What amount of class communication is normal in elementary?

[mustardseed2007]

I have a question - maybe this doesn't deserve it's own thread but I thought I'd throw it out there because I'm genuinely curious about what the norm is at other schools. Another parent who is new to our school was lamenting that we don't get a weekly newsletter or pictures. I told her that stops after about 1st grade at our school, at least that's been my experience. 


Am I wrong to think that checking your kids assignment planner and occasional emails about projects is a normal amount of communication for higher elementary school grades (think 4th or 5th especially)? Or do most schools have more communication through the end of elementary school? What grade did you stop getting weekly updates form your teachers (if you got them in lower grades but don't get them now).

Does private vs public make a difference here? 

[186momx]

Public school here. We get a Tuesday folder. It holds anything important going on (fundraiser, popcorn day, Scholastic order, old assignments and art if you are lucky). Any other info is usually a blog post on the website from the principle. If you are lucky and have an amazing organized teacher you might get a monthly news letter (we had this in 1st) sent home in the Tuesday folder. I will say the use of Class Dojo or Seesaw has made it so that we sometimes get pictures of Student of the Month, assembly, but these are far and few between. I still remember 1st grade when her teacher sent everyone a dojo message of the owl visit to school.

Last year with virtual we got tons of generic communication from the teacher but very limited individual communication.

I will say I always wished for more info but learned to live with what I got. We had horrible communication in K so I set my expectations off of that.

[k3am]

mustardseed2007 , I was just having this debate with someone who wants "full transparency" on what's going on in the classroom - weekly lesson plans, etc.

I think the pandemic and remote learning at home made parents feel like part of the class, when really, they're not. And it's not supposed to be that way. I would assume those parents have already passed 4th grade, they don't need to know 100% of what's going on in class. One parent on our district FB commented about how much better her child's writing was when she sat next to her and helped her along the way. No shit.

My kinder kid gets a weekly newsletter. It's one page long and really nothing of substance. My third grader has been getting home a weekly flyer. An the first one said.. third grade is where we really start trying to foster independence - they know what their homework is, they are expected to do it with minimal supervision, parents are only expected to make sure it's done.

[sdlaura]

My kids attend a small public school. We get weekly communication for our 2nd and 4th graders, but it tends to be information on what they're learning in each subject rather than pictures or cutesy stuff like we'd get for preschool. Some teachers have some kind of class sharing site - usually a private Shutterfly group - but one of the younger teachers of my friends' 2nd grader has a private instagram account, which I thought was a fun idea. It really seems to vary by teacher.

[erbear]

I do not expect it and I don't think I've gotten it since kindergarten or 1st grade.

As an 8th grade teacher, I do send a weekly update (very short, mostly about what we're doing in social studies and occasionally grade level announcements - I'm the dean). Parents always tell me they appreciate it because their kids tell them nothing

[sandandsea]

We get a weekly newsletter for elementary in public school from kinder through at least 4th. It has a high level schedule for the class, a tidbit of info as to what they’ve been doing and a quick homework summary (read for 30 mins, will have a worksheet on Monday or a project coming up in 3 weeks). I think our school does a good job of Keeping parents informed but not overly detailed.


ETA in a very academic private preschool/preK we got a standard monthly letter that had nothing individualized about our kids, but it was even less than what we get now that they are older in public.

[AdaraMarie]

Monthly newsletter from the principal
Fliers for fundraisers and junk in weekly folder
Dd2's school pto sends a weekly email
Dd2's school sends home completed work and homework assignments, dd1's school sent home no work or homework
At Dd2's school some teachers use the seesaw app and the teachers occasionally send pictures or have the kids post photos or videos of their work but it is not on a daily or weekly basis. Nothing like this at dd1's school.
Dd1's 5th grade teacher sent a monthly page with general info on upcoming units of study.

Both kids went to elementary in the same district but dd1's school was a title 1 school and I think the parents/teachers/PTO had different priorities and budgets

[waverly]

We do get weekly newsletters from the school and also from the teachers. This was normal and continues to be normal throughout the pandemic.

I want a general idea of what’s happening, but I never want to be so involved like elearning. So I have no interest in know much else lol. Public school here.

[steamboat185]

We get a weekly email from the teacher going over what they learned that week and a weekly email from the Principal with general school info. Every week to every few weeks we get a phone call from the principal with important information (we often get told the same stuff 3-4 times, but it’s ok) and then a Friday folder with classwork and important information. My girls are in kindergarten and 3rd.

[mommyatty]

4th grade DD has a daily planner we need to sign. And we get random emails if there is something new happening. Like today we got one saying this week is when they have to start doing their math app and that most kids completed it at school but check with your kid.

2nd grade is about the same. But we generally get things more often.

[librarychica]

Mine go to a large, public, K-8 school. We get a weekly email from the first grade team that sums up what they learned/what we should work on and sporadic notes from the 4th grader’s her home room (they team-teach 4/5 grade here) on what they’re learning along with anything admin has asked be passed along (no fidget toys please, morning run starts next month, that sort of thing.) no photos from either class thoogh they’re all on ClassDojo so maybe they’ll take a couple for special occasions.

That seems pretty normal to me.

[ECB]

I found it to be very teacher dependent. Through ES, DS has some teachers who communicated more than others. But as he got older, it did lessen.

k3am - parents like your friend... head exploding.  As if teachers don't have enough to do already w/o having to send their WEEKLY LESSON PLANS to parents?  WTF???  Whatever communication we did get over the years- it was all pretty high level info

I have a friend who is a mom to 4 kids and the woman... she REALLY needs to do something w/ her life to take some of her focus off her kids.  WIthin a 1/2 hour of getting her kids schedules, she was already emailing the schools asking for schedule changes.  WHY?!?!  She is a control freak.

And I recently found out that she had been sitting in w/ her youngest throughout virtual learning and basically attended her classes with her.  Oh.... I feel for her DDs poor teachers!!  

[polecat8]

In K and 1st, my kids would get a weekly newsletter on what they would be working on for the next week. The elementary school (K-4) gives each student a folder that is filled with any events fliers, assignments, homework, etc. Now that every student has a Chromebook, newsletters are online and parents can view assignments at any time via Canvas and PowerSchool.
The school district has moved to using PeachJar to distribute flyers electronically, but notes from the teacher and permission slips are still in the folders.
Some teachers use Remind, Class Dojo or Class Tag to post pictures from special events. The PTO uses Remind and email to get volunteers and make announcements. The school district uses email, Facebook, Twitter, and robo calls to get info out.

[twinmomma]

Our principal sends a weekly school wide email on Sundays with general updates. He also posts to Twitter, Facebook, and the district app with daily photos, notes, etc. That's more fun stuff.

Classroom communication varies wildly by teacher. We've had regular daily updates, weekly updates, no real updates. The teachers make up their own process for how to communicate and how much. Usually it's via the school website - each class has a page with all kinds of info - or via a class Facebook/Twitter.

[waverly]

I should add we also have assignment notebooks to sign and DD's teachers put the homework on seesaw.

[k3am]

Aug 31, 2021 8:43:29 GMT -5 ECB said:

k3am - parents like your friend... head exploding.  As if teachers don't have enough to do already w/o having to send their WEEKLY LESSON PLANS to parents?  WTF???  Whatever communication we did get over the years- it was all pretty high level info

I should be clear.. this person is not my friend. I don't have patience for people like this, and I have a mouth that gets ahead of me, so I'm down to a very limited friend group. This was our district FB group, and I definitely responded that 1. it's not normal, and 2. even in a normal year, this request is stupid, but especially now... teachers are having to scramble to work out new lesson plans and curriculum because incoming kids aren't at the same grade level they were at pre-pandemic, so everything needs to be reworked.. Don't add something to satisfy parental curiosity onto a teacher's overflowing plate. (Is it obvious that my sister and closest friend are teachers?? And that a good majority of the people that I saw over summer are teachers?)

[erbear]

Aug 31, 2021 10:07:47 GMT -5 k3am said:

Aug 31, 2021 8:43:29 GMT -5 ECB said:

k3am - parents like your friend... head exploding.  As if teachers don't have enough to do already w/o having to send their WEEKLY LESSON PLANS to parents?  WTF???  Whatever communication we did get over the years- it was all pretty high level info

I should be clear.. this person is not my friend. I don't have patience for people like this, and I have a mouth that gets ahead of me, so I'm down to a very limited friend group. This was our district FB group, and I definitely responded that 1. it's not normal, and 2. even in a normal year, this request is stupid, but especially now... teachers are having to scramble to work out new lesson plans and curriculum because incoming kids aren't at the same grade level they were at pre-pandemic, so everything needs to be reworked.. Don't add something to satisfy parental curiosity onto a teacher's overflowing plate. (Is it obvious that my sister and closest friend are teachers?? And that a good majority of the people that I saw over summer are teachers?)

Plus I assume the reason she wants the plans is to complain. Hard pass.

[mae0111]

Small private Catholic school.

- Principal sends out a weekly newsletter with school wide updates, events, and scolding for people that don’t follow the dress code, don’t know how to drop off/pick up, can’t follow the nut-free rules, etc.

- Weekly PTO newsletter with PTO-related info (much of which is repeated from the principal newsletter

- Adhoc school alerts weekl

- Teacher communication is very teacher dependent. 2nd grade teacher would rely on the kids to alert the parents about classroom events, which led to a lot of scrambling and texting among parents. Because who really knows if your 7 year old is telling the truth about pajama day??

- The 3rd grade teacher this year keeps a blog that she updates weekly. It’s pretty awesome. She’s amazing.

- the school has a login-only platform where teachers are supposed to update with all assignments and class plans. It’s about 50/50 if a teacher updates it. As the parent of a kid that is not neurotypical, this was incredibly helpful to me. DD1 did not always write assignments down correctly (or at all) and I could backstop her. I could also look ahead and if she had a test that would be time consuming to prepare for, we could start early. But the teachers hated it.

[waverly]

erbear, good point. It might be legit, but it might also be one of those made up political issues that are hitting the schools right now.

[supertrooper1]

Public school. In primary school K-2, it was teacher dependent. His 2nd grade teacher was the best with weekly emails in addition to the occasional personalized email. Now he's going into the elementary school and they rely on planners. The school also has an app they use for push notifications. The superintendent also sends out weekly emails. The superintendent was new to the district last year and I don't know if COVID played into his weekly emails or if that is his style. Each school also has a very informational website and they use Skyward for things related to the individual child.

[k3am]

erbear, in this specific case, it was a first grade parent, so for ALL of their child's education has most likely sat next to them while their child learned online, so they were able to see 100% of what was going on, smooth out any issues, and know exactly what to work on with them. So they have NO idea how much insight they would normally have into the classroom. And to now have their precious in a classroom setting, without being able to drop in and observe whenever they want is a huge loss of control.

[ECB]

Aug 31, 2021 10:31:12 GMT -5 erbear said:

Aug 31, 2021 10:07:47 GMT -5 k3am said:

I should be clear.. this person is not my friend. I don't have patience for people like this, and I have a mouth that gets ahead of me, so I'm down to a very limited friend group. This was our district FB group, and I definitely responded that 1. it's not normal, and 2. even in a normal year, this request is stupid, but especially now... teachers are having to scramble to work out new lesson plans and curriculum because incoming kids aren't at the same grade level they were at pre-pandemic, so everything needs to be reworked.. Don't add something to satisfy parental curiosity onto a teacher's overflowing plate. (Is it obvious that my sister and closest friend are teachers?? And that a good majority of the people that I saw over summer are teachers?)

Plus I assume the reason she wants the plans is to complain. Hard pass.

100%%  

And k3am, I feel you.  I used the word friend loosely.  I'm friendly with this woman when I see her, but thank god it's not that often.  A lot of what I hear is from another friend who is closer to her.  ANd kind of to your point- it's a good thing because I wouldn't have the patience to listen to her and her complaints.  She is WAY too involved in her kids lives to the point that they aren't going to be able to function on their own/ know how to handle less than ideal situations/ etc.  

She WAY over micro-manages her kids lives. And I truly feel for all their teachers 

[abs]

DD is in 5th. We get the occasional remind and email from administration but very little from her teachers. They do send a weekly folder parents have to sign with graded work in it. At this age it's really up to the kids to relay what is going on. Now I DO expect teachers to be available to answer questions/concerns within a reasonable amount of time (24 hours) and that usually happens. Beyond that I don't need much more at this age.

We haven't gotten weekly emails from teachers since 1st grade.

[mustardseed2007]

In our school we do get a weekly newsletter from the school. It contains a letter from the head of school, any PTA updates and any other school wide things.

In 4th, we can look at the google classroom, and also the kids have a planner (this is school wide 1st through 8th as far as I know) and the kids fill out their homework assignment for the following week on Friday. They also have google classroom we can check and they have emails about big projects. Apparently we will get a syllabus when they send us the open house video (I wish this was a zoom meeting a not a video, that totally sucks).

In Prek-K we got the weekly updates in seesaw and also cute pictures and video. No planner.
1st starts with the planner. We still get updates in seesaw. no cute pictures yet.
Prek-1st grade the teachers also chose to give us their cell numbers, so we could text or call if we were concerned. That is kind of bananas but the classes are really small so I guess whatever they want to do.

Bottom line the amount of communication seems laaaargely normal.

ETA: Our school population increased dramatically this year - much more than last year. So there's a lot of fresh takes on how the school does things. I was kind of surprised to hear this one so I appreciate knowing what other people do.