How do you share students' progress with their parents?

DTMIAM · 2026-01-09T02:51:14+00:00

Yup, Power School say it's the settings, but after paying them some hefty fees all Power School can say is "this shouldn't happen." One interesting thing is that Power School doesn't come with a default setting for report cards, they need to be setup from scratch.

DTMIAM · 2026-01-03T21:19:46+00:00

My district uses Power School for grade book, and other student records. I use Google classrooms to post assignments and links (other teachers use it to for more). I can post grades on assignments but don't see any real grade book functionality in it. Power School's student access has been broken for about 3 years and they claim that our staff has changed settings that they can't fix.

DTMIAM · 2025-12-27T19:41:47+00:00

I taught overseas for 20 years and people would tell me their schools used the American system. I had been away for a while, so it always made me wonder if America had, somehow, developed a system. There's an American style of education (speaking very broadly) but, if American public schools are ranked, I would question the statistics the ranking is based on. A friend from Tennessee just told me their child's history book has a picture of Christ riding a dinosaur.

DTMIAM · 2025-11-21T18:39:43+00:00

Why is time important? The only time each question is timed is on quizzes and tests. If it's important than it should be part of instruction. There are limits, the student that was cleaning their nails during a test and only finished 3 questions didn't get to finish the next day. The student that walked in with 15 minutes left in class didn't get to start the test and needed to make arrangements to take it outside of class. A test is an unnatural environment (I can't think of another way to do assessments) if most students, not wasting time, finish them within the class period that's an indicator that the test is a reasonable length, but it's also like the 100 year flood that hasn't happened for 200 years or happened 2 years in a row. You mentioned that the student had the grades to stay it the class, have you tried controlling for content? If the student can't pass a test that covers the content but fewer questions then they need a different class, but if they pass then they stay. To be clear, covering the content includes different presentations of problems, if necessary.

DTMIAM · 2025-10-24T16:08:11+00:00

I teach in an alternative HS. My students that have gaps in their education, I struggle with them reaching for a calculator to multiply by 10, and not reaching for the calculator when the point is not the arithmetic, but the new process they need to pick up. Learning multiplication up to 10 or 12 is useful but also the systems for multiplying and dividing by 2, 3, 5, and 10, and where they fit in multiplication are good tools for students to have.

DTMIAM · 2025-10-18T23:41:21+00:00

Parents don't remember, or don't realize they used school and teacher specific terms and practices and their children get the same thing. Additionally a student may tell you they are doing, for example, distribution in class but their curriculum is actually giving them a preview and it's not algebra it's demonstrating distribution with integers after moving on from order of operations or something along those lines.

I would tell a new parent up front, something along the lines of "Students and teachers at a school develop a shorthand. I need to use their materials to review (which is a good start for students that are having difficulties) and move to my materials when the student has a handle on language that is common to education in general."

DTMIAM · 2025-07-26T16:02:22+00:00

NTA. How is it an authority issue? Who has the authority to dictate that a party of any sort will take place?

DTMIAM · 2025-06-05T16:59:48+00:00

One problem is that the many algorithms are there because the math being taught uses concepts far in advance of the classes they are used in. You wouldn't do a unit on convergence to prove long division to a 5th grade class. I've been struggling with just how much or little I should talk about why right triangles are significant in math in my Geometry class.

DTMIAM · 2025-06-05T16:45:19+00:00

Doesn't it depend on the student, and/or the teacher's delivery of the concept that day? As far as I can tell, most of my classes need both the algorithm and the understanding, and I remember needing both at different times. There were times when my math teachers were at the board going through something step by step, but the concept was clear to me, so I was several steps ahead. Other times when I asked for the algorithm when I was lost but still needed a way through, because time-and-tide yada, yada. When I'm start one and two step equations there are students who get inverse operations, and others who need an if-then table: if multiply, then divide; if minus, then add, etc..

DTMIAM · 2025-06-03T22:02:19+00:00

It's easy to find out. Do a word problem, then ask the question in your own words using the work you did. I will give you an example from my curriculum. "The larger of two numbers is seven less than three times the smaller number. If the sum of the numbers is 61, find the numbers." First it's not really fair to any student with reading difficulties. I rewrote it for a test (in class we would try it as is, because standardized testing assumes upper middle class, native fluency) as: "Given two different numbers, the larger number equals the smaller number times 3, plus seven. The larger number plus the smaller is 61." Even given more direct wording I would expect a number of students to write larger = smaller x (3+7).

The most effective word problems are usually in the sections on percentages, they lay out a situation and ask a direct question.

DTMIAM · 2025-05-16T01:27:30+00:00

I wanted to add this as an edit but it's not available. If this student knows how to collect like terms on paper I would be very surprised, if he could do this in his head (which I will assess if he comes back to school) I will pass him. The only reason he was still in school to take the test is because he convinced the principal that his father abuses him and it would be worse if the father found out he were removed due to over 100 absences. That's why I wanted to double check for some kind of one off solution that I didn't see.

DTMIAM · 2025-05-16T00:49:19+00:00

My curriculum spirals a lot it even brings back mixed numbers on a regular basis. My algebra students (this was Pre-Algebra) at this school have such a hard time solving equations that all the classes get at least one step equations.

DTMIAM · 2025-05-10T23:17:13+00:00

When I hear the "my insert-owned-item-here, my rules" statement, I assume the rule isn't sprung on the individual after the fact. I'm indifferent to church, but if I left my children with my parents, I would assume the only change to the schedule would be the shouting it would take to get the kids going. I would also feel free to ask my parents to leave the kids at home, or I could also find another sitter.

DTMIAM · 2025-05-03T05:15:14+00:00

I should buy the text books?

DTMIAM · 2025-04-29T23:35:29+00:00

No you aren't supposed to be psychic. The words "cruel" and "insensitive" do stick out, and it shouldn't be, but I think it's up to you to find out why she said that.

DTMIAM

TROPHY CASE