Post by Tamhugh on Jan 23, 2017 3:31:07 GMT
I need perspective on a situation my DS is having at college. The background is long, so I will try to explain as briefly as possible.
He transferred after his sophomore year because he was changing majors and wanted a fresh start. He ended up pretty far behind, but he hit it hard and has done very well. He thought he had all of his ducks in a row to graduate this past December and applied for student teaching and graduation. They were both approved after an audit of his transcript. He took his Praxis test early in the summer and did very well. Started student teaching. At the end of his second week, he received an email from the director of student teaching, telling him there was an error in his transcript and he had to stop student teaching. The email was fairly nasty, accusing him of starting before he should have. He responded, after speaking to FIL (who was a university president at one point) and received another email accusing him of being a liar, etc. He spent the entire weekend pulling out emails from heads, of depts, etc, approving his situation and had a meeting set-up with the dean and dept head. FIL recommended that DH attend the meeting but to let DS handle it. Monday morning, he had an email from the woman, totally different tone, talking about how she just wanted him to be successful.
At the meeting, they said he needed to take one class that he had missed (foreign language). He pointed out that he was teaching himself and that he had permission to test out of it. They said he was lying. He pulled out emails from 3 separate people at the school approving it. They still refused. He was pulled from student teaching and took the class. Toward the end of the semester, the woman sends him another email telling him that she wants to meet with him because frankly, she is surprised that he is doing so well in an upper level class without having the lower levels. He goes to meet with her, and another student is there. She proceeds to reprimand both of them in front of the other. Argues again that he is lying about his transcripts, etc. He pulls out his folder and shows her everything has been approved by the dept. He thinks it is done. Tonight, she emails him again and tells him that he is missing paperwork and apparently it is another example of his lack of professionalism. He responds and tells her it is all done and that it has been submitted to the dept and to his cooperating school. He mentions politely that he is concerned about her personal comments in this and previous emails since she will be evaluating him. She responds with a 7 paragraph diatribe about how he is unprofessional, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and uncommuncative. She clearly states in the email that she will be holding these issues against him to start the semester and that even if he does well, it will take "several weeks" for her to believe he can do the job.
He is at a loss. He has great grades. He gets along great with all of his professors. When he had this woman in class, she told him his mock lessons were the best in the class. He recently received an email from the head of professional placement telling him that they are impressed with how professionally and maturely he has handled this whole situation. Now the concern is that he will not get a fair evaluation of his student teaching. Is this something he needs to go to the head of the department about before it becomes more of a problem? The funny thing is that the original cooperating teacher that he had told him she had a reputation when he was there for picking one student per semester to harass. I laughed and said, "I guess it is you." He said no, that she was actually doing the same thing to a few others. Uggggghhhh, any advice?
He transferred after his sophomore year because he was changing majors and wanted a fresh start. He ended up pretty far behind, but he hit it hard and has done very well. He thought he had all of his ducks in a row to graduate this past December and applied for student teaching and graduation. They were both approved after an audit of his transcript. He took his Praxis test early in the summer and did very well. Started student teaching. At the end of his second week, he received an email from the director of student teaching, telling him there was an error in his transcript and he had to stop student teaching. The email was fairly nasty, accusing him of starting before he should have. He responded, after speaking to FIL (who was a university president at one point) and received another email accusing him of being a liar, etc. He spent the entire weekend pulling out emails from heads, of depts, etc, approving his situation and had a meeting set-up with the dean and dept head. FIL recommended that DH attend the meeting but to let DS handle it. Monday morning, he had an email from the woman, totally different tone, talking about how she just wanted him to be successful.
At the meeting, they said he needed to take one class that he had missed (foreign language). He pointed out that he was teaching himself and that he had permission to test out of it. They said he was lying. He pulled out emails from 3 separate people at the school approving it. They still refused. He was pulled from student teaching and took the class. Toward the end of the semester, the woman sends him another email telling him that she wants to meet with him because frankly, she is surprised that he is doing so well in an upper level class without having the lower levels. He goes to meet with her, and another student is there. She proceeds to reprimand both of them in front of the other. Argues again that he is lying about his transcripts, etc. He pulls out his folder and shows her everything has been approved by the dept. He thinks it is done. Tonight, she emails him again and tells him that he is missing paperwork and apparently it is another example of his lack of professionalism. He responds and tells her it is all done and that it has been submitted to the dept and to his cooperating school. He mentions politely that he is concerned about her personal comments in this and previous emails since she will be evaluating him. She responds with a 7 paragraph diatribe about how he is unprofessional, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and uncommuncative. She clearly states in the email that she will be holding these issues against him to start the semester and that even if he does well, it will take "several weeks" for her to believe he can do the job.
He is at a loss. He has great grades. He gets along great with all of his professors. When he had this woman in class, she told him his mock lessons were the best in the class. He recently received an email from the head of professional placement telling him that they are impressed with how professionally and maturely he has handled this whole situation. Now the concern is that he will not get a fair evaluation of his student teaching. Is this something he needs to go to the head of the department about before it becomes more of a problem? The funny thing is that the original cooperating teacher that he had told him she had a reputation when he was there for picking one student per semester to harass. I laughed and said, "I guess it is you." He said no, that she was actually doing the same thing to a few others. Uggggghhhh, any advice?
