Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy ARGH! Here we go again...

After a very successful meeting with principal and learning specialist earlier this week, I got a snide email from DS's teacher saying that "she had been informed that I had some concerns." She has asked for a meeting next week to "go over her open ended curriculum again with me."

I responded, told her I'd be happy to meet with her but that I also thought the learning specialist should attend. I'm so frustrated! We went to the principal, came up with a plan and it seemed like a really good one! Now here's the teacher who wants to tell me the same stuff that sent us to the principal in the first place.

My plan at this point is to sit and listen and let her and the learning specialist have at it. I also plan on asking in a polite way (if I can muster it!) how she can be sure her curriculum will meet DS's needs when she has not done any assessment and has no clue where he's at academically. Just because her "open-ended" curriculum means he can use 10 unifix cubes instead of 5 to measure stuff... doesn't mean that he's being taught at his level.

Any other advice or thoughts? Does this ever end?

Sigh. I think you're doing the right thing to include the learning specialist. You're right, "open-ended" is too vague. I'm hoping the email just came across as snide. Maybe she's just unsure of what's being asked of her.

master of none - LOVE IT!!

Along the lines of master of none, stick to the plans you came up with in the meeting. Maybe write down the specific plans in bullet form, hand her a copy, and ask her (yes or no question) if it would be possible to implement them. Also, take notes as she responds. Document everything she says. That way at least you'll have it on record if she does not intend to implement the plans. And you're right about needing to stay polite.

My problem is right now, we don't have an actual plan for DS- just a plan for what the adults were going to do! We only had ideas from the principal and learning specialist. They were supposed to meet with the teacher, generate a formal action plan for DS and call a meeting in three weeks to go over what the rest of the year would look like.

We tried so hard to make it work properly- I met with the teacher first and got blown off so we went above her. Now she's mad and thinks that if we sit down and she shows me the SAME stuff again, that it will somehow be better. This quote "go over her open ended curriculum again with me" is literally from her email.

I agree with Master of None- I've got to stay on topic and not get distracted. Last time I let her drift me off course with her ADD talk and coming back to it over and over.

So I sat still for about 20 minutes of the meeting today... quiet and not saying a word... letting the K teacher "explain" her open ended curriculum to me. Then I had an epiphany. She really doesn't get it. She has no idea what being an HG kid is even remotely like. Here's her example of why DS isn't as smart as we think he is and has major gaps in his education...

Yesterday they had a learning station with a balance scale and toy blocks for one side and toy keys for the other. They did not say the kids needed to weight the objects, only that they needed to make both sides the same. DS being literal- put 4 blocks on each side. So she told him he had to use blocks and keys. So he put 4 blocks on one and 4 on the other and said "There, they're the same!" (Despite the weight being different to him 4=4). She asked him to try again, still no explanation of the scale idea. So he got frustrated- he divided the keys and blocks evenly under both sides, leaving the scales blank and said "Now they're both the same!"

This was her example of his learning gaps... I thought it was sarcastic, brilliant and funny :-) THAT is my kid!

Post epiphany, I met with the learning specialist again who reassured me that she will be spending a lot of time "helping" the teacher learn to understand DS and to work with him. I feel like if the teacher just does 1/10 of what the specialist is asking, we'll be in decent shape. From 11-3 he's a happy kid, it's just the 2 hours in the morning that are torture right now.

Hurray for the learning specialist! What a great kid. I think I'd have thrown the blocks at her. I hope the epiphany will help ease your frustration with her.

Gaps? She had the opportunity to teach him something and missed it. HG doesn't mean "doesn't need instruction."

My DS was placed in a K class with an unwilling teacher. She also refused to teach him anything and chose to focus on what he didn't know.

Does she treat the other students that way? It's a kind of passive-agressive "I'll show you (and your parents) that you're not so smart" attitude.

I hope the learning specialist can help the teacher understand better. It is nice to have an explanation though, isn't it? (she just doesn't get it.) Even if it's unsatisfactory.


Cathy - I like this. I will keep it in my pocket for school time.