NorthofDetroitGuy's Blog

In today's world we often talk about and evaluate schools based on their technology education program for our children.  The computers in their classroom, what software they are using, how their education relates to technology today and in the future, etc.  However, do we ask that our teachers know about technology and how to use it, or just those that have to teach it?

For example:  I consider near instant replies to E-mails, and such things as instant messengers, SMS/Text messaging and on line school calendars to be standard today.

Approx. 5 weeks ago, I had parent teacher conferences at my son's school.

One teacher has been at the school since I went there. 

Each teacher has a blog they are supposed to update at least once a week.

The blog, like this one, probably doesn't have spelling and grammar check, so you would have to use MS Word or something comparable to type your blog.  Then you would copy and paste it into the system.  Unless you are of course a junior high English teacher and can spell and grammar check yourself fairly well right?

At confrences, I mentioned that I never knew when to check the blogs because they seem to always get updated on different days of the week.  We were both assured that the blog is updated every Sunday night as the teacher prepares for her week.

So, when I got home, I check the teacher's previous entries from September until now.  Only 1 was done on a Sunday.  The rest went from Monday thru Thursday.

In addition, this week I E-mailed all of my sons teachers to make sure that all of his assignments were being turned in (and not getting lost in his locker), or done improperly.  I sent the E-mail at 9:45 PM on Wednesday evening.  The first to reply was the Band teacher in under 12 hours.  Next was the English teacher that basically said my son should have a sheet that he keeps track of that shows how well he is doing in her class.  Her reply came on Friday afternoon around 3 PM.  Any parent knows that you need to double check everything on your kids unless you are naive.  In addition, JUST because I E-mailed she pulled my son out of class to ask why I am E-mailing her regarding how he is doing.  I felt like I was being prosecuted for trying to be a good parent and that my son was the key witness with the English teacher as the prosecutor.  I never knew communicating with your son's teacher (or trying to) was a crime.   Not only that, I still have 3 teachers that didn't even reply.  I also traced the E-mail using www.didtheyreadit.com to make sure they received it and that it didn't go into a junk folder.

Never the less I would like to ask J.Q. public what type of response time you think a teacher should give when you E-mail them about your child's educational performance,

Is it:

Same school business day (if sent before business hours)

Less than 24 hours

Within 48 hours

Within 72 hours

1 week

2 weeks

1 month

Let me know what you think?