Do you give out your cell phone number to students' parents?

Agreed! Now, if the school or district provided me with a phone, I would have a different answer. I would give out the number. But, I would also put the phone on "Do Not Disturb" at a certain point in the evening / on weekends.

 

No way! They have my email address, and I check my email frequently. They also have my school number. Good enough!

 

Not necessarily! My hubby is on call 2 -4 nights every week and pays for his own phone. Has never even been offered a phone.

 

I don't think parents would "abuse" it...I just want to forget I'm employed entirely when home.

Maybe if I texted (I don't) it would be different, but I HATE talking on the phone with very few exceptions.

I also live in a small town. Several parents have found me on Facebook through friends and messaged me in the evenings and afternoons. A little annoying.

 

Heck No... the teacher who had my 7th graders before me did, and she still gets calls from a parent who just wants to complain. Never, ever, ever.

 

No way. I'm quite a private person (I tell my students very little about my love life or personal life), so calling me on my personal cell phone after school hours just feels like an invasion of privacy to me.....even if I were to have given out the number in the first place.

 

Why so many emails, and how did you handle this? I think eventually you would have to just quit replying.

 

Well, I don't look at my offering my cell phone number as an invitation to discuss my love life! I'm strictly business, I can assure you.

 

I don't own a cell phone. BAM!! Do I win the thread?

 

No idea.

I wasn't allowed to quit replying. Per my admin, she was allowed to ask questions about her child's education.

I replied every few days and responded to several of her questions at once. I CCed my administrator on every single email of mine to her. I told my administration that I felt harassed and preferred that admin handle the parent's incessant emails. In the end, my administration didn't do much to support me. It was a difficult year for me.

 

Well, obviously. I just see my personal cell phone number as something that is private to me and my friends/family, much like info about my personal life. Not for my students' parents. But I do know some coworkers who text parents (and one who texts students! ).

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I've got you marked down as the official winner!

:2up:

 

I've given my cell phone number out to kids I worked with when I was directing the school drama. I only ever had one kid abuse it and I had a strict talk with him and no more problems. I don't give it out now that I'm just teaching though. I don't see a need for it. I check my e-mail ALL THE TIME. Most of my students have an e-mail so that seems sufficient.

 

Not at all. I have a school phone number and voicemail...in addition to email.

 

I teach in a very small, super low-income Title I urban school in a small city. We had classroom phones my first year. They were more trouble than they were worth, since they didn't work half the time, and we were never given instructions for retrieving voice mail. We have a school email, but 1/2 of my parents do not have email addresses - I've checked (this is also why I don't do a classroom blog).

I give my cell number to some parents. I have a few with whom I exchange school-related texts regularly. The only other phone available to us right now (and for the past 4 years) is the office phone - no privacy, and I have to wait till my break to use it. There have been times that I decided to contact mom/dad immediately due to behavioral issues. Without my cell phone, that would have been impossible. Many of my students have to have immediate consequences, good or bad (and I make both kinds of calls/texts), or they are clueless as to why they are being reprimanded or receiving a reward.

Rumor has it that next year, we will have a number that parents can call to leave voice mail, and it will come to our emails. I still haven't heard how we are expected to return the calls, lol.

Oh, and I have never had a parent abuse the privilege of having my number. I actually appreciate it when a mom calls to let me know that Junior is sick!

 

I let parents know that my cell phone number is available by request. About 1/2 request it. I haven't had any problems with it. I plan on continuing with this policy until there are problems.

One large benefit of parents having my cell phone is that they text me instead of calling me. This is really nice as some parents can be rather long winded on the phone, so texting saves a lot of time for me.

 

No way. Parents can call during the school day but I will not answer the phone if I'm teaching a lesson. They can leave a message and I will call them back but I'm not playing phone tag. They know my availability. I get to school early and leave by 4. They can also email me or email the case workers who sit in an office all day and have way more time to talk to them than I have.

 

Like TeacherNY, I also don't answer parent phone calls while teaching. It goes to voicemail and I'll respond during planning. I am teaching and I simply do NOT have time to talk to parents. The calls aren't supposed to be rang through, but...they are! Parents who work in the district bypass the office completely and call me directly. Again, I don't answer.

What I really hate is how the office allows parents to walk into my classroom. Just today, I had a parent come to see a student's project and get a copy of a portion of it. Which is lovely, of course...but I was teaching. I don't understand how it's so difficult to understand about that.

 

I don't answer unexpected phone calls either (except when my daughter was about to pop with my 3rd grandchild ). I do use it to make time-sensitive calls or texts to parents.

 

Texting students is a firing offence over here as is having them as friends on social media.

 

We are allowed to text students as long as it is about educational services, and as long as we report it.

I text drama students to remind them about important deadlines or changes in the rehearsal schedule. They text me with questions about the play. I keep a little log and turn it in according to district policy.

 

We have teachers now who have started classroom facebook pages so that they can interact with the students and parents there about things going on in the classroom. Funny thing about it is that it gives the teacher access to see everything the parent does on Facebook, but allows the teacher to keep his/her personal page private from them. Scary some of the things that parents put up.

 

Weather here in Oklahoma will be awful tomorrow--probably rain and snow--I have a field trip planned. I had four text messages from parents before 8:30 this morning. My parents text me all the time. I get texts about how students will get home from school. I get texts about homework, ballgames, PTO, and all kinds of things.

 

Makes you wonder how schools ever functioned before the invention of the cell phone!

 

This kind of comment is so odd to me. The implication is that as long as schools function we might as well not add anything new to the mix because hey, it worked already right?

I personally think we should do away with mechanical pencils and bring back slates because hey, schools functioned fine before mechanical pencils.

 

Nope. I would absolutely not give out my cell number. I also do no answer email after my contract hours. I may read it and craft a response, but I do not respond until I am back at work.