thanks so much for the supportive comments and the insight.
acs: I think you are right about seeing the whole story and what's behind the teacher, so to speak. I didn't find out until the end of the school year that this teacher had been teaching special education for 13 years before she transitioned into a regular education classroom. I'm not sure how long she's been teaching regular education. The parent of a child I know who spends the first half of his day in a self-contained classroom just raves about Ms. T and how she is such a great teacher and so wonderful for her child. But she also only worked him for half the day. She wasn't even teaching him the core subjects of math and reading/language - so I'm not sure what was so wonderful about.
I don't know if it was just a personality mismatch, perhaps she's a little burned out in teaching, perhaps she was overwhelmed with the class size (28 kids - but split for math/reading instruction) or she's just not knowledgeable about gifted kids. But she seemed to pretty much ignore my son the whole school year. My son's responses on the questionnaire taught me to trust my gut more consistently. My husband had the same gut feeling. But we let it slide. Not that there was much we could do - except maybe talk to her more or discuss it with the principal. I just know that I plan on being more proactive in the upcoming year and more involved.
And I'm even more sure that we're doing the right thing by having DS tested again and getting some help with advocacy and understanding his needs better. And I'm really glad you guys are here so I can vent and bounce ideas around!
