Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy I may have messed up with DD's teacher

That sounds like a good start. I ran a mathlab for 2nd and 3rd graders for two years. It was a good way to get to know the teachers, and to show them that I am willing to put in the effort to make enrichment work for my kids and for others.

Update: I met with DD's teacher today, but don't feel like we made much progress. Here's how it went:

DH and I went in, armed with some gifted articles, dd's test scores and work samples. We started off talking about how we want her to learn how to learn, how to take risks, etc. We suggested options like testing out of math units, working on EPGY math instead, going to a 4th grade classroom for math, reading higher level books and doing independent projects for reading. We showed where she's working in EPGY (currently the 3.6 level, but it's still a little easy). Her teacher pretty much shot down every idea, but to be fair, she seemed to feel completely restricted by the curriculum she's required to teach. She referred us to the principal to find out if any of our ideas would be possible. She also didn't seem to give much weight to dd's achievement or ability test scores, and even said that dd didn't really seem that advanced to her in reading comprehension (though she scored in the 99.6th percentile on the WIAT-II!!).

I was able to catch the principal on our way out. She said we'll have to go to a "guidance team" meeting to see about any acceleration options, though she also shared with me that she's only seen full grade skips done twice in the district, both times with disastrous results (her words). However, she took a copy of dd's test scores, and seemed to imply that she might have some pull in where dd is on the wait list for the full-day gifted program. (Background--dd was denied entrance to their program primarily based on a 'creativity test' score, and, though I can't prove it, her adhd issues. It's another long story.) She also said there should be no problem with dd doing other work in class, including EPGY, though I think we're still going to need to address the "instead of" not "in addition to" issue.

So, we'll wait and see. The principal said she'd get back to us by Monday about the guidance team meeting. I'm also running the Star Math program in dd's class, so I know she'll have at least 6-8 slightly challenging math problems per week. (Yes, that's what the "advanced" math program entails.)

Oh, one other take away from the meeting--dd's teacher mentioned that she'd talked with the full-day gifted teacher about the gifted curriculum, but the gifted teacher couldn't share anything about it with her because it's apparently completely confidential. Does this seem odd to anyone else?

Yes, it does seem strange. I'm picturing the kids signing a gag order at the end of class, LOL.
Hope the principal gets her moved into the full-day gifted program soon.

Did you get that meeting? How's it going?
Grinity

Hi Lilswee,
Did DD8 work things out with the teacher?
Grinity

Trillium,

You may want to look up the Iowa Acceleration scale. It is an objective measure of the suitability for acceleration. The "Guidance Team" may want to reference it as well. You may want to look around for other districts in your state that do provide for acceleration and look at their policies.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/iowa_accel_scale.htm

As for confidential - unless its related to Privacy Laws, nothing is confidential. That always concerns me.

Hi Grinity, just noticed your question. Last month we had a face to face that didn't go much better. The principal and 3rd grade teacher were great. DD8 likes the teacher in question, though, and wants to stay in the class. We haven't had any more test issues, other than they feel the need to keep giving her more tests.

After all the Hupla, her progress report was good, report cards this week. Judging from the weekly grades that come home, the grade may be a little lower but I didn't write everything down. When I try to ask the teacher if there are any issues, I get the feeling she just sees me as another pushy obnoxious parent (maybe I am-who knows) and to leave her alone. My intention is to ask questions and make sure that after all of the hupla last month that I help reinforce any issues that DD8 may have in class with attention or whatever at home.

I do think the DD8 is challenged learning the new processes in 4th grade, testing, having to read the questions, and not having cues from someone to check her work. Learning that checking your work is important since if you miss 1 out of 6 your grade is significantly lowered. Most of her errors have been due to being careless and mis-reading versus learning new material.

The latest email from the teacher in question was fairly terse but said she is doing fine. The latest development was that the school wants to give 4th grade benchmarks instead of 3rd grade. Initially they told me they would benchmark with the 3rd graders to ensure nothing was missed for end of year testing.

LOL Lilsweetie! No one has all the answers!
Glad that she is learning a bit - Yippee!
Grinity

yes learning something is good . My prediction is that will we be status quo pretty soon though but at least expectations are higher.

No, it's not unreasonable to expect a response within a day or two. Maybe the teacher doesn't know how to respond, or maybe she's intimidated in some way because you've done advanced work with her. I've gotten that response from my kids' teachers, although it was not intentional. I think knowing that I teach advanced high school math puts them on the defensive.

I would recommend a face-to-face meeting at this point. If the teacher already feels defensive, emails will only exacerbate those feelings.