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How Are Parents to Know What Good Teaching Is?

By Ryan Crawley,

24 Jan 2020

Being a classroom teacher is often like trying to manage a slippery slope.

The teacher is constantly being monitored and reviewed by everyone.

Administrators will often drop on by to see not only how the educator is teaching the students, but also how they are keeping proper discipline in the classroom.

Students will always have their own opinions about how the teacher is doing as well.

But perhaps no other group is as vocal and as worried about what is happening in the classroom than the parents of all the students.

I’m not sure if you can remember the days of the past where whatever a teacher said was viewed as law by all.

Students did not question them and parents backed up everything the teacher said.

It was a great time to be an educator as they were genuinely respected by all in the school district.

However, the times have changed.

It seems that teachers now always have to be defending their actions inside and outside the classroom.

Sometimes the teacher brings this upon themselves when they make questionable decisions and overstep their boundaries.

But most times, it is just people wanting to play Monday morning quarterback and second guess the educators in charge of their kids.

The days of teachers working hand in hand with all parents are long over.

Instead of being viewed as a teammate, educators now are often looked at as part of the problem.

From the Outside Looking In It is difficult to determine exactly how a teacher is handling their classroom and instructing their students when you are on the outside looking in.

And if you are a worried parent only receiving bits and pieces of information, then you are never getting the full view of it all so it really can be difficult to form educated opinions.

Listed below are a few of the major concerns that parents have about their child’s teacher and how things may not always be what they seem.

The Teacher Is Being Too Hard on Your Kid The last thing teachers want to do is waste classroom time on dealing with behavior issues.

It is taking away from instructional time and just putting a negative vibe across the whole class.

Unfortunately, knowing how to deal with classroom shenanigans nowadays is as important as knowing how to teach.

Parents need to understand that to keep a classroom of 30 students under control, sometimes you have to be tough with the discipline.

It is not possible to always counsel an individual kid when they are acting up because there is no time to pull them aside in the middle of class.

Instead of lashing out at the teacher when your child receives disciplinary action, you have to assume the teacher was in the right and your child is only telling you half the story.

Meet with the teacher if you are overly concerned and ask how you can help.

Your Child Is Not Learning or Getting Good Grades If I had a dollar for every time a parent came in to ask me why their child was not getting better grades on their report card, I would be a rich man and could retire from teaching altogether.

Not all students will be able to achieve good grades on just working with the teacher in class.

It takes studying at home as well.

All parents need to work with their child every night at home on all subjects to ensure they are understanding the topics being covered in class.

Asking a teacher to ensure that your child receives good grades when they have 29 other kids to worry about as well is a bit much.

Parents have much more one on one time with their own kids than a teacher ever will.

Put that time to good use.

Before Judging Too Quickly With social media so popular and convenient to use, one wrong angry post about an educator can make that person’s life a living hell.

Rather than blindly striking out, work with the teacher to help your child both academically and with their behavior.

If you are not working with your child on their school subjects, then you should be mad at yourself before all others.

It is tough to figure out what good teaching looks like when you are on the outside and only receiving bits and pieces of information.

You have to keep in mind that all teachers went into the field to better the world around them.

I don’t think their agenda has changed much over time.



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