We had our "transition" meeting today, with DS8's school team. We've added a couple of new members, the middle school / high school principal and the MS/HS GT coordinator who will also be his math teacher next year.

I wasn't holding out any great hope for the principal, as DH has had some run-ins with her on another issue (involving DI) and she's sent some truly horrific emails. She does not come across as a warm and fuzzy lady, for sure, but she did ask some good questions and come up with some good answers and took a lot of notes. And then there was one response that told me she "gets it", that I had to laugh at.

We were discussing the fact that one big thing we want out of this MS math class is to teach DS how to have homework -- he really hasn't had much of that in three years of elementary, because he is always done with everything. The teacher said she assigns the homework at the end of the class each day. And principal looks at her and says, "But you write it on the board before the class?" I almost died laughing. I can just see DS (as I always did) looking at the assignment on the board and zoning out on the class to do the homework! Teacher says she doesn't write it until the end of the class, so we won't have to worry about that.

I just hope that 6th grade math with this teacher will be in-depth enough to keep him occupied, since he's almost done with 7th grade math on ALEKS. Actually he's been almost done with that for several months, as he really burned out on it and math in general after going through 3rd to 7th in ALEKS this school year. I know that he probably doesn't have the depth that the class should go into, though, so hopefully it will work ok.

Congrats on making headway! I'm so glad you seem to be seeing your advocacy pay off for your DS! That's great to hear the example that shows that the principal might be starting to get it -- always a good sign!

Great news Nautigal!
What else was decided?
Did you send an email that clarified 'what you heard them agree to?'

Always best to have a paper trail, everyone's memory get's fuzzy after several weeks go by.

It doesn't have to be confrontational, just sort of "Great Meeting, thanks so much! I'd appreciate it so much if you would read my notes over and point out any misunderstandings I might have received at such a long and detailed meeting. All that detail really shows the greatness of your commitment to teaching, and I really appreciate it."

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Oh yeah, they always have copious notes and everything goes into his ALP binder with copies to us. We don't have any trouble with that!

This was our first meeting that involved the MS/HS principal, as it's all been in elementary till now. There are bad stories about her from all over, but I do have that glimmering of hope that she will be ok. I hope we won't have to deal with her at all next year -- she should really only be involved if there is a problem in the classroom, but DS has been known to cause problems! *fingers crossed*

The rest of it was about passing the torch from 3rd grade teacher to 4th grade teacher, things that have been learned about working with him, how to handle this and that, and stuff like that. Seat him where he can get up and move and not be trapped, give him fair warning when changing tracks (but don't give the timer to him or he'll keep resetting it), let him give presentations to the class, and so on. 4th grade teacher was his DI team leader last year, so she knows him already. They always pass him to someone who knows him and wants him instead of foisting him off on some unsuspecting newbie.