Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy new teacher for 1st grade and to gifted program.

Hi everyone,
My son Dev is in a self contained class in 1st grade.The teacher is new to gifted program, has no certification in this program, was a prevoius 3rd grade teacher.
We were expecting the curriculum be on track by now, since we started in end of july.But we don;t c him challenged enough. he gets bored at school, is doing what he did when he was 4!.
We don't know what to do now?
pull him out or wait n give the teacher some more time to pick up speed.
Any help/ advice/ tips is highly appreciated.........
Pls do help us..
NSG

Hi Niti,

First, talk to the teacher. Listen to his/her plans and explain where your son is in different subjects and that he needs more advanced material. Even in a self-contained gifted class, not all the children will be at the same levels. Working in groups might be a good strategy (ask if there are other kids who read or do math at those levels and see if they can work separately or as a group at their level).

If the teacher is not responsive, I would probably talk to the head of the gifted program or the principal.

Good luck!

Hi CYm,
Thanks for the response. We talked to the teacher , the hod of gifted. they say they r aware of this situation n r working towards it, but we c no results.
Most kids r at diff level in math n lang
.
all parents have the same concerns.. i teach him as much as i can at home, but the 8 hrs in school is where he needs to learn more of it.
appreciate ur advice.
thanks
niti

What other school options do you have?

Yes, this is hard.

I spent a fair amount of time investigating school options over the last 1-2 years, and I had a hard time finding anything else that fit our needs. I wanted something that wasn't JUST academics and acceleration, but focused on the critical thinking. While this program was supposed to be that, it is not going to be what I was really looking for. My case is a bit different, but for us, I don't know another option. At a bare minimum my child is in a class with other similar kids, and I'm hoping we can affect positive change over time.
The 'traditional' schools, I didn't think would be a good fit, and looking at the public classrooms, we would be in serious trouble if we were in there.

Suggestions I have...

- Start with identifying one specific area of issue, and start by getting a specific time frame for resolution. Offer suggestions and solutions for that one particular area. If it is math, for example... suggestions would include...
2nd grade math book, 2nd grade cats pull-out for math, an in-class math project he can work on, ALEKS? has been used by many kids...

- Work it from a different angle. He gets homework... modify the assignment, so that it reflects what he is capable of. Send in books at his level that he wants to read for free reading, with a note saying he is reading this book currently and wants to have it available for silent reading. For computer special, send in suggestions of websites at his level, other than starfall (which is all I've heard about so far). I plan on doing this, since I know this was one area she wanted help on. The site below, for example, I think is a great site for the kids, since it really involves critical thinking, experimenting, scientific approach, etc.

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

- Begin a paper trail.

- When she opens it to volunteers, try to get in the classroom. That will give you a clearer idea of what is happening and what isn't. Part of my issue, is the level of communication isn't there, so I can't even make a fair assessment as to what is occuring, where there are issues for my child, etc.


I'm hoping someone that is better at advocating than I am can give you some more advice. I've been giving the teacher time, since we are not in the 'disaster' mode of that first week. I recognize this is a hard situation for everyone involved, including the instructor. (Just being in a roomful of gifted kids with their OE's can be an eyeopening experience) I will be contacting her, though, b/c I need to validate how she has assessed my child versus where I believe my child is at, and I want a paper trail started. The tricky part with gifted kids is they can be very asynchronous and can hide what they know.

I'm having the same problem in my son's second grade class. It's a regular class of high achievers and there are three kids identified as gifted. So far the teacher isn't taking responsibility for matching the curriculum to the kids' levels.

I ordered a copy of Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom by Susan Winebrenner. Hoping there are some ideas in the book that we can put to use!

Unfortunately, I've found this kind of thing at our school also. It seems the first two weeks of school the kids bring home stuff from 1-2 years prior.

I blame NCLB. Because I see this happen uniformly at all grade levels with all teachers, I assume it's some process they have enacted to catch any kids that haven't achieved proficiency at those levels.

Wait a little( but just a little ) And if you do approach the teacher, start off slow; play nice.

You can always get more aggressive later. But teacher's are pretty touchy, especially the first month of school.

Good luck.

NSG -
8 hours of school per day? That is a long day!
Can you bring him home after lunch twice a week so he can 'really learn' a few times a week, and still keep trying to get school to work? You can make something up, like there has been a lot of stress/sick relative/music lessons/acting in commercials/whatever so you feel that 8 hours is too long of a day for him right now.

I do think that if he isn't flat out exhausted, then it's really important to have expectations of scheduled work at his own readiness level, so that he gets in the habit of working hard, even if it is 10 minutes a day.

Maybe he'd be better off in the self contained class for 2nd graders? Best way to know is to observe the various options yourself. There certianly is a range of giftedness, just like there is a range of normally developing kids - Assuming for this argument that you can really acuratly measure any child's IQ, would you expect a kid with a 85 IQ to need the same learning environment and output expectations as a kid with a 120 IQ?

So yeah, I would look into seeing what the 2nd graders are doing...
Good luck,
Grinity

HI all,
thanks for all the response.
We did most of these things. we spoke with the teacher. I gave her the previous year"s levels he was at. He is reading at Grd 5-6, math at 3-4.
We asked her his levels, what she was going to do, how will she approach teh curriculum.
She told me what she was doing, trying to get all things togheter after 4 weeks in school.
She had some good ideas for reading and writing, but those suggestins were what we knew, nothing new. Instead his old teacher , in amontessori who knew he was gifted, has n had better ideas,
previously, evything she did wastheme based, Rainforest, Solar system, Japan, egypt, Etc
The old teacher even told me let the new teacher know, if she needs help to call her.
All these suggestins made by us(very nicely) looked like went to deaf ears.
The Director of the prgm n the teacher told us , they r aware of the problems n r owrking towards it.but I see no resulkts even after 2 weeks of that meeting.
For math the teacher's suggestion was to buy books of the shelf n challenge him.
She was going to work towards Benchmark testing done this month.
The math H.W. he brgt was about place values.
Tour offering help in any way was just put on holdsaying not right now, i need to get settledn know the kids.
CathyA, we did look for other schools, which were, traditional schools, charter school were we were on waiting list, or get an IEP for him in a regular classroom. that idea was not good enough for us.
With what i see, she his going let the whole year pass by without much improvemenyt i think. next year will be trouble for him, catching up.
just to be good to the teacher, reading sucks!they make him read books he read when he was 4.
Writing is better. and math is the worst.
So now, I am in a fix as what to teach him at home, get going at next level or wait for the teacher to catch up, or go to higher level in Admin. I don't want to burn my bridgescos he will be here for next 4-5 years.
so more advice from u Awesome Mom/Supermom will really help us out!!!!!!
Surprisingly, my husband is as involved in this as I am.And thanks for all ur previous suggestions, I really appreciate it.
NSG

Hi,
forgot to mention that, we can test him for 2nd grade but, We think he is not socially n emotionally mature for 2nd grade.
1 more problem is that, the director of the prgm told us the 1st day, that by seeing the scores he got for the 1st grade test, she can tell if he will even pass the grade 2 test!!!
so .........I just don;t know hat to do...
NSG