Comments on: Guest Column: It’s the parents, it’s the parents, it’s the parents http://rockrivertimes.com/2011/05/11/guest-column-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents/ The Rock River Times - THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1993 Fri, 24 May 2013 02:20:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: DanielRobertSmyth http://rockrivertimes.com/2011/05/11/guest-column-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents/comment-page-1/#comment-2866 DanielRobertSmyth Sun, 29 May 2011 02:20:11 +0000 http://rockrivertimes.com/?p=30394#comment-2866 It's the teacher. Well said! As a former terror to most of my teachers I know that first hand. It took being married to a teacher and having 2 children each different than the other. I found out what it feels like when there is a fast learner, and one who really couldn't care if school was closed today forever! I found out what can happen when a principal will not support a new substitute, and what parents from these troubled children can say when a teacher calls home and wants to speak about poor behavior. I went into this relationship with my teacher/wife with pre-conceived ideas on what a parent should do. In the 30 years my wife has taught in the private and public schools I have learned a lot more than I figured I needed to. I fought with my wife about the supplies and workbooks she bought for her students, and really blew my top when she bought a case of paper and a copy machine because the school was short on the paper budget. We didn't have vacations, there was the free tutoring in our home, and the courses she took in Chicago each summer. When the kids got sick, I took off work because the subs were never good enough for her children. When she got sick, you never knew it. There WAS no sick time, because there was always something coming up. In the years here has been endless phone calls into the night and on weekends about the children. We had to use a answering machine so that she never missed a call from a parent. On field trips, she personally made sure that the paperwork was filled out for her children, even if it meant a trip to the child's home. I can't count the times the parent-teacher conferences continued long after the doors should have been closed. She was there early and late, and still had to spend time at home grading papers and planning lessons. I often asked her if she was really Union! She said that everyone she knew, did the same thing. I still don't know how that is allowed, especially when all you hear about unions is that they and the people who support them are the problem! If I brought a box of screws into work every day, and worked on the job when everyone else left for home, I would be looked at as a sucker, and the company would let me go just like anyone else. Some teachers just keep giving! It's the administration that allows the teachers to work the wonders they do. They allow it or not! The parents are the clincher. Whenever parents are involved, the learning process improves dramatically. When parents meet the teachers every day instead of letting the bus driver fill that void, the child understand that the teacher and the parents are more together in what they do. If You pick your kid up each day and Johnny had a bad day, you can be sure you will know about it. If you really mess up but and your teacher wants to give you a chance, he might not tell you the first time, and better gain some trust with the student. I had a teacher that didn't tell on me once. I still love that teacher for giving me a chance. I was good the rest of the year! There needs to be some support for the teachers that say the child must leave her class for good, or until positive change is developed. If all of the teachers can do nothing, the child needs to be removed from the school. This is something that should be able to happen without a superintendent or board action. Teachers advising the principal with solid proof of a problem should be enough for child removal. This is not expulsion, just a disenrolment! When we let the classroom be the charge of the teacher, only then can we judge if the teacher can teach. We cannot allow students to disrupt the class for the teacher or other students either. We need to support the teacher in her chosen course of action! So far the board has no set goal for the teachers but for a high graduation and low crime rate. We need a real goal! We need a testing system that everyone takes. The tests should be at a time best for the child and teachers. The tests need to be published so that all can see the questions and answers, even if each test might only have a sampling of the test questions in it. Currently I am not allowed to see which question my child got right or wrong and what my child put for an answer. There is no check to be sure the grade my child received was even his. Open book tests in subjects that memorization is not realistic should happen a well. We have a problem in this River City. Teachers can help us out! It’s the teacher. Well said!
As a former terror to most of my teachers I know that first hand. It took being married to a teacher and having 2 children each different than the other. I found out what it feels like when there is a fast learner, and one who really couldn’t care if school was closed today forever! I found out what can happen when a principal will not support a new substitute, and what parents from these troubled children can say when a teacher calls home and wants to speak about poor behavior.

I went into this relationship with my teacher/wife with pre-conceived ideas on what a parent should do. In the 30 years my wife has taught in the private and public schools I have learned a lot more than I figured I needed to. I fought with my wife about the supplies and workbooks she bought for her students, and really blew my top when she bought a case of paper and a copy machine because the school was short on the paper budget. We didn’t have vacations, there was the free tutoring in our home, and the courses she took in Chicago each summer. When the kids got sick, I took off work because the subs were never good enough for her children. When she got sick, you never knew it. There WAS no sick time, because there was always something coming up.

In the years here has been endless phone calls into the night and on weekends about the children. We had to use a answering machine so that she never missed a call from a parent. On field trips, she personally made sure that the paperwork was filled out for her children, even if it meant a trip to the child’s home.
I can’t count the times the parent-teacher conferences continued long after the doors should have been closed. She was there early and late, and still had to spend time at home grading papers and planning lessons. I often asked her if she was really Union!
She said that everyone she knew, did the same thing. I still don’t know how that is allowed, especially when all you hear about unions is that they and the people who support them are the problem! If I brought a box of screws into work every day, and worked on the job when everyone else left for home, I would be looked at as a sucker, and the company would let me go just like anyone else. Some teachers just keep giving!

It’s the administration that allows the teachers to work the wonders they do. They allow it or not!

The parents are the clincher. Whenever parents are involved, the learning process improves dramatically. When parents meet the teachers every day instead of letting the bus driver fill that void, the child understand that the teacher and the parents are more together in what they do. If You pick your kid up each day and Johnny had a bad day, you can be sure you will know about it. If you really mess up but and your teacher wants to give you a chance, he might not tell you the first time, and better gain some trust with the student. I had a teacher that didn’t tell on me once. I still love that teacher for giving me a chance. I was good the rest of the year!

There needs to be some support for the teachers that say the child must leave her class for good, or until positive change is developed. If all of the teachers can do nothing, the child needs to be removed from the school. This is something that should be able to happen without a superintendent or board action. Teachers advising the principal with solid proof of a problem should be enough for child removal. This is not expulsion, just a disenrolment!

When we let the classroom be the charge of the teacher, only then can we judge if the teacher can teach. We cannot allow students to disrupt the class for the teacher or other students either. We need to support the teacher in her chosen course of action!

So far the board has no set goal for the teachers but for a high graduation and low crime rate. We need a real goal!

We need a testing system that everyone takes. The tests should be at a time best for the child and teachers. The tests need to be published so that all can see the questions and answers, even if each test might only have a sampling of the test questions in it.
Currently I am not allowed to see which question my child got right or wrong and what my child put for an answer. There is no check to be sure the grade my child received was even his.

Open book tests in subjects that memorization is not realistic should happen a well.

We have a problem in this River City. Teachers can help us out!

]]> By: Penny Coulahan http://rockrivertimes.com/2011/05/11/guest-column-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents-it%e2%80%99s-the-parents/comment-page-1/#comment-2822 Penny Coulahan Sat, 14 May 2011 16:44:20 +0000 http://rockrivertimes.com/?p=30394#comment-2822 I have long been a proponent of hiring and retaining teachers based on the results coming from their students and classrooms. Tenure should not insure a lifetime position just based on years employed in teaching any more than in any other occupation. However, I found it and still find it appaling that, based on the fact that many teachers who were to be tenured on the first day of last year's school year were not afforded that distinction. They were especially vulnerable to losing out if they had achieved masters' degrees, almost certainly distinguishing themselves as higher earners than those with bachelors' degrees, especially once tenured. This, all mapped out by the administration hierarchy this last year, is so topsy-turvy and so unfair to our teachers that it needs to be sorted and readdreessed. When a dedicated teacher spends his or her own time and money to earn advanced degrees in order to excel it should not be cause for being shelved in any case, but should be honored with a clear and honest review. So many injustices have been committed in the name of bettering our school. - all lead by one arrogant administrator - Lavonne Sheffield. Happily, she's gone, and the new administration must hasten to reverse and correct what has damaged our schools and demeaned our teachers. I am not a teacher, but a mother and grandmother who has lived in the district since my own children were in grade school. It means I have a say as both a taxpayer and a member of the "village". I have long been a proponent of hiring and retaining teachers based on the results coming from their students and classrooms. Tenure should not insure a lifetime position just based on years employed in teaching any more than in any other occupation. However, I found it and still find it appaling that, based on the fact that many teachers who were to be tenured on the first day of last year’s school year were not afforded that distinction. They were especially vulnerable to losing out if they had achieved masters’ degrees, almost certainly distinguishing themselves as higher earners than those with bachelors’ degrees, especially once tenured. This, all mapped out by the administration hierarchy this last year, is so topsy-turvy and so unfair to our teachers that it needs to be sorted and readdreessed.
When a dedicated teacher spends his or her own time and money to earn advanced degrees in order to excel it should not be cause for being shelved in any case, but should be honored with a clear and honest review.
So many injustices have been committed in the name of bettering our school. – all lead by one arrogant administrator – Lavonne Sheffield. Happily, she’s gone, and the new administration must hasten to reverse and correct what has damaged our schools and demeaned our teachers. I am not a teacher, but a mother and grandmother who has lived in the district since my own children were in grade school. It means I have a say as both a taxpayer and a member of the “village”.

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