Lazy teacher?

Applying to College
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<p>I'm applying EA to certain top school and while all my other forms are in (app, supp, transcript, etc), ONE of my two teachers has yet to send in her recommendation.</p>

<p>I know that it has to be postmarked by November 1st, but I'd prefer that it be sent in well before that to avoid any issues.</p>

<p>What should I do? She's had since June to complete the recommendation and I know that she likes me lot (I still see her once a week even though I don't have a class with her anymore), but I'm just worried that she hasn't sent in the recommendation yet...I've given her gentle nudges but she keeps insisting that it WILL be sent in by the 1st</p>

<p>Ideas?</p>

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<p>Send her an email and ask her to let you know when it’s done. Remind her that Nov 1 is this Sunday; she can’t wait until then to send it because it won’t have the right postmark.</p>

<p>In the email, I would diplomatically mention that you gave her the rec request in June. </p>

<p>If you’re truly worried that she’ll “flake”, then let her see that you’ve CC’d the administration. That will get her off her procrastinating rear end.</p>

<p>I like doing this by email, because her response will be a record.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry, but mom2collegekids’s advice is absurd. You have asked your teacher to do an enormous favor for you, and she has promised to have it completed by the deadline. If you don’t trust her enough to keep her word, then you shouldn’t have asked her for a recommendation in the first place. Even if she DOESN’T have it postmarked by November 1st, no school will penalize you for a late submission that you are not directly responsible for. Relax, and stop bothering her.</p>

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<p>Writing recommendations certainly isn’t an “enormous favor”. It’s part of a high school teacher’s job! And waiting till the last minute to get a recommendation in the mail is rude and downright cruel to a student who is, like most, highly anxious about an ED application. I’d send a polite email reminder along the lines of “Just wanted to let you know that with November 1 occurring a Sunday this year, my recommendation letter should be put in the mail by Saturday. Thanks again for all your help.”. However, I do think that cc’ing administration is inappropriate and could very well adversely affect her recommendation.</p>

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<p>When my son applied to a prestigious honors program, he had to have 2 recs - one from a math teacher and one from a science teacher. He gave them to the teachers with plenty of notice (about 8 weeks).</p>

<p>Well, you can imagine how annoyed we were when the university contacted us well after the due date and told us that they had only received one rec. We notified the principal (school was out for spring break, but he was at the school), and he called the university and apologized. He filled out the rec sheet rec that day and faxed it over. He was livid at that teacher for nearly blowing my son’s chances for this awesome opportunity. (BTW…the rec sheet was a rather simple “check the box” and write a statement or two form…not a big time demand.)</p>

<p>For this reason, I suggested the reminder and the request that the student be notified when the rec is sent. </p>

<p>And, I agree…this procrasination is RUDE, and it sets a very bad example to this student. Instead, a teacher’s response upon such a request should be, “this is very important; I’ll do it right away.”</p>

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<p>WishyWashy is absolutely correct. She’s aware of her responsibilities and now it’s time to trust her. Badgering her into producing the letter could, of course, lead to a less than favorable result. </p>

<p>“I know that she likes me lot…”</p>

<p>This may’ve already changed.</p>

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<p>You could send the teacher an email in the form of an inquiry, along the lines of "gee, we just got a notification from X college that they are ready to review my file and that they have received everything for my application except for one of the required teacher recommendations. "</p>

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<p>I don’t know why it’s considered “badgering her” to simply have a last minute reminder. It’s not as if he’s been routinely bothering her. Over the course of the last 4 months, he’s given her a few gentle nudges. It would be different if he was popping his head in her room every other day bugging her.</p>

<p>“I know that she likes me lot…”</p>

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<p>I don’t think this is the case at all. I think this is just a teacher who procrastinates. There are teachers who routinely wait to last-minute for various things - to enter grades for marking periods, to grade papers, etc.</p>

<p>She probably still thinks this kid is a great kid; she’s just a procrastinator.</p>

<p>And, any teacher who gives a bad rec simply because she was reminded after many weeks/months of neglect should be fired.</p>

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<p>This is a problem every year on this forum, so those of you out there who are not yet into the process, learn:</p>

<p>(1) make your initial request early. Asking the end of junior year is not only appropriate…most teachers will appreciate the heads up.</p>

<p>(2) confirm early. First week of senior year, circle back to all those who agreed to write you a rec. “I’d like to confirm that you will be able to write me a recommendation. The earliest due date of the schools I’m applying to is November 1.” This is key. Teachers are human; if they have 16 recs to write, the one (or 10) who gives information regarding the due date will be put to the top of the pile.</p>

<p>(3) one week before the due date, re-confirm. “Mr. Smith, I’d like to follow up one last time, as all pieces of my early decision application to StateU are due to admissions on November 1.”</p>

<p>Note this takes the “badger” out of it. You’ve asked once during junior year, you’ve confirmed early senior year, and you’ve followed up. Look the teach directly in the eye, with a smile, when you speak. This way you avoid the “um, uh, how’s the rec biz going? um, uh, I know you’re busy, um, yeah…”</p>

<p>To the OP, I don’t know if you’re hemming and hawing, but “gentle nudges” don’t seem to be working here. You don’t have to be rude (you don’t appear to be), and it doesn’t mean you’re bothering her or badgering her. She’s human; she procrastinates like many of us.</p>

<p>Look her in the eye, with a smile and a nod, and get your point across.</p>

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<p>I am not a teacher, but I seriously doubt that when a teacher is hired by a school, “writing recommendations for students” is in the contract. Teachers are not paid to write recommendations outside of class hours, just like they aren’t paid overtime to grade papers and tests. </p>

<p>Call me crazy, but I think that calling a teacher a procrastinator because she won’t send in a recommendation to a school weeks early is simply ungrateful.</p>

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<p>UPDATE:</p>

<p>I talked to her today per my dad’s request and she got kind of snappy towards me. She kept reinforcing that she had until November 1st to postmark it and I agreed and tried to remain diplomatic. </p>

<p>We honestly still are friends; I still pop in once a week or so to discuss how the year is going/recent books that we’ve read, etc. She even recommended me for the NCTE contest and I won! I’m just disappointed that she hasn’t completed it, given that she has all summer.</p>

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<p>^^^^</p>

<p>Her reaction is a classic reaction from someone who is a chronic procrastinator. Chronic procrastinators typically call others “nags” and get “snippy” when others are just politely asking when/if something has been done…</p>

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<p>It is unfortunate that your teacher was offended by your valid concern in a matter that could jeopardize your chances of getting into a college. </p>

<p>heyalb’s advice seems solid.</p>

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<p>Frankly, I don’t know if such detailed things such as “write recs” can be found in teachers’ contracts. Maybe such odd things are there. Some teacher contracts include such things as: “must chaperone 3 school events per year.”</p>

<p>But…regardless of whether such a detail is written in their contracts. If unions didn’t want/expect their members to do this commonly requested action, such things would be specifically forbidden in their contracts. Writing recs may come under the umbrella of what teachers are to use their planning periods for. I don’t know.</p>

<p>Frankly, I think unions should come up with some basic “check the box form” and contractually say this is the only teacher rec form that our teachers are allowed to use since these forms take very little time to do. The colleges would just have to accept that or get rid of the idea of teacher recs.</p>

<p>This teacher has been given months to do this. If she were to become ill or have some kind of family emergency within the next few days, she would not complete the rec on time. However, if she gave an assignment months in advance, and her students procrastinated until the last few days and then got sick, she’d have no sympathy that they missed the deadline. That is why this teacher should not have procrastinated. It sets a bad example.</p>

<p>If this was my last child at this school, after this child graduates and final transcripts were sent (so no retribution possible), I would confront this teacher and let her principal know how she behaved.</p>

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<p>One of my teachers waited until the yesterday to submit my EA rec for the common app, and I don’t know about my other common app recs. The other submitted just a few days after I asked her. I asked both of them in early September and gave them a really nice package, with a typed chart of each college and the deadline was, which major I was considering, my resum</p>

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<p>“I talked to her today per my dad’s request and she got kind of snappy towards me.”</p>

<p>As I predicted. Sorry, my friend.</p>

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<p>Better to have asked her to make sure she was aware of the Nov 1st date and to put a little fire under her then to figure she might get around to doing and find out that she didn’t or forgot. She set herself up for this situation.</p>

<p>Also, regardless of what is in a teachers contract or not, the teacher never had to say yes to writing the rec and I find it rude for a teacher to tell someone they would write a rec months ago and wait to the very last minute to do it considering how much time has elapsed from when you first asked her. All over the common application it states implicitly that the student needs to make sure they follow through and make sure their counselor and their teacher recs are done. </p>

<p>There is a reason the common application states this. This is common and happens all the time. It puts the student in a very bad position. If I were the teacher and had let all this time go by and had not written the rec, I would be embarrassed and would hate appearing as having forgot and or not putting it higher up on my to do list. </p>

<p>The student in this situation is at the mercy of the adult, who has just set a bad example. Obviously this person did not know that this teacher would wait to the very last day or two to write the darn thing and what oh what if the teacher did forget and did not get it in. </p>

<p>This teacher should not wait to the last minute and if they did, then they should not be shocked or think it rude of a student for being responsible by asking.</p>

<p>This is not like we are talking about something minor here. This could be the difference between getting into a great school and missing that opportunity.</p>

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<p>Exactly.</p>

<p>If this student had not reminded her and she had forgotten, believe me this (fill in the blank) would have said, “It was your responsibiltiy to remind me and to ask about it.”</p>

<p>That’s why as a parent, if I had no more kids at this school, I would confront her next July or so (after final transcripts have been sent) and lay this whole thing out to her and her principal.</p>

<p>Honestly, too many schools get away with crap because students and parents fear retribution. Well, wait til your last child graduates and transcripts are sent, and let them know exactly what BS stunts they pulled.</p>

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<p>Exactly! If she wasn’t going to do it or didn’t want to do it, she never should have agreed to do it.</p>

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<p>And schools take advantage of this all the time. The crap they pull/say to kids are things they would NEVER say or do if another adult or parent was present. Students are vulnerable and they know it.</p>

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<p>mom2collegekids,</p>

<p>I agree with you wholeheartedly. </p>

<p>I appreciate all the wonderful teachers out there and there are many. But, children look up to their teachers and what they do. Again, this teacher set themself up and then had the nerve to tell the student to stop pestering them. Geez. </p>

<p>What are we teaching kids? Should the student not have checked? Who wouldn’t have checked when we are less than three days away from the post mark date and the student knows the rec is not done yet???</p>

<p>I also think there are unwritten duties in every job and if you are going to teach high school level classes, then you should expect to do college rec’s. Of course the teacher can say no, but it is one of those understood things about being a high school teacher. I am so sick and tired of people saying something isn’t in their job scrip blah, blah, blah…I am a very liberal person, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>I, too, certainly appreciate all the wonderful teachers out there. :)</p>

<p>But, there are some who’ve abused their positions. They will say or do nonsense things to kids fully knowing that the kid can’t speak up and tell them that their words/actions are BS. In this case, I am almost certain that if this teacher were to have forgotten to do the rec, she would have said, “you should have reminded me.” (and she would have done it with a straight face EVEN if she had been snippy to another student for reminding her about another rec!)</p>

<p>For that reason, some teachers need to be “called on the carpet” when they can no longer put forth any retribution. They need to be told: This is what happened, this is what you did/said, and this is why that was so wrong. Their superiors also need to be told. Put it in writing and submit it.</p>

<p>When my last son graduated, we told our principal that we loved a long list of teachers (by name), but we also let him know of specific instances and details of when a couple of “bratty teachers” did some inappropriate things on NUMEROUS occasions. The principal was shocked and wondered why we didn’t tell him earlier. We said that we knew these two would cause problems for our children, so we waited until final transcripts had been sent for our last child (we checked first…LOL)</p>