Do you communicate with - email - your child’s teachers other than on Parent’s weekend, especially on their individualized comment on grade reports? Thank you for caring my child or etc?
Hmm… good question. We haven’t communicated directly with teachers. We’ve only communicated with her adviser, and with coaches or staff (Dean of Students, Health Center, etc.) as necessary. @doschicos, is that bad manners???
I don’t think it’s bad manners but I would always CC the adviser to keep him/her in the loop as they serve, at many schools, as your first contact point and a consolidator for your child in a way. Over the years, I did have contact via email with a teacher or two regarding my kid/their class. They were always receptive.
Three kids and I always went through their advisors for everything - and that was rare! Like really, really rare!! I don’t think I ever emailed a teacher directly and Parents Weekend ( for me ) was more like a drive- by - meet and greet. Parent of the Year! When the thrill of Parents Weekend wore off, my biggest worry ( if we attended ) was not looking bored out of my mind and keeping PhotoDad in line! But I digress… sorry.
Six years of JBS-SS X Three kids will do that to you. But- I do think it’s always better to run everything past the advisor first because they’ll need to be in the loop anyway and what they don’t know they can find out super fast. I would say to start there and see where it leads you.
If you want to convey thanks… I’d save it for PW.
I emailed on last PW because we couldn’t make it. Perhaps that was enough then. How about thank you note year end? Because I won’t see the same teachers in the next PW.
I suppose there’s never any harm in telling someone something nice, but it’s certainly in no way expected that parents will thank their kids’ teachers. If I see one of my kids’ teachers whose class they particularly enjoy, I’ll make a point of commenting to the teacher how much my kid likes their class. But beyond that and parents’ weekend, I’ve never had any contact with my kids’ teachers at BS. If there was ever a problem with a teacher or the class, that’s my kid’s problem to solve, not mine.
Absolutely. That’s why mine opted for a school far, far away.
We always went through advisors for concerns and they were good about reaching out to teachers. Re thanks, I brought jumbo candy bars to PW to thank teachers who wrote college recs, gave holiday treats to dorm parents, and had kiddo write a personal thank you to each teacher that touched her as a graduation gift - there were a lot!
For the record, I was think about thank you and not expressing concerns, as there is none that I want to get in between.
@SculptorDad Our concerns were about securing a tutor or picking a course or giving some background re our very private daughter and not about criticizing teachers or the school but I hear ya!
I did that too with her counselor before the school started! I don’t think I will be invited to do that for the next year though. I don’t have any new information that the school doesn’t have anyway.
We did have a dud or two for advisors so that’s when I had direct contact with a teacher and cc’ed the advisor. One teacher reached out to me once directly because she knew the advisor was a dud.
Thank you notes are great. I don’t think anyone would object but I think they are more meaningful coming from a student, unless a particular teacher is going above and beyond and doing something helpful beyond the scope of the teacher’s job. For example, one of my kids’ teachers really watched out for my kid away from the teacher role. I made an effort to let her know how much that was appreciated.
Such as a teacher who made mine feel at home by creating a rock climbing club and spending Saturdays taking only a few students to a gym two hours away?
IMO, of course that situation is worthy of a thank you. If more kindnesses like that in life were appreciated and thanked, what a better place this world would be. 
If a teacher or advisor does something especially terrific, sending a note of appreciation to the Head can go a long way. Letting the teacher know you’re grateful is of course good.
For specific concerns (should kid get a tutor), we went directly to the teacher without involving advisor. Really had very few concerns over 4 years that DC couldn’t work out alone, though.
When we interviewed at one school, the interviewer told us a story about another home school dad that was on campus for about a month until he could cut the cord. It was a pretty funny story.
@laenen, lol. It took more than a month for me to cut the cord, still reviewing the school’s curriculum and college strategy. But eventually I got over it. It was hard to get over if after doing it for 8 years.
@SculptorDad – to be honest, I thought of you but I know you live on the other coast
Seriously? You guys communicate with teachers in college? Your kids are okay with that? Doesn’t it reflect bad on them? I thought my job would be done once they turn 18.