Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Writing a letter of introduction to new teacher

my DS LOVED taking these!

Thank you all for saving me from myself and my tendency to over-explain.

I talked to my dd yesterday about writing a letter to her teacher, and she wants to. I think it will be something along the lines of "Dear Mrs. X, I like princesses and candy. I have two cats. I can't wait for first grade. Love, DC" But of course, if she wants to write something else, so be it.

We'll try to write a short letter mentioning a couple of book series (perhaps books dd reads on her own and some books we read together?); mention that she likes ballet, singing and science, and that she can be slow to warm up, but will quickly get over that and be *very* social (I don't know that I'll mention she's likely to do this if she gets bored.)

We'll also mention that we'd love to help, including buying extra supplies for the room, if necessary. Just let us know what's needed.

I think based on the general tone of advice here, I'm not going to mention academics directly at all. The school already has some information on that based on the request we had to make to enroll our daughter in first grade. The principal seemed aware that she'd need differentiation (he was actually the first to use the word in our conversation). During our conversations we also did not mention the words "gifted" or "grade-skip". I'll assume it will be passed on. If it's not, we can address it after a couple of weeks.

I think that the only reference I'll make to age is that dd's birthday is the first week in September, so we'd like to know if there's any arrangements we need to make for that.

I really appreciate the feedback. Venting everything here will allow me to be much more restrained in the actual letter.

Thanks!

Maryann

I think that's great. Especially combined with a little note from the parents. It lets the teacher know that you are invested in child owning her experience at school and you will not be the dreaded helicopter parent. It has the added benefit of letting the teacher know in advance that your child's writing, printing, spelling skills are already at least at grade level, if not higher. My, you are sneaky! I like it!


Personally, I would only include the title of a book I was sure she could easily read and answer questions from. The teacher won't care what level book you are reading to her. Her job is to determine at what level the child should be reading, with good comprehension.


Good call.


Another very good call. We have an extremely supportive principal who for the most part, understood how different our kids were. Even in a community where almost all the kids are *gifted*.
Unfortunately, that didn't always translate to the teachers for various reasons.

But no sense worrying about that now. You could have an excellent teacher who naturally takes care of the situation without any intervention from you.
You'll just have to wait and see.
If you do end up having a problem, keep communicating with parents on this forum. There are a lot of parents who have great success in advocating for their children's needs, who are members of this online community.

Incogneato,

I think that I'm only going to mention that she's enjoying the Fancy Nancy books by Jane O'Connor. Which indicates her interest in things fancy (my daughter loves to wear dresses, etc.) and her reading level (1.9 - 3.2) within a broad range.

The school is good. I'm sure that's because the teachers are good. I know I had good teachers who still didn't know how to deal with me when I was in school, because they had never met anyone like me before. Even in the self-contained gifted class, I was an odd fit.

Thanks again. This place is a great place to see what other people are going through, it helps to be not alone.

Maryann

Maryann, it sounds like you have a great game plan!

I agree with grateful mom! Here's to a fantastic year in 1st for Maryann's DD.

I thought I would quote this so it can be a reminder to myself. So true, so true!!

Done! Dropped the letter off this morning.

I met some other GT parents last week, both their children had this teacher previously and they loved her. They said that she kept trying different interventions throughout the school year (as late as the month that school ended) to improve outcomes. We'll officially meet her on Thursday.

As a side note, their DD, starting 4th grade, seems to be underachieving, so I was able to direct them toward "A Nation Deceived". I'm hoping that the more GT parents are aware of the research, the less I will be "that parent" and the more that everyone will be successful in advocating for our kids. (Then I don't have to be the first person to mention it with a child who is new to the school.)