<p>My english teacher who agreed to write my recommendation letter in the summer is no longer teaching at the school. She is having family diffculty and not able to fill the rec form for me. However, she already sent school the recommendation letter for me. My GC told me it will be fine to have only one teacher to fill the rec form. Is it right????</p>
<p>I am sure it is fine. Even colleges who have their own forms allow letters or other formats as a substitute.</p>
<p>But if you are truly worried about it, call the admissions office.</p>
<p>I'm worried if the GC thinks it's fine, is it just "fine" for her workload?
Here at CC, we're always aware that some GC's are worth their weight in gold, others overloaded with cases and can't pursue. So this is up to YOU to get the right answer, not rely on the GC entirely.</p>
<p>There are things on a rec form that exceed just the written paragraphs of the letter. There are little check-boxes that compare the student, and you (also your GC) has no idea if the colleges you want has some little point system for those blocks.</p>
<p>The ONLY credible source (not just maybe) is to call the admissions office of the college you're interested in.</p>
<p>If they say they'll only file it if it's on their form, you can then appeal to the GC and report what they said. She can staple the teacher's letter to an official form, and write a cover note for you explaining it all.</p>
<p>Last year our S applied to 8 schools and it's really nuts in late winter when a college writes to you that you "only" have one of the two required letters.
Each school might have a different answer. Deal with it now; you're smart to wonder about it now. G'luck.</p>
<p>Oh wait, I see the teacher already sent the letter to the school. So you might call the college and ask what to do. Could the GC (for example) can just pull out a blank form now, and put on the teacher's name, saying this IS the form for the separate letter they received, but that teacher has left for family reasons. Something like that. </p>
<p>Bottom line: only believe what the college itself says, and do that.</p>
<p>Another approach you might prefer: visit the GC, tell her you're feeling uncertain and you want to make the phone call to the college.<br>
Is that okay with her? </p>
<p>If it troubles her, she'll do it for you. If she's just very busy, she'll say, "Fine, let me know what they said.."</p>
<p>And I figure you really want THAt English teacher's words, right? Because your other option is to just move on to ask a different teacher who's still with the school. But I'm guessing the English teacher cared about you and there was a good bond, so you want her letter to stand. I would, too.</p>
<p>Thanks cmbmom and paying3.</p>
<p>I think I will look for a different teacher.</p>
<p>paying3,</p>
<p>I can feel the GC is very over worked and stressed. Why dont schools pay teachers for rec or charged parents for a fee? A lot of towns pay students to take AP / PSAT tests.</p>
<p>Many teachers do say this expectation that they write recs is very burdensome when they have so many other responsibilities to their classrooms. Teachers get paid a small amount for mentoring a student teacher, or sometimes (not always) for running a club or directing a play. The stipend does take the "sting" out of the extra hours they put in to do something meaningful for education. </p>
<p>I am sure they don't want to charge the families, or it would discriminate against poor families. Every time you wonder about "why don't they pay.." for something you or I would like to see under the school roof, just remember it all comes from somewhere (school board dividing up the available tax money that comes from the homeowners surrounding the school buidling). I guess you didn't want a civics lesson, and I know how busy this year will be for you!!!</p>
<p>Gosh, I've never lived in a town that actually paid students to take AP or PSAT tests, that would be lovely. Here, it worked the opposite; at $75 per AP test, times many tests, it was difficult for students of modest means--taking 4 AP's at once-- to come up with a big check around May of junior year from their parents! Really rough. </p>
<p>A valuable lesson, here, though: you now know that your GC is one of the overworked ones, so do everything you can to work around that problem in the coming year. If you get your stuff to her early, she will love you. If you say "hi" to her in the halls, she'll feel like a human being and won't forget this good feeling about you when it's time to pen a note about what she thinks of you.</p>
<p>Above all, think of her as someone who is processing a million papers so back her up and work as a team to find out all the information. If you can make a call instead of her, figure it'll be done faster that way. Etc.</p>
<p>LOL, my S used to stop his harried, overworked young GC in the halls and ask her, "So how's it going taking care of the entire school..." and she did appreciate it, said he was the only one who ever asked after her and not just himself!</p>
<p>I'd be worried about the rest of the form, so assuming it's a good letter I'd ask that it be included as a supplemental recommendation and have some other teacher do the standard form. Perhaps your GC could include a note explaining that the teacher was unable to fill out the form due to family problems. (If you think she's overworked you can offer to write the note which she would attach to the letter.)</p>
<p>I think you should check with the admissions offices of the colleges to which you'd be sending the letter. A teacher who had you for a full school year, like the teacher who is no longer teaching at your school actually would know more about you perhaps then a teacher still at the school whom you had only known since school started. The ad com should recognize that but just in case, check it out. FYI, in 17 years of teaching no admissions committee or scholarship granting agency has ever called on one of my recommendations to verify that I am a teacher at my high school. I don't mind writing the letters. I do insist that kids give me a resume' though. </p>
<p>paying 3...I teach in CA and we don't get paid to mentor student teachers. In addition, in my district, spending a certain number of hours each year advising clubs, class and other adjunct duties is required under our contract. There is a lot of variance as adjunct duty is something negotiated by our chapter of CTA and I know other districts that do pay people to do things like take gate at football games and chaperone dances. </p>
<p>I'm curious though. Who pays master teachers in New York? the state? the institution granting the credential?</p>
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Who pays master teachers in New York? the state? the institution granting the credential?
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<p>I want to be careful how I say this. As I understand it, in NY, the principal goes to her staff and either appoints or invites teachers who'd be interested in supervising a student teacher the following term. (Principal has control over it, so no teacher of poor skills can sign up to be a Master Teacher, just for the money.) </p>
<p>Then the school district takes the money from the university where the student teacher attends, and that's the money that pays the master teacher.</p>
<p>So, in a sense, the student teacher is paying for her own training, because I'm sure this little transfer fee (from university to school district) is reflected in the grad school tuition paid by the student teachers. The last paragraph here, however, is just my own way of thinking.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure the state is not involved in it, financially, at all --although in they end they are the certifying agency. And the state Department of Ed rakes in all kinds of fees from the student teachers at every turn for applications, test fees, reviews, etc. </p>
<p>Like all those cute "manipulatives" they want the teachers to use, so much comes right out of the young teachers' pockets. (You see my obvious bias! I'm so transparent.)</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying and for all of us teachers out there we say Thanks for your support and bias! :-)</p>