I really dislike writing report cards....lots of reasons. Not enough time to really express what I want to for each student. Not sure how to express...etc.
The main reason, however, is probably because I feel that I am not writing them for the parents. I am writing them for the Ministry of Education, the School Board, the Administrators (principal, vice-principal), etc.
And, of course, there is the question of how to write them. There is very little clear and accurate direction given about the expectations of report cards. Little consistency from school to school, principal to principal, term to term.
We have a new report card initiative from our ministry. On paper, I like it. Two report cards (plus a fall progress report) instead of three report cards. Language that is supposed to be more parent friendly, more clear about what students are learning, and how they are doing, instead of quoting provincial curriculum expectations and descriptors/qualifiers on their academic level.
In practice, however, they are not turning out so well. We are being told to write them a "new" way but have not been provided with any models on how to do this.
I hope the irony is not lost here. As a teacher, when introducing a new concept, when teaching a new skill to my students, I always model what I expect. Model how to do it, model what it should look like. I model how to write in paragraphs. I model how to use describing words, I model how to interact with others. Modelling what is expected is a cornerstone of good teaching practice. Yet here our Ministry of Education, and our boards, are telling us we need to just use our best judgement to write them, and if the reports are not written the way that they want them written, we will have to re-write them...
The other issue is time. I want to write a personalized, "parent-friendly language" report card for all of my students. As a parent myself, I understand the importance of understanding how my child is doing in school, and what I can do at home to support this learning. But where do I find the time. During the 1-2 weeks of report card writing time I tend to spend over 40 hours outside of school hours writing report cards. And that is the old way, and doing the minimum to get by. I have never happy with them, and wish I had more time to write better ones. I am not willing to sacrifice my time with my own family, with my children. I am tired of hearing "we are teachers, it is what we do" when the topic of all we do on our own time comes up. The more we do on our own time, the more the government, and the boards expect us to do.
