This is not usually what is recommended but in this kind of situation it worked for me. I asked what they usually do for kids who had surpassed the curriculum (or some other similar characteristic).
Yep, absolutely. It's part of why I don't want to consider pulling out of the school without addressing things, because I know mine aren't the only ones that need something more. It's basically what I want this meeting to accomplish -- I *know* that there have been kids of bright parents, whom I assume were fairly bright, who got through elementary here without imploding.
If the school offers something when pushed, I want to push, and I want to know what it is!
And I want my kids to have peers, so badly. In particular, I would love to see some universal screening done, so that we can catch the kids who *don't* have pushy parents -- since giftedness occurs across the SES spectrum, but I don't think the Spanish-speaking families, for example, are comfortable addressing administration.
I've done what spaghetti suggested this year. Ended up running a math pull out group with five third graders (including my daughter) and my second grade son where I taught them fourth grade math as a volunteer.
And after considerably more deliberation, they actually hired me to teach a weekly half-day GATE pullout for about twenty kids (which is the first time they've ever had one in this district).
For two years I've run a reading group for my daughter's grade in order to help enrich the top readers. Unfortunately they never gave me material more than a half grade ahead to work with, but at least it got the kids together for me to just reinforce that it is COOL to love reading! (They also discontinued the group for the last few months so I could use my time with the struggling kids instead.) Last year I also helped with small groups in math for third grade, for a range of abilities, but it was hard to see who "got it" like my son does when doing worksheets and simple games...the one boy who seemed similar, moved away. But generally, YES. My son doesn't want me to come to school and pull him out for tutoring, but if I can pull out a group he will be ALL for it. And if I could get paid...that hadn't even crossed my mind, honestly, but my husband would certainly support the heck out of that, LOL. Thanks!! I should bring Beast Academy to the principal and see if he'll let me teach that to some kids, how cool would that be.
I've found that it's much more effective at our school to deal directly with the teachers. The administration does not care to address giftedness. THey don't seem to want to acknowledge it at all, probably because of the political situation in our district.
I would ask you if you've noticed any flexibility with your principal in the past or with other families. Is this a principal who is willing to focus on individual children or is he/she more interested in having a well-oiled machine? If your principal is more focused on keeping the faculty happy vs the parents, a conversation may not get you too far. We've had both kinds of principals and that makes all the difference.
I don't see how it could hurt to meet. It could at the very least affect the choice of teacher for your kids. That's maybe the one thing that has been a positive affect of my advocating at our school, that the kids do tend to get placed in classes where the teachers are known for being good at differentiation. I don't think there's a downside to speaking with them, as long as you keep it positive and are sympathetic (or at least appear to be) to the limitations the administration has placed on them by the district.
I've definitely had luck working with teachers, and expect to next year. But that takes time and I'm getting so tired of that lag time trying to get to know the teacher and their classroom schedule. If I could shoot an email early on and say, "So, Principal X says that in the past, Y has worked for motivated learners like my kid. Do you think it's possible to implement Y this year and if so how can I help?"
The principal does invite input to help guide classroom placement every year, and I really think they've tried to put my kids with those types of teachers as I've requested. This year's form is due today which is why I'm instead meeting with the principal today.
I just wanted to do it face-to-face for once.
But my proactive friend who's met with him about this says he's "all talk." I am not sure what to expect.
Emma...I'm trying, LOL.
