My daughter is in online school. It’s a state public school, not a private school or homeschooling. She’s in it due to being severely bullied. I have to stay home with her, but I don’t actually teach her anything, I’m a designated ‘learning coach.’
She has assignments based on the same shitty Pierson textbooks the regular school kids use and has online classes with accredited teachers. Those teachers are generally get paid better than other public school teachers since the whole thing is a deal with Pierson, so they’re usually a better level of teacher, which is part of what pisses me off so much.
My daughter worked really hard on her science presentation, a slideshow she was assigned to do. The overall topic was humanity’s impact on the environment and one of the options she could pick was disease. My daughter is a weird kid- in a good way- who is into history when it’s weird too, so she picked the Black Death.
Like I said, she worked really hard. I was really proud of her too because it was the first time she worked on a project this big without asking for or needing any help from me. So, she saved the project as a PDF and submitted the assignment.
The next day (Thursday), she gets back a grade of a zero. This is the teacher’s note:
I noticed that you submitted a placeholder for the portfolio assignment. Is this an error? The portfolio is worth a lot…so please contact me as soon as possible. Please note that intentional placeholders are subject to not being accepted. If I don’t hear back from you soon, I will assume that it is a placeholder. Please do not upload placeholders to move ahead in the class as this may result in failing grades, calls home and referral to administration.
My daughter isn’t a cheater and, like I said, she worked really hard. This stressed her out a lot because one of the reasons we took her out of her middle school was that the teachers rarely had her back when it came to bullying and sometimes also treated her like shit. Because that’s what school is like for neurodivergent kids, even in 2024.
So… were totally confused. On top of everything else, the PDF was right there to download when you review the teacher’s message. I sent her an email asking her what the hell is going on and also have my daughter send her a Google Slides link instead just in case there is some corruption issue on her end or something even though I can download and view the PDF just fine.
We don’t hear back all Thursday and nothing until mid-day Friday, when she sent us both what is clearly a form email, ignoring both of the messages we sent:
Hello Parents and Students!
I wanted to take a moment to let you know that your student received a 0 on their science portfolio, but the great news is that there’s still a chance to improve that grade!
Please log into your student’s gradebook and click on the science portfolio grade to read the feedback provided. This feedback outlines how your student can correct any issues and resubmit the portfolio within the timeframe specified for a better grade.
Let’s work together to help your student succeed! Thank you!
She also responds to my daughter’s google slides link and says it’s a very interesting slideshow and asks where she got it from (you will see below why that is just a bullshit lie to get her to reveal that she cheated).
So I have my daughter also send her the PDF the “fill this out to help you with your research” document my daughter diligently filled out before doing her slideshow and I got mad and sent a message to her homeroom teacher, who you’re supposed to go to for any major problems.
My daughter is now super stressed, and Friday is a pretty easy day for her, so I take her out to do things to give her a nice day- get her a smoothie, let her walk around Five Below, etc.
When we get back, maybe at 1 pm, I check my email. I get this from the teacher:
I have to apologize!! When I first saw her portfolio and saw all the old pictures and the Black Death title, I assumed ( I know, I shouldn’t have) it was a placeholder.
She left a similar voicemail to my wife and apparently one to my daughter, but I didn’t read it. I just said thanks and told my daughter to say thanks as well.
But I’m just floored. She didn’t bother just reading the text. This is the slide right after the title slide. If she had taken a few seconds, she would have realized this is a middle schooler doing a science project:
(I’m not suggesting my kid is stupid, I’m saying that’s pretty typical for her age.)
Be a little less lazy than your eighth graders, lady. And maybe don’t automatically assume they’re cheating.
At least she ended up giving my daughter 100%.
It’s a mistake and it’s now corrected and you’ve received an apology. Celebrate the good grade and discuss the importance of perseverance and maintaining your composure when standard communication fails. It’s totally fine to take time to vent when shit goes wrong, then regroup and make a plan to correct the issue. That’s how we learn to deal with difficult situations. Glad it all worked out for her.
This is my take too. Bad situation, and stressful middle part, but reasonably good resolution. How you and your daughter move forward is a good way to refocus your pent up frustration.
I hope the vent helped! It sounds like part of what’s bothering you is that you expected better. That’s reasonable, but I hope you regain some confidence in her school and the teachers. The apology from the teacher is direct, takes responsibility, and restores the grade. That’s pretty good!
They can’t undo the stress from the miscommunication, and they can’t promise it won’t happen again, but the systems for catching these kinds of mistakes seemed to have worked. That’s pretty good too!
(For context only, I’ll add that I have two kids who did online public school during the worst of the pandemic, and are back in person now. We’ve had problems similar to this one in every format, almost every year. So, that doesn’t change anything that you experienced, but I have some idea of how bad it feels, and what it takes to move on. You can do it!!)
I work in public schools and online teaching sucks!! I almost quit so many times during covid! Ridiculous administrative requirements on multiple platforms that don’t talk to each other. It’s nearly impossible to maintain good communication. We currently use one called Parent Square. I have to subscribe to each school that i serve in order to get a notification that someone from that school has messaged me. Subscribing to a school means that I also get every notice about free school lunch sign up, fire drill, Red ribbon week pajama day, etc. I currently serve 13 schools. That means I get 13 emails everyday about shit that means nothing to me. About half the time it sends those twice, so on those days I get 26. This is so I can be notified when I get a message from a parent or teacher - which happens maybe once a month. Online teaching can turn good teachers into sort, delete, reply technicians.
I don’t know if you know anything about Connections Academy, which is what she goes to, but I would be interested in hearing about it if you do.
I don’t, but I have a couple of friends who left traditional schools during covid to go do online schools. I’ll ask around.
Thanks. Let me know if you find anything, but don’t go out of your way. In general, it’s been a good experience and she’s not getting bullied all the time.
I mostly agree.
What isn’t present, and should be, is the teacher addressing how they will be avoiding recreating this situation going forward. How they address for next time is more important to me than an apology.
Ymmv, but to me that’s the part that’s missing. And I get the venting.
They will avoid it. They don’t have to justify it, though.
Then it’s not a full apology.
In any order, but it needs to have all three.
I agree, its only partial.
Ugh reading OPs post made me unreasonably angry, but your comment really is correct. Just hard when you’re steaming mad and frustrated.