Dear Christiana School District (and other districts),

First off, I applaud you for even MOVING in the direction of using technology to help us educate our children. This was huge and it took you awhile but you did eventually embrace the concept. Now, I ask you to simply not RELY on the technology. You see, now when I speak to a teacher, I get the 'Go to the Home Access Center' auto response. It almost feels like I am calling Comcast, Connectiv (Duke Power) or the bank when I try to get answers. I need some HUMAN FEEDBACK. I need to know when she 'looks like she is slipping'. Not when she has ALREADY FALLEN AND GOTTEN DIRTY. @ my daughter. Do you understand the analogy? Not only that, the majority of your staff (in particular the veteran parts of it) are not proficient when it comes to computers and do not update it nor the 'homework' hot line in a timely fashion. Which I actually can UNDERSTAND being the product of two teachers. By the time they get home, they have long passed the school hours and now must plan for the NEXT day/grade papers/AND HAVE A LIFE. So I do UNDERSTAND THAT. Which is all the more reason that I am IMPLORING you not to forget the 'ways that worked initially' for some. The parent/teacher face to face interaction. Yes, I am aware of the 'portfolio' sessions you have. The parent/teacher days you set aside but lets be realistic, THE DAMAGE IS DONE at that time and we will only be talking about 'future' improvements in most cases. If a parent wants five minutes of your time (like I did the other day), allow them that luxury. No parent is coming all the way up to the school if they don't want a 'resolution' so it should be worthwhile. Stop dismissively waving people towards that website. You can recommend it but that is not what I get when I come up there to ask questions. I get the 'Did you check the site?" line. Evidently, I checked SOMETHING because I am here now! @ my response.

See, the thing about the site is that while it tells me the assignments name and possibly when it is due, that is all I get. I don't get information such as when the paper was graded, a notification that she did or didn't turn it in and such. Which a VERY SIMPLE phone call or email would handle. Particularly in cases when I have said assignment GRADED BY THE TEACHER in my or my child's possession. Also, classwork is obviously part of the grade and since I AM NOT IN CLASS WITH THE CHILD, I don't know all the names of the assignments. So now I am back to asking the 11 year old "What does this mean?" Which she SHOULD know but sometimes doesn't always know. If we could rely on her though initially to tell the truth/bring forth all work and relay school messages, we would be doing that now wouldn't we? Okay then. As it stands now I get interim reports that say she has 'missed assignments' when that is not the case all of the time. From multiple teachers. If I am citing this then you must know this has happened. More than once even. Again, with apathy to the human nature of the situation, I am not upset overly about this happening as it is my job to stay on top of it as well in some capacity. @ the initial error. My issue is with 'How I am deemed to handle it via this system that relies on humans to input the information..' It is treated like there is no way it can fail. Not true. I just showed you how it could.

Stop telling your teachers that this is the end all be all of how to stay on top of your kid. It is not. It is a LOVELY tool. But it will not and cannot replace parent/teacher contact via email/phone call or face to face interaction.


Sincerely,

One of those parents that not only cares but KNOWS how things are supposed to work because they have people who worked (and still currently work for) for said system.


P.S.

If you want to forward this on to the school district (or you own school's district) I will include a hyper link so that they come DIRECTLY to the page. I know this isn't exactly the 'safest' place to be seen at work and such. I do understand that. Also, please do not dismiss the message, try to shoot it down or any of those lame 'political' tactics over simple grammatical errors I may or may not have made during this. That should not be the focus AND YOU KNOW IT. Matter of fact, if you feel it was written incorrectly, that is ALL THE MORE REASON for you to support what I am saying. So that my daughters and her peers can learn the correct way.

http://thewarehous.blogspot.com/2010/03/dear-christiana-school-district-and.html