k2nd
Single-Sixer
With all of the talk about guns in schools, why it's happening, and how to
solve the issue let me offer a little different perspective. I've been
teaching since 2003. This marks my 15th year in the classroom. Everybody
always talks about how schools have changed, and it's true, they have. Yes,
there's the "crazy new math" and "bring your own device" changes. However,
there are some other changes that I think the general population is not
aware of.
Every year for 15 years I have sent home the same assignment on the first
day of school. I send a letter home asking parents to tell me about their
child in a million words or less. I go on to explain that I want to learn
the child's hopes, dreams, fears, challenges, etc and jokingly ask parents
to limit it to less than a million words since we all know we could talk
forever about our children. I go on to say I'm not grading these, not
looking at handwriting or grammar and don't care if they send them back
with their child, email them, drop them off at the office, etc. These
letters have been so beneficial to me as a teacher and getting to know my
students on a personal level. I have learned about eating disorders,
seizures, jealousy issues between twins, depression, adoption, abuse...just
to name a few things. These letters give me a huge head start on getting to
truly know my students. I often pull them out when a child has a sudden
change in behavior or issue that comes up. Just this week I had 2 students
lose their mother unexpectedly. Brother and sister, I taught one last year
and one this year. As I have done before, i immediately went to my folders
to pull the letters that mom sent for her children. It's a beautiful gift
that I feel I can give students to get a glimpse into how much a parent
loved and adored them. As I was putting the folders back in the file
cabinet I noticed something. I know that the percentage of parents that
complete this assignment each year has gotten lower and lower, but looking
at the size of the folders shocked me. That first year I had 98% of the
parents send back some type of letter on their child. This year... 22%.
That's a lot of opportunities lost for me to get to know students. Sadly,
more parents have access to an electronic device that makes this task even
easier and less time consuming.
On another note, this year's average for homework turned in is riding at
67%. I'm talking a twice monthly 5 sentence summary of what the student is
reading in their own time. I remind students daily, I send text messages
through Remind, it's on my website. The only other thing I could do is do
it for them. Parents continue to let their child rack up zero after zero.
But then again, that average used to be around 98% as well. It was rare for
more than 1-2 students to not have their homework 15 years ago. Now, it's
just frustrating.
With all of our other responsibilities in our profession, how are we
supposed to get to know students so that we can identify the ones with the
mentality and disposition to become a school shooter if parents are
checking out of the academic process? How are we supposed to educate
children when their parents don't require, expect and demand their child
complete their homework?
Don't wait until your child is the school shooter to let us know your
child is struggling mentally. Don't wait until your child is ineligible for
sports or the day before report cards to check grades and question the
teacher on why your child is failing.
Be a parent. Be involved in your child's life so that you can help them
through the issues with friends, the possible suicidal thoughts, and
problems academically. I promise you, if parents spent more time with their
children and got involved in their lives, we would see drastic improvements
in our schools and our society.
As parents, our job is to grow the most amazing humans possible. Its the
most important job in the world. The education and emotional stability a
parent provides is priceless.
I wish I could claim responsibility for finding this, but my wife did. I don't do facebook, but she does. The only thing I can claim is I turned her from anti-gun to pro-2nd amendment, and she is now a hunter and loves it!
k2nd
solve the issue let me offer a little different perspective. I've been
teaching since 2003. This marks my 15th year in the classroom. Everybody
always talks about how schools have changed, and it's true, they have. Yes,
there's the "crazy new math" and "bring your own device" changes. However,
there are some other changes that I think the general population is not
aware of.
Every year for 15 years I have sent home the same assignment on the first
day of school. I send a letter home asking parents to tell me about their
child in a million words or less. I go on to explain that I want to learn
the child's hopes, dreams, fears, challenges, etc and jokingly ask parents
to limit it to less than a million words since we all know we could talk
forever about our children. I go on to say I'm not grading these, not
looking at handwriting or grammar and don't care if they send them back
with their child, email them, drop them off at the office, etc. These
letters have been so beneficial to me as a teacher and getting to know my
students on a personal level. I have learned about eating disorders,
seizures, jealousy issues between twins, depression, adoption, abuse...just
to name a few things. These letters give me a huge head start on getting to
truly know my students. I often pull them out when a child has a sudden
change in behavior or issue that comes up. Just this week I had 2 students
lose their mother unexpectedly. Brother and sister, I taught one last year
and one this year. As I have done before, i immediately went to my folders
to pull the letters that mom sent for her children. It's a beautiful gift
that I feel I can give students to get a glimpse into how much a parent
loved and adored them. As I was putting the folders back in the file
cabinet I noticed something. I know that the percentage of parents that
complete this assignment each year has gotten lower and lower, but looking
at the size of the folders shocked me. That first year I had 98% of the
parents send back some type of letter on their child. This year... 22%.
That's a lot of opportunities lost for me to get to know students. Sadly,
more parents have access to an electronic device that makes this task even
easier and less time consuming.
On another note, this year's average for homework turned in is riding at
67%. I'm talking a twice monthly 5 sentence summary of what the student is
reading in their own time. I remind students daily, I send text messages
through Remind, it's on my website. The only other thing I could do is do
it for them. Parents continue to let their child rack up zero after zero.
But then again, that average used to be around 98% as well. It was rare for
more than 1-2 students to not have their homework 15 years ago. Now, it's
just frustrating.
With all of our other responsibilities in our profession, how are we
supposed to get to know students so that we can identify the ones with the
mentality and disposition to become a school shooter if parents are
checking out of the academic process? How are we supposed to educate
children when their parents don't require, expect and demand their child
complete their homework?
Don't wait until your child is the school shooter to let us know your
child is struggling mentally. Don't wait until your child is ineligible for
sports or the day before report cards to check grades and question the
teacher on why your child is failing.
Be a parent. Be involved in your child's life so that you can help them
through the issues with friends, the possible suicidal thoughts, and
problems academically. I promise you, if parents spent more time with their
children and got involved in their lives, we would see drastic improvements
in our schools and our society.
As parents, our job is to grow the most amazing humans possible. Its the
most important job in the world. The education and emotional stability a
parent provides is priceless.
I wish I could claim responsibility for finding this, but my wife did. I don't do facebook, but she does. The only thing I can claim is I turned her from anti-gun to pro-2nd amendment, and she is now a hunter and loves it!
k2nd
ps
