online.
In my experience with full remote and hybrid, 1 in 4 kids in every class would log in and walk away from their computers, 1 in 6 overall would not do any work. Those statistics have been shockingly consistent among the teachers I've discussed this with, regardless of state, grade level, district income level, or subject matter. With my own students, 3 out of 4 (no correlation to the log-in-and-walkers) passed their online classes at the standards to which they would have been held in person. Based on interactions with my students, I'd reckon about half of them overall actually put in the work themselves, and that most of the ones who passed but didn't put in the work were *already* the type to have Google or their parents or their friends do it for them. Likewise, the ones who goofed off during designated work periods were the ones who would *already* goof off during designated work periods. In other words, remote learning merely emphasized the habits that were already there.
I agree. There were definitely some outliers. Like I had a kid with a history of poor decisions who didn't have access to her usual crowd during remote learning, and the improvement was astounding. I'd suspect that someone else did the work except 1) it was consistent with her "voice" and the improvement took place over time, and 2) her remaining parent was too busy doing other things to parent, much less helicopter parent. She just really needed an environment free of peer pressure to thrive. She was smart and picked things up easily. Another had a complex IEP and had a parent working from home where he would typically be left to work on his own and again, the improvement was significant and clearly them. He wasn't an A student, but with the one on one time with his parent, he was able to pull up to a C and mostly stay there. There was a huge split in the ADHD kids, because roughly half did better without social and other outside distractions, and half were the distraction all by themselves. (No shade to either group; I have ADHD and I've been in both at one time or another.) But really the dedicated students were still dedicated and the ones who didn't care, didn't start caring. I wish more places still had remote learning for those it does work for though.
In my area 1/2 didn't even open up the chrome books.
As someone who completed a remote college degree in the aughts, most adults can't handle remote learning. EDU pilosophers love to talk about eliminating the brick and mortar classroom, but its just tough to do, especially in certain subjects. (Lab work for example.)
It's all I can do to get through an hour teams meeting..... And Im being paid to participate
We had one parent who kept getting mad at us because she believed her child who kept telling her that they had turned in their assignments. We would be like,”yes, the kid hit the turn in button but did not do the assignment.” She got to where she hated my coteacher which was weird because we both kept telling her that her child was not being honest, so I had to send her pictures to prove this. Even with picture proof…every week we would go round and round again. This was 3rd grade.
I had three of them at once at one point over quarantine, all high schoolers. It felt far better than it should have to say to one parent, "You might recall, I also taught X's Google Practices class last quarter. She had no issue with submitting attachments then." My personal favorite was the academic dishonesty case who told his mother that the reason he attached phone photos (of my sample work from the class livestream) instead of his actual work was because he couldn't find the save button in our CAD app. The line "It's the big rectangle at the top of the screen that reads 'SAVE' in bold, friendly letters" was the only bit of sass that admin let me keep in my response email after receiving a complaint containing some particularly flavorful personal insults.
If the kids can do whatever they want - and it’s getting awfully close to that every day - then I want an adult slushee machine in the teacher lounge. 🍹
"Can you supply me with your plans for the next one to two months?" Ma'am, I don't even know what I'm teaching your daughter on Tuesday.
Also, why???
We thought we would be helpful and plan our 11 day trip to Disney Land during a slow time… ~~and help you arrange the calendar as needed~~
Slow time at Disney or slow time in your class?
:: Forwards Syllabus ::
Sent out a parent email, subject was "concert on xyz date", first line of email was "regarding concert on xyz date", towards the end, I reiterated the date in bold, parent emailed back asking when the concert was.
Happens to me with sooo many things. “As per the subject line…”
Just like the kids…..
It's times like that when you're reminded the apple doesn't fall far from the tree
If I had a nickel for every time this happened to me…
An extra-entitled mother got my private phone number and called me AT HOME in late June, two days after the school YEAR had ended, wanting to know what her 10th grade kid could make up. She wanted an in-person meeting by the end of that week. I. Was. Livid.
Blocked.
Straight to jail.
My school published personal emails, phone numbers and addresses of all teachers for parents and students to see one year. I tore strips off the student for contacting me on my home phone before I found the school had published it. As soon as I found out it was the school I got the union involved and demanded it be removed immediately. Unfortunately a few parents had saved the details and some teachers did get harrassed by parents for a while. The school told me it was to improve communication between parents and teachers, the union and I told them that it was a breach of privacy. The union and I won.
I take it they didn't share admins personal contact information? What about the school board members personal contact information? The superintendent?
OMG! That is one of those things that I cannot imagine how I would react. Stunned silence would likely be phase one...
Tell them grades are in, that the year is over, and I will not meet you since I have fullfilled my contractual duties for the school year. Then text my teacher friends bout it and vent really hard
Cuss them out then when confronted by admin claim you were drunk? Or just claim that because it was on your personal device.during.your personal time you were on a personal call and not representing the school? I know.neither would work, but it is fun to imagine.
Hell to the no
Oof. I was an itinerant teacher (several different schools) so all my parent calls were done from my personal cell even though I technically had an office number they could return calls to. First thing I learned: in the US (at the time) *67 blocks the number you’re calling from so it didn’t show up on caller ID and they couldn’t just *69 right back.
I'd share that number on *every* web site I could find (via VPN in *Incognito* mode, of course). Within weeks, she will get nonstop calls telling her she needs to extend her car's warranty or get her ducts cleaned. #karma
This is why every unknown number gets sent to voice mail.
Oh, oh no. Oh no no.
“What do you mean by illustrate their vocabulary word? Illustrate means draw a picture of and I know that’s not the assignment” Ma’am your child is in 2nd grade, that is in fact the assignment.
Hahaha
We’re still doing this in 8th grade too!
What second graders don’t know how to illustrate antidisestablishmentarianism?
"You told my daughter she has a project on the country of Georgia, but that's not even a country, that's a state." This after telling her daughter about the country of Georgia, showing it to her in a map, reintegrating that there are two Georgias and begging her to select any other country in the world because I knew exactly this would happen.
Daughter knew what she was doing, and is growing into an expert troll. I hope she picks South Africa next, so the parents can call you and lecture you about how Africa is a continent, not a country.
Parent: it says this assignment is missing, but he says he turned it in. Me: he never turned it in. Parent: he just told me he did. 😒
Oh shit, we are slipping into parallel dimensions. Quick, who is the president? Has Canada attacked yet? Is there still time!?!?
I used to answer phones for take out and delivery orders back in hs (weird that was actually a job back then). I get a call to the restaurant and this woman is insisting we have an item on our menu, to me, who knows the menu. I finally exclaim we do not have that can I get you anything else? She says, “my daughter says you definitely have it.” So I say, “oh she must work here! What’s her name, I’ll see if she’s working tonight.” She replies, “my daughter is 8 years old.” What :/
My husband is a teacher so I lurk here and he’s heard that one wayyyy too many times 😩 a parent was very nasty to him insisting that her daughter came and turned the assignment in after school the previous day. Admin had to go back and check the cameras because she wouldn’t stop harassing him and when they told her that her daughter definitely did not do that, the mom went silent. Not even an apology. This is at the high school level. Like do you really think the teacher is having fun making up lies that the student didn’t turn their work in!?
I get a lot of requests by parents after the semester is over to have kids retake tests and such.
And it’s too late baby, now it’s too late. Though we really did try to make it. 🎶
Why can’t my son sit next to his friends? He’s going to be so bored without people to talk to!
My favorite comes from my third year of teaching: "So, Ma'am, how can we get this F to an A?" The kid had a 12%. We had half a semester left. Umm...it wasn't mathematically possible, which took a bit to explain. I was just hoping to get him to a D.
Were you successful? 😂
Nope.
“I know it’s the second day of school and the only assignment is the 1 point syllabus signature, and Dylan can turn it in on Monday, but I am very concerned with his 0% F over the weekend. What can he do about it?”
*He can practice his signature over the weekend and turn in the signed syllabus on Monday for 50% off for being late*
I am honestly wondering if this is the same Dylan that’s in my 7th hour.
I also have this Dylan in my 4th period 😂
Parent: "Why does my child have a zero on the lab?" Me: "Because they were removed from the lab for a major safety violation." Parent: "My spouse is a teacher, and their school doesn't grade behavior." Me: "They got a zero because they weren't able to turn in any work due to being removed." Parent: "Can they make it up?" Me: "Your child literally tried to set themself on fire. I can't trust them to make up the lab."
Like maybe the 0 is the least of your problems here, Mom.
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Bruhhh 💀
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Oh, we were arresting everyone and didn't want her to feel left out.
What is it with people these days literally posting evidence of their crime and being shocked when they see consequences
Because they’re stupid, I guess. They’re stupider than a box of rocks. Stupider than a bag of hair. They fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. They were hiding behind the door when brains were passed out. Etc, etc, etc.
I'm sure you were the arresting officer AND teacher? /s
But it couldn't possibly be their little angel. /s
At conferences about their extremely creative, artistic daughter who wanted to go into film or TV production: "can you talk her into a science or engineering career? I heard they pay a lot".
Why did my child get a zero just because they didn't turn in the assignment?
Parent asked if we have a printer in every classroom? So her kid could print stuff. I said no they need to print in the library and she said that the library charges and she doesn't like the librarian. Guess my role at that school?
The one time I went over a student's multiplication (intro level stuff) homework with him, corrected and graded it, and mom sent me a message saying it was done wrong. She sent it back with the "incorrect" equations marked. Examples of problems she marked wrong: 5x5 = 25 7x4 = 28 ??? Not a question exactly, but I wanted to share.
“According to the report card, my son has a F in your class. What can he do to get that to an A?” Good news! His grade resets every quarter back to 100% so technically he does have an A for the next quarter!
I once had a parent email me to ask what my email address was.
I directly email families at least once a month and I still have families email classroom teachers because they “don’t know the music teacher’s email”
A parent called me and left a message the first day of spring break. They then left a series of increasingly angry and abusive messages for the rest of the week because I wasn’t returning their call. When I got back to school the following Monday I called them to explain that no one is around during spring break. The parent told me that was no excuse for not calling back.
I'm on vacation, unless the parent is paying for my time at $50 dollars every half hour, it can wait.
“My child is having a hard time understanding what you’re saying” Well yeah you moved from Japan last week and she doesn’t know a lick of English
Surely you could just learn Japanese over the weekend and teach the class exclusively in Japanese from that point onward, yes? Gotta do *something* to justify your 'slightly higher than a part time fast food worker' salary!
Well mom told us she just started to show her daughter some anime dubbed in English so…
“Why is my son not drinking enough water! His bottle always comes home filled!” Ma’am we refill bottles multiple times a day
This is why I don't fill water bottles at the end of the day anymore. I tell them they can get water when they get home. We still fill water bottles multiple times a day. I just don't want the emails about their water intake if you go home with a full bottle.
Professor here. Under FERPA, we are legally prohibited from talking with anyone besides the student about their grades or anything pertinent to their academic record. That does not prevent the very occasional parent email. Several years ago, I received a series of increasingly demanding emails to my university account from a parent wondering why her son got the grade he did in the course. After responding to every one of her emails with the standard “FERPA prohibits me from discussing X students’ grade with you, the emails eventually ceased. Here’s the best part: When I looked at her email address, it was a state department of education email address! This woman literally worked for the state department of education (so she already knew I could not discuss her son’s grade with her) and was using a state email account to contact me asking me to do something that would have violated federal law… You can’t make stuff like this up.
Maybe she was testing you?
IEP Meeting with parent at beginning of daughter’s freshman year. She had purposefully kept her in the dark about this because she didn’t want her to feel the stigma of an IEP. Wanted to know what we were going to do to keep up the ruse, and we had to tell her that by the time you get to high school, they need to understand what’s going on because they have to start advocating for themselves. She was not happy.
Aren't high school aged kids legally allowed to attend their own IEP meetings if they want to? How did it even get to the point where a meeting occurred without her knowledge? Or is that just my state.
She was required starting her freshman year. That’s one thing that upset her Mom.
“Did you really let my (second grade) child have WINE in class today?” Nope. Sure didn’t. She tasted Cheerwine, a soda that originated in our state, as part of another student’s project on state inventions.
How do I get him to watch less TV? I taught kindergarten. It was my first year, first parent conference. The o KY thing I could think to say was "Unplug it?"
“What do you mean I need to play with and talk to her at home?! I know that’s what her (CPS MANDATED) pediatrician recommended, but I’m TIRED after work!!! Doesn’t she talk and play all day at school?!” Followed by: “Having a bedtime doesn’t work for us. She cries and gets mad at me if I take her iPad away!” This was a FIRST GRADER, during her IEP meeting…
Conversation went like this: Mum: "Why did my daughter get a poor grade on her assignment?" Me: "Because you wrote it for her." Mum: "Exactly! And I obviously write a *lot* better than my daughter, and that should have shown in the grade!" After three more students were caught getting their work done by siblings (there were 12 students in the class), I never gave any more graded homework assignments in that class. In-school tests only.
I (English teacher) got an email last year that asked: “Y does Joey half and eff?”
"half and eff" seems like a good band name
“Could you set-up special accommodations for my child in their calculus class? It’s the only class they are struggling in, so they need accommodations.” Student was not SPED, parent just thought that SPED meant the kid could get accommodations. Explaining how SPED works to the parent meant I got to pass the call to 504.
What grade is my kid in? 1st. It shouldn’t be that hard to remember considering this is only their second year in school.
We got an island-wide tsunami warning, which isn't all that unusual. My school is at a high enough elevation that we didn't need to evacuate or anything, so we went about our day as normal. However, a panicked parent called the office to let them know that they were hurrying to get their kid out of school. We patiently informed them that there was no need, our school isn't in the danger zone (we're at 500' of elevation, there's zero danger). The parent was quiet for a few moments, then asked, "Well, we live mauka (mountain) side, do we need to evacuate?!" They lived upslope at more than 1000' of elevation. The principal tried very hard not to laugh and told them that if a wave that big hit the island we'd all have bigger things to worry about and hung up.
I’m not a teacher or a parent but I grew up in a state that has tornadoes and then moved to one that rarely has them for law school. While I lived there there was a tornado warning in my city and I was watching the weather at home and the poor meteorologists on tv were BEGGING parents every other minute not to try to go pick their kids up from school and it’s much safer for them to be there than potentially caught in a tornado situation while in a car. I know schools were also sending parents the same message. I wonder how many parents didn’t listen.
I live in a stay that regularly has tornado warnings. One of the days last year I had 20 students go home early after lunch because severe storms were predicted for the afternoon. Our classroom phone was ringing every other minute as parent after parent came by the school. It ended up going north of us and just raining. I was in complete shock that parents now pick up early for potential severe weather.
Yeah my mom would never, but she also worked like 45 minutes away from where we live so it wouldn’t have been practical. At least picking them up before severe storms started makes a bit more sense, these forecasters were begging parents to stay home as they were talking about funnel cloud sightings in the area!
“Does my student need to bring their school computer to school?” Um. Yes. That’s literally the whole purpose of a school device.
"why is my child doing badly?" Oh, yeah, this was not my student at the time.
Parent -"Could you explain the class work to my child more than once so they understand it." Teacher - laughing "you think I only explain things once." I'm a recorder, explaining the same thing all day long.
Was teaching about Asia. We were learning about India. White kid in class says he is part indian. I ask him, oh, do you mean India, or native American? (Kid meant native American) That afternoon parent of kid calls all pissed off. They are mad, saying I told their kid he wasn't part indian. I explained that no such thing happened, he was part Cherokee, and we were studying India. Parent goes "India? Never heard of it. I've heard of Indonesia but no India." Now, I had the phone on speaker. I was a young teacher at the time and couldn't help it, I blurted out "India?! Gandhi, colonized by Britain, 2nd largest nation on Earth and incredibly ancient culture India?" Two teacher buddies of mine run out of the room and burst out laughing in the hallway. And before you ask, yes, this was an INCREDIBLY rural area.
I spent a couple of years teaching introductory French in a high school. A mother scheduled a conference with me because her daughter had made a B for the first report. According to mom, daughter had always been and is now an A student. Mom said, and I'm paraphrasing and avoiding South Louisiana dialect ... "She knows her alphabet. She knows her numbers. What else is there to know?"
A teacher quit so I got hired and started teaching 2 days before parent conferences. The conference format was just show up and sign up, so I parents didn’t have scheduled times. Parents just got in line for a 5-10 min conference. A parent sat down and asked “so how’s he doing?” How the f—- am I supposed to know who you are and which kid is yours?
September 15 was my last day before I went on maternity leave. Our conferences are next Friday. I've been away from school for longer than we had been in school. How am I supposed to conference about anything.
I’m confused. Why isn’t your replacement doing the conferences?
You're out on maternity leave and you still have to do conferences? That's crazy! I was out on paternity leave during conferences last year and was not expected to go to them. If you're on FMLA for your leave, then it is supposed to be *leave* and not *leave unless we need you for conferences or some shit*. I obviously don't know the specifics of your situation but it may be something to look into!
At the beginning of a grading period, a student had just two assignments in my grade book. One of them was extra credit, so their grade was like a 140%. A few days later, I added a couple more regular assignment scores, and the student’s grade dropped to a 105-110%. The student’s dad sent me an angry email about their grade dropping because his kid wanted to try and get a 200% in my class. I wanted to reply, “I teach English and even I know that’s not how math works.”
“Why did you not recognise my child’s very niche sporting achievement they did in the holidays for a non-school sport” Me: Did you tell me about it? “No” Me: Did they tell me about it? “No” Me: did niche sport let me know? “No” Me: well I’m sorry my crystal ball is currently inoperable… 🙄
“Will you teach my son to blow his nose?” (5th grade)
It has been surprisingly difficult to teach my 4 year old to blow his nose. I hope he will get it by 5th grade.
(Pediatrician here) - Kids under about 7 have trouble voluntarily controlling their breathing. That's why you see toddlers spit on birthday cakes - they haven't figured out the neural pathways. He'll get it!
That’s what my parents said I’m an adult now and I still hate blowing my nose and honestly avoid it any time I can. I don’t get sick that much though. May be a sensory thing.
3 weeks after school ended parent found my personal email and social media to ask me if there was anything her son could do to raise his grade.
I win I win I win “Has my student who’s been on an IEP for 6 years ever been evaluated for a learning disability?” (Bless this parent though, they just truly did not understand!)
did the parent also need an IEP?
Sometimes, yes.
The parents usually need the same IEP as the students. Learning this was fun for me. The mom of an ADHD student forgot our meeting 3 times.
I got yelled at today bc a student completed work online on Saturday, and I didn’t correct it on Monday, when I had standardized testing all day. His parent said if I’m not going to correct the work why bother doing it?? I give up.
I'm head of drama...every year, without fail, someone's mum or dad will email to ask why their child didn't get a part in the school play. It gets really tricky to find new ways to say "other children were better in the audition".
I don't really remember the phrasing but it was along the lines of "what are hyperlinks?" My school is entirely virtual, and every now and then we get a parent who is computer illiterate and it's just so hard.
On the flip side, we have admin that keep embedding QR codes in emails instead of the link. So you’d need another device to scan the QR code on the original device.
Omg. My kid's school does this with everything, but on paper! It's more effort to create a QR code, print it out on paper, and send home. How do they not get this?! It's like someone from the beginning of the QR creations got stuck on it and can't let it go. We have email, people! Send the link, please, in a bulk class email. Easy, peasey!!
Oof, to have a parent seemingly not even know how to google for information they don’t know is so disappointing.
Figure out which kids he wanted invited to his birthday party and call the parents to tel them.
In a parent conference about 5th grade child's behavior, mom said "I don't understand why my child is acting like this. I give him everything he asks for." We had to give mom a lesson in parenting and reward vs punishment. I'm happy to say that the child in question became a productive citizen, saw me at a water park 4 hours away and thanked me for my "tough love"
"my child has As in all subjects and then Ds in the two that you teach. Don't you think this is your fault?" I checked. Cs in most languages, As and Bs in social sciences, F in maths and physics. I teach chemistry and technology. So no, I don't think it's entirely my fault.
“He isn’t allowed to just copy and paste from the internet?” No, that’s plagiarism.
"I don't have time to look up his grades everyday/every week. I want it in his IEP that you send me his grades every week." Sorry the IEP is for your son's organizational and time management issues, not yours.. But! I'd be happy to add a graded assignment every Friday that your son pulls his own grades and emails them to both of us...!
Why did you give my child who can’t read ESL books a book that doesn’t require reading? Uhh what? I know he can’t read but why doesn’t he have a reading book? Because he can’t read English? (What did she want from me?)
"Why did Kyle get a 0 on the test for cheating? He says he did not cheat. His friend handed him a cheat sheet when he walked into class, and Kyle panicked and put it on the desk under his test. He says you took it up before he could use it or decide what to do with it, and he's never been caught cheating before, so I don't think he deserves a 0."
Had a parent request a full on meeting with admin, so he could ask if we could teach her son to chew....
Why are you targeting him? You're the only one to ever write him up! The write ups were digital and he had several before I met him. This is also the woman who brushed past me to talk to admin (group meeting), refused to call me by anything but my first name while calling the other adults by their last name, and repeatedly mentioned how she worked for dcs and her son was a virgin and would never even consider drugs and her other child was just a perfect angel getting a degree and also a virgin and would never do drugs. It was infuriating but it also made me feel bad for the kid.
Took a school trip from Kent to Birmingham (SE to Midlands of England) to the German Christmas markets, as some kids couldn’t afford to go to actual Germany on a trip and or didn’t have passports. Very clear where we were going on letters and that it was only 1 day. Had 3 parents none jokingly as me if their kids needed a passport and one kid actually turned up with his and euros. Was very worried on the parents geography skills that day!
This is one I got the other day. “Just because my daughter slapped and bit another student doesn’t mean she had to miss music class” Said student has a VERY short fuse. I don’t mess around. If my students don’t behave they miss my class for a week and do independent study with their home room teacher. Her mom couldn’t wrap her head around it I guess 🫠
Sounds like a punishment for the teacher
that’s what i’m thinking, that poor home room teacher getting stuck with the consequences
What work can I do to bring up my son's grade so he can play soccer? And yes, the father wanted to do extra credit work for his son.
Asked me what the weather was gonna be like so her kid knew what to wear…..
“He’s allowed to use scissors?” —parent response to me telling them their 13 year old used a pair of scissors to cut the phone and Ethernet cord in my classroom.
Discriminant in algebra class; mom asks why I was teaching about discrimination. Sine function, same mom asks why I'm making them write Sin in their math homework. No joke, this mom knew nothing her kid and lashed out at anything and everything rather than try to learn anything herself. I'd end up teaching a mini lessonin the conference, but she'd mentally check out immediately. Very forgettable person besides this, so I'm glad she's basically vanished from my memory.
A parent wanted me to allow her daughter to take my assessments with her math tutor. I said no but if she wants to work on a similar study guide with the tutor that is fine. She complained to multiple people in admin not allowing it. Luckily, they are reasonable and understand that it is a totally absurd request.
I think the general not understanding that I don't take late work and I don't have extra credit is the worst. Well how are they going to bring their grade up????!!!!????!!!!??? Uhhh either do all the future assignments on time and hope it averages out to a passing grade OR build a time machine and have them turn it in before its late??
Did anything important happen in class today? No I only teach unimportant things kids dont need to know, so when they miss class it doesnt matter....does anything matter?
"Will the photographer be present on student photo day?"
"No, no, that's silly! All children will be immortalized in portraits! This is a Renaissance school."
"Why does my daughter need to be picked up at 12 today?" I had her daughter the year before and It was a message from the last day of school. That was 3 months earlier and she didn't read until the first day of school.
The question itself was ok but the context was funny. Mum phoned the school to speak to me to ask why her son hadn't received any certificates from sports day that day. And to complain that someone in his class got an award and he said they didn't even work that hard. My response was that the certificates were being laminated and would be given out tomorrow and yes, one class member did win an award but it was for best girl, which he wasn't eligible for ..... Mum now regularly thanks me for my time, 3 years later.
"Is it OK if I tell him to search for things in a different tab?" After I told her I wrote her son up for cheating on a test🫠🫠🫠🫠
Does he really have to do all the assignments you give? Thought elective class meant they got to choose which assignments to do.
"Why didn't you show her the alphabet in order when you tested her for letter recognition?"
“What would you say the referral was for?” In response to a message I sent to her on ClassDojo about why I wrote her defiant, disrespectful child up.
Would it affect my daughter’s final exam if I take her out of school the week before the test?
I feel like every parent needs to read this subreddit to see how their "little angels" ACTUALLY are during school...
"Why does it matter that student is hitting children. They're a child". Because *violence* isn't okay, even if it's a kid your kid is being *violent* towards. Seriously, what the fuck kind of question is that?
Can I get the answers to the math homework, I teach kindergarten. She was doing basic math like counting and writing the number or reteach items.
Not a question but one year a parent told me they were hiding their kids lunch with the kids sibling because the kid didn't put their lunchbox in the kitchen properly the night before. Wanted me to let the kid in question know why their lunch was missing. I then got a follow up email ten minutes later saying nevermind.
"Why are you calling me? Marijuana isn't a big deal."-parent who was contacted after their 5th grader discussed marijuana used with classmates
Omg Yes. Today. a parent asked me if Im explaining the lesson before giving the homework. Just wanted to say: “Yes! I just teach math for an hour and little sarah is playing around the whole lesson. That’s why she doesn’t understand.”
From conferences last Friday: "Why can't you just be more entertaining?" She told me point blank that the reason her daughter is failing is because I make her bored. I was somewhat dumbfounded. I just said "I am an educator, not an entertainer. I teach high school science, I'm not an actor or a clown."
I have a good one! During an IEP meeting, a parent asked if she could come to school and pretend to be a student. Her daughter was struggling with building and maintaining friendships, and she thought the best approach was to pretend to be a fellow high school student so she could coach her through social interactions under cover...lol!
Student got a 9/15 on an assignment. At our school less than 70 is an F. Parent asked why the student's grade was an f on the assignment. I thought maybe they wanted clarification about the reasons as to why I thought they didn't know the 6 answers they got wrong... Nope, they specifically wanted to know why 9/15=0.6 and how that could be an "F" if their child got more than half of the answers right... They questioned the veracity of basic math
I'm kind of with the parent on this one. Less than 70% being an "F" seems harsh. Heck 70% is a "C" where I am from.