My son had a truly wonderful 1st grade teacher who was wonderful because she realized she could not help him very much! He was so far beyond the rest of her class and her comfort zone that she basically forced the principal to agree to a skip mid-year. The principal was hesitant for a host of reasons, none that related specifically to my DS. This teacher just pushed and pushed until she got her way!
And thank goodness she did- he skipped into a stunning 2nd grade class where the teacher was a master at differentiation, actually used OEs once in a parent discussion as the explanation for why her class looks so weird. She had kids standing, sitting exercise balls, laying on the floor- whatever they wanted. But they were each challenged, learned fabulous things about school, life and themselves as humans. She had private goal setting conferences with them weekly, worked with them on individual projects and expanding their "portfolios of work".
I'm bitter this year because my DS's teacher is very much like "So? What do you want me to do? I teach 3rd grade not 6th." Blech!
I miss his last teacher so much, and so does he! But that gave us hope that there are others out there!
