I need some true honest opinions please

United States
March 13, 2007 12:41pm CST
Below is a copy of email that I sent to one of my son's online teachers. It seems to me that since the beginning of the year she and I just don't understand what the other is saying. So I tried to be civil and write out very clearly what the problem and possible solutions were from my end. She responded saying that I attacked her and treated her like a child. I am torn right now part of me thinks that perhaps I was a little aggressiveand do actually owe her an apology the other half feels that I was just trying to speak as plain and clear as I could so the situation could be resolved. Please tell me what you honestly think, do I owe her an apology was I truly out of line. What is your opinion? Ms. ____ I am going to honest with you I am very upset that we continue to do this circle, I feel that we are both educated intelligent people and it just shouldn't be this hard to communicate and understand what the other is saying. Perhaps there is some kind of miscommunication as to how Odyssey Ware works on your end and how it works on the students end. This is the only way I can try to explain it. When you zero out an assignment the student cannot then work on those assignments. According to the OW those assignments have now been completed and graded. Tyler cannot go in and redo any of the assignments for a higher grade. So as of right now at 8:20 pm Tyler has seven (7) assignments that have a grade of zero. He is now yet another day behind in _____ class. What I need to know is if Tyler should just continue on in _____ and accept the grades that have been given him or if you are going to un-grade those assignments and give him the opportunity to get an appropriate grade. Katherine
1 person likes this
6 responses
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
13 Mar 07
I see nothing wrong with your letter and I would not apologize. In fact, it the issue is not resolved, go over her head. He should have the opportunity to catch up. You did not attack her and it really doesn't matter, she should take care of it. She should have, without responding to you.
2 people like this
• United States
13 Mar 07
Thankfully she did reasign those assigments last night at almost 10pm. So my son worked on them today.
• United States
13 Mar 07
I don't think you owe any apology!! Maybe you should take this matter up with the principal.
2 people like this
• United States
13 Mar 07
Thank you for responding. Believe me that is the other thought in my head that maybe I should make some type of formal complaint. I just don't want to be looked at as one of those crazy moms.
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
13 Mar 07
I think your email was completely appropriate, considerate and clearly worded. It seems to me that this teacher has a chip on her shoulder. Is it possible for you to speak to someone else, possibly her superior? Your son's education is so important (as I'm sure you know). You are right to try to continue to resolve issues with the school and their system of grading. Good luck to you. I hope you get some results soon!
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Mar 07
I must admit that I am feeling very encouraged that so far no one thinks I was overly rude or treated her unfairly. I just talked to another parent and apparently there is a group that is sending in a formal letter to the school so I will probly join in on this.
@raveena (1353)
• India
14 Mar 07
I really do not think that you owe an apology. Your child is your priority. There was nothing wrong in your mail. I feel you should complain to her higher ups.
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
13 Mar 07
Is there some reason that he isn't getting the assignments in a timely manner? If that is not the case, than I'd say you have responded in a calm, intellegent way & if she doesn't respond reasonably, perhaps its time to go over her head.
1 person likes this
• United States
14 Mar 07
Yes several of his teachers gave him a by-week to study for the CSAP tests, because so much depends on the results of these tests not only for the students but the school as well. Like a goof instead of double checking with every teacher he just went ahead and studied really hard. So it was his fault to a degree, but it really came down to yet again another miscommunication dealing with this teacher.
@chaddik (113)
• Philippines
14 Mar 07
no, you don't owe her any apology. you were just as clear and objective as you wanted to be and how the teacher took it depended on how mature she was. if the email offended her, she could have replied to it in a more mature way and asked sensible questions or elaborations than blatantly taking it personally than professionally.