DD's older sister had the same class last year and we felt like it could go fine based upon that experience with that teacher.
But this year, it seems the school has decided to switch up things and have teachers "co-teach" on subjects. DD's reading/grammar teacher is now another teacher so she switches rooms for that.
It's a very weird situation because even the recent e-mail to the teacher was from DD's assigned teacher, while DD says the other teacher does all the instruction for reading so somehow the teacher who is actually teaching reading is not even in the loop. I don't even know how to approach her because we didn't know nor were we told that she would be the reading teacher this year. We don't get reports from her or anything. It's very weird.
DD also showed no improvement on the MAZE test for comprehension, actually showed negative growth on that as well.
As for friends, the school put 2 what I would call "manufactured" friends into the classroom so DD would be happy. One who has had speech therapy like DD has and was going for half the year with her and another who lives nearby and rides the bus with DD and coincidentally sits in the same seat as DD. This year is fine for that.
But next year, the middle school is huge. It's over 1300 kids and the school is currently trying to get people to transfer out because they are 300 kids over capacity for the next school year.
Older DD who did very well last year and had great friends has struggled in her classes to make friends because she is in with kids she has never met before and doesn't seem to have much in common with. There are quite a few advanced classes and some kids never get a class with those elementary friends ever again. She has no friends from school this year and it's been hard.
I worry about younger DD because she has been labelled "shy" by her teacher and she doesn't have any girl friends in her class outside of those 2. Without them, I feel she would be right back to being unhappy.
