Are teachers pressured into "getting all the curriculum in" instead of getting it all taught well?

[Amy Wright]

I've discovered that far too often our students cannot achieve at the level they should be able to , because teachers are often concentrating on getting all the curriculum taught, instead of taking the time to make sure that the students are even understanding what is being taught. Any thoughts?

[Vic Spencer]

I imagine you are right on. Probably the best improvement would be to increase the school hours, but unfortunately would not advocate additional tax money to help until we see better results in academics and a trimming down of the overhead, especially in central.

[Debi]

I can never log in to the parent portal. It has NEVER worked with me, and I've tried multiple computers. I've been told it's due to traffic volume. I dunno what the problem is.

[Vic Spencer]

Debbi, that's BS. Traffic volume simply slows things to a crawl, but does not prevent login, because login is a higher priority task in a system. If the server is too slow for the application, ask them why they are not doing a performance upgrade? Getting a faster server is very inexpensive today. It is an upgrade that is less than $900, and any organization blows a lot more money than that. Many things give me the impression that KCS lacks even a minimal level of compuer know how in a computer age that we live in. I am 69 and I am doing a similar upgrade as we speak on my network. It is not rocket science, and it has become a very inexpensive thing to do.

[Heather Marshall]

I too had a lot of trouble with the Parent Portal at first and then again when I bought a windows vista lap-top. But, I contacted the technology department (more than once) at [phone]. They are available 6am to 7pm. I now have no more problems. Hope this helps you get on the portal.

[Kim Carideo]

Debi,

Make sure you are using Firefox. This usually fixes any problems. If you still can't log on call the tech number, once one of my accounts just needed to be reset. It took about 2 minutes for the tech person to fix it

.....hope this helps.

[Debi]

Thanks to all. Yes Vic, hubby has a side job of computer networking, he does all those server upgrade thingys. Thanks Heather for the phone no, I'll call it Tues to see if I can get logged in. Kim, I always use Firefox. We have 6 computers in this home (benefits of hubby building computers) and none of them will let me log in. We use Knology cable for internet access. I believe it must be an error somewhere along the way for log in info. To be fair, my daughter went back to her teachers & told them & gave me the response to keep trying, I finally gave up & depend on pen-to-paper contact or email. So the teachers didn't have all the answers but I wouldn't really expect them to. I guess since I've never got to use it/get used to it I haven't missed something I never had. But once I get hooked...

[Amy Wright]

You might find this funny, but the children at our school are not given that much homework. Now, I will be the first to say that I have not always known when my child had homework, but since we have a teacher now that faithfully uses the internet and her class web-site, we know daily what is going on in the classroom.
I've noticed that a few people have commented on the parent portal. I wanted to ask Karen and those that know when that will be available for use to all grade levels. We haven't had the pleasure in the elementary schools to be able to use it yet. We can only access data that doesn't require a login id. Which is quite a bit of information.
By the way, thanks to all of you who have posted here. I think I have received quite a bit of feedback and am grateful for it. I haven't been able to look at all the suggestions for things, but I will eventually get to it. Four children keep me pretty busy.

[Karen Carson]

Debi,
If you go to KNS web site you will find a link to Parent Portal. Click on this and it will help you troubleshoot the problems you are having connecting. If that doesn't work, there is also a link to contact someone for help. I would bet this will fix your difficulty getting on the portal. I also hope (would bet) that it wasn't anyone from the school system parent portal help group that told you the problem was due to traffic volume. Feel free to contact me at [e-mail] if that doesn't help. I think the information available on parent portal is very important in keeping parents informed of their child's progress.

[Vic Spencer]

Karen I would like to thank you for this answer. Folks, here is someone on the Board of Education who stands up to be counted. It is nice to see that.

[Karen Carson]

Sorry for the typo, I meant to say KCS website, www.knoxschools.org

[Debi]

Yes Karen, thank you. Can I get this sort of response with special education issues?