As we wind down this school year my thoughts have been turning to next year. My kids are heading into fifth and third grades, and I'm dreading the annual rigamarole of letting the teachers figure out that my kids are different, meeting them at fall conferences, making vague plans for differentiation, but not really having any concrete feedback on whether my kids are making any significant progress toward any kind of goal. (We attend a public school district that has no G&T program available.)
I like their teachers and their teachers like my kids. I volunteer in the classroom so I'm familiar enough to talk to them about whatever I deem necessary. But I don't like making excessive demands on the teachers, who have a herculean task of getting a large portion of their students up to grade level expectations each year. So unless something is glaring (my math-loving fourth grader crying over his math homework) I don't make waves.
So, I think that maybe if we bring the principal into the conversation, I can get some "big picture" understanding of how my kids should be expected to get through elementary school and beyond? Then I can go into next grade with some kind of a plan to point to, instead of me feeling like I am asking teachers to give special treatment to my little unique snowflakes?
To that end I was hoping I could get some advice on how to approach my meeting with the principal tomorrow. I don't want this to be adversarial -- my hope is that with his more-extensive experience helping kids navigate the educational system, he'll be able to propose some feasible, practical remedies?
I just don't know if I should come in with specific requests or even ultimatums. (Eg. My kids need to be done with leveled readers. They will not grow in their reading skill or their ability to unpack interesting literature if they're not having exposure to novels instead of textbooks.) Should I bring a portfolio of their work and testing results? The principal is really good at getting to know all the kids, and I am pretty sure he knows my son at least. They've had some quirky conversations through the years in the bus line, with DS talking his ear off about classifying cloud formations or gravitational waves or whatever.
So maybe it's overkill to try to "prove" that they're advanced learners.
I just don't know. I'm nervous that I'm about to set myself up with a label of being THAT kind of parent, and I don't even know if I have my husband's support on this (he's been working a lot and we haven't had time to talk much about this stuff.) The only other parent I know who's concerned about this kind of thing is WAY more proactive than me. She's had repeated meetings with her kids' teachers and with the principal and counselor and has gone away unsatisfied and will be changing districts next year. So...yeah. I want to be more laidback than that, but I also can't have my kids slip into the trap of underachieving or perfectionism.
Any help is very welcome!
