After DS's miserable first grade, and after he limped through second grade, I tried to keep my hopes in check for third grade.
The first time I spoke with this teacher, after about 2 weeks of school, she commented on how bright he is. Well, thought I, at least she isn't completely clueless.
The second time I spoke with her, about a week later, she said, "oh, he struggles with writing because his brain just moves too fast. His hand will never be able to keep up. Even when he's a stronger writer it will still be frustrating." Hey, thought I, I've been saying that since first grade and everyone ignored me. Is this a ray of sunshine I see?
Then, yesterday, a month into the school year, I called to ask about her plans for the class going forward, now that all the review stuff should be winding down. WOWEEE! She has some great ideas for his reading group, involving long-term research projects. She's going to start pretesting in spelling and let the students who pass choose their own words from their other content areas to learn for the Friday test, and she won't require as many of the rinky-dink vocab workbook pages from them. She's still working out a way to spruce up math, but in the meantime she'll let the early finishers play some kind of math game.
But the best part - what really made me want to reach through the phone and hug her: She is currently taking a class in teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom! Woo hoo and hallelujah!
My hope-o-meter needle just surged into the red zone!
