Do your kids' teachers have individual email addresses?

[zajzaj]

Are you able to contact your kids' teachers by email?

sturdyoak I use technology a great deal but it doesn't really help me to mount children's work for display, it doesn't help me do playground duty five days a week, it doesn't shorten the time I am interacting with the pupils, it does help me to check blood sugar levels & administer insulin to my diabetic pupil but it adds additional minutes to my list of things to do, it doesn't wash up paint pots or clean the easel, it doesn't make playdough, it doesn't shorten the length of time I spend on a lunch time leading interventions, it doesn't replace me when delivering speech therapy also during my lunch break, it doesn't allow me to attend meetings and deliver training while reading and replying to parents emails strangely not all our parents have the internet (can't afford it) so they prefer face to face multi agency meetings ... in fact technology doesn't free up any more time at all!

It can allow someone to attend a real meeting, who couldn't have made it otherwise because they are not in the local area that day (through something like face time for example). You just sit the i-pad on the meeting table. My husband has used it to attend meetings, whilst not being there in person, pretty successfully.

So technology can help a person attend meetings. A professional from another agency could 'attend' a meeting at school, like this, for example. It might mean meeting dates could be brought forward.

Sorry sturdyoak but I don't think you've thought this through ... how will me sitting a i-pad on the table for a meeting save me time ...presumably you do realise I still have to take time to engage with the people via the i-pad ... the same amount of time as I would spend if they were in the room with me

Sturdyoak thinks that we've got ipads .... hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

I've only just got a visualiser... but it crashes the laptop and the IT guy (who comes just once a fortnight) can't work out why.
My SMARTboard needs re-orientating 4 times a day otherwise it's near useless.
My projector is on its last legs and the colour contrast is shot.

And you think we have ipads?

At the school I teach in, all staff email addresses are made known to parents at the beginning of the year. You do get some annoying parents who email four times a week to say that Johnny has lost his blazer/was away on Wednesday and could you please forward his Maths homework, but most parents don't take the piss and only email if it's something important.

I usually reply to emails the day that I receive them (only after school though, I'm too busy during the day), or the day after if I'm busy or I need to think carefully about my response.

Most of our parents work full time and many don't do pick-up or drop-off themselves, and anyway they can only come past reception if they have an appointment, so finding me to speak to in person would be more hassle than it's worth.

I don't mind parents emailing on the whole, and I find it a really useful way to contact them about issues like homework that hasn't been handed in. Much less time-consuming to send a three line email than make a phone call or arrange a face-to-face meeting.

she also thinks we are technophobes or technoilliterate rather than time starved!

Mrz The time saved is through being able to get all the people together more easily. You don't have to wait so much for a convenient time, you can seek professional advise in a meeting more readily.

Ihatespiders Lots of schools do have i-pads.

Getting all the people together isn't a problem sturdyoak ...far from it

mrz I never said anything of the sort. I asked a couple of questions. People can make up their own ideas concerning that, now can't they?

mrz

Getting all the people together isn't a problem sturdyoak ...far from it

Oh, you surprise me. You manage to organise many a multi agency meeting, within a limited time frame, quite swimmingly do you? No weeks spent trying chase people on the phone to arrange meetings?

However seeking urgent professional advice is another thing altogether because the paediatrician only works certain days or the social workers are on "stop the clock" or the SaLT is on leave (or worse still left) ....

No sturdyoak I don't spend weeks chasing people on the phone to arrange meetings ...I email!

mrz So virtual meetings, using for an example an i-pad, could help possibly in getting these people together. They can squeeze more meetings in to the day without having to travel so much. The paed for example could fit you in before another appointment across town.

So you do use e-mail mrz? How would you feel if they took weeks to answer?

No sturdyoak virtual meetings could not help to get these people together ... there isn't a problem getting them together for a meeting ... using virtual meetings would not take any less time than a real meeting so would not save time in my school day. The paed can't fit me in because they aren't there to talk to me because they only work certain days so unavailable to answer my urgent question ...either on the phone or via ipad.

yes I use emails as I said pages back but I do not check or reply to emails during the school day for the reasons I have given ... I reply when I get home AFTER school in my own time ... if other professionals didn't get back to me immediately I would assume they are busy doing their job and will answer ASAP.

and no I don't have a school ipad and it seems that non of those I have meetings with carry one around ... lots of pens and paper and old fashioned diaries in evidence.

At our school, all teachers have separate email addresses, but they aren't given out to parents - not are they expected to be.
What happens is that all emails come in to the office, then the secretary forwards them to whoever they are for.

I only have time to check my email at 4pm each day.

Before school I have a meeting (mon), playtime duty or prep to do for the assemblies etc (I'm the lucky one who gets to play the piano daily in the hall).

Playtime is spent quickly sorting out things from the previous lesson, or getting stuff ready for the next - if I'm not on duty.

Lunchtime, we take the chilren into the hall for their dinners and then grab a quick break for our own lunch. Then it's back to getting stuff ready for the afternoon or marking work from the morning. One day a week I have a recorder club for 25 mins.

After school I have a gate duty, a staff meeting and a planning meeting.

We can't access email at home. And we can only access it at school if we can use a computer that's logged in as me. When I'm on PPA, I'm not in my room at my computer as someone else is teaching my class in there.

There are many, many day that I do indeed get home to realise I've not managed a bathroom break that day - never mind time to sit and read my emails.

Along with emails comes the expectation that we have received the message and have time to deal with it.

I answer the Head's emails at the weekend, 13 so far today!!

I'm feeling neglected only 11 school related emails ...all read and answered

I had one email this weekend, work emails synced to my phone.

I answered I between vomiting

Virtual multi-agency meetings require everybody having the right piece of kit in the right place. DSis works in SLT. The idea that they all carry round iPads and can log into a quick meeting between driving round different schools is actually quite laughable. They don't even have a computer each in the office, there's about 15 between 20 of them. If they all happen to be in at the same time it's chaos.

It's a lovely idea that it could happen, buts it's just not reality when these are council/NHS employees.

Yes, thank heavens. Notes in book bag only work if your child can remember to take note out of book bag and give to teacher!

Ds has huge organisational problems. I gave him a note on Friday morning to give to his teacher about a forthcoming trip that he is keen to go on. I reminded him as he got out of the car and went into school. Unfortunately by the time he got to his classroom 2 hours later he had completely forgotten. I only found out today and the trip is this week so I emailed his form teacher who replied (didn't expect him to reply at a weekend).

I'm a primary teacher. At my school we all have individual emails but they aren't given out to the parents.

I consider myself quite it literate and use emails regularly both personally and professionally.

I can see both sides- I find email a really handy way of communicating with someone and some days I do have the chance to quickly check my emails on my phone during break or lunch/ before or after school.

However, my reservations are that there are some days when I really don't have time. If a parent has something urgent that I need to know that day then there is a 50/50 chance that I won't read the email until well after the school day so it is useless.

At our school, the parents can email the office for something we need to know and we are lucky that we have fab office staff who are really on the ball with passing messages on.

As for needing to tell me something such as an online homework not loading, well... Yes, in some ways it would be handy to know that so I could put it right immediately, however if that situation happened to me this weekend then there wouldn't have been much I could have done about it as I was having a fun weekend away with friends. Chances are I wouldnt have done anything about it until this evening or possibly Monday, so the email would have been redundant.

Not sure if I've clarified anything, just trying to share my perspective.

Mrz I didn't mean during class hours, I meant before or after school starts. I completely get not having time during the school day.