meL’s Word

Communication between a school and parents is so very important.  Parents want to know they can contact their child’s teacher or school administrator and get a reply.  Recently I emailed the lower school director at my daughter’s school to express a concern over backpack weight – a 50 pound second grader brought home a 23 pound backpack (just 6 texts and a bottle of water).  It was an important issue to me that I thought needed to be addressed.  Weren’t there better ways to get text books covered other than sending them home all at once?  I thought an email to the lower school director would at least get a “thank you for your concern” reply.  Nope -nothing – nada.  I waited a week and called her.  She was out of her office so I left a voicemail.  That was two weeks ago – still no word.  I am so angry – I am not used to being ignored.  I am finding a typical excuse from this school is “oh, our email system isn’t working right” – convenient excuse.  A co-worker emailed this same person and followed up only to be given the email excuse.  However, when she began to describe the issue the reply was “oh yes, I got that” – but the director hadn’t bothered to reply to that concern either.

Is it too much to ask for a reply?  What constitutes an “important enough” issue to get a reply?  Isn’t ANY contact from a parent worthy of a reply?

Summer has ended – all too soon, BTW.

I have fewer new teachers to work with this year, but the ones I do have seem to be eager to use technology.  Many sound quite capable.   Last week was spent trying to help out with the “first week back woes” – teachers have forgotten passwords, new accounts not set up correctly, printers don’t work, etc.

Budget restrictions have limited new toys.  Our special education departments have gotten Flip cameras to help with documentation of alternative assessments and will be getting interactive whiteboards in the classrooms with the lower functioning students.  I was ready to submit a proposal for the Wii Whiteboard to VSTE, but our coordinator doesn’t want to do it since we can’t even afford to fix teachers up with those.  Personally, I think it should still be presented – just because we can’t, doesn’t mean others can’t.  They do work and for some it is a good cheap alternative to the expensive versions.  It would be nice to show that it can be used in a classroom.