I'm feeling like I would like to sit down with the principal and make sure I know where she is on some gifted issues. I'm a bit hesitant to do this becuase I don't want to cause more tension. Maybe I should wait until DYS membership becomes effective? Either way I thought I would organize my thoughts here. Maybe I'll just pass this along to DYS helper. If anyone has comments or suggestions I would be open to hearing them.
It has never been my intention to make anyone look bad. I'm just learning too. I tried to explain with some facts (I was not fluent in) to school to explain my position. Some tension developed as my husband said to me they don't want me telling them how to do their job. My only goal is to help my son.
The GT teacher and the teacher are against pretesting but I have not actually heard this from the principal. The GT teacher said, although DS is skipping every other day in his Saxon math to condense it he should still read the other pages. GT teacher said pretesting would not ensure he has learned everything becuase there is more to learning than what can be measured with pen and paper. So I'm thinking GT teacher just doesn't get it, he doesn't need it, it's review. I think he should be doing 5th Grade Math this year and he is underchallenged. GT teacher disagrees with this. If they can't get the level of Math right he would of been better off to condense it down to very little and do his enrichment puzzle/logic Math workbooks I provide.
When ARs came up the teacher did not get how the tests were not very indepth but the principal did. Principal taught gifted kids at one point. She sugggest DS do something like a diarama instead for more depth. I love this idea. This was to occur in GT pull out but I have yet to see it put in place.
Another issue is he is not getting "the school desired 3rd Grade experience" because he is not challenged enough. So he is not learning to handle challenge, time management, study skills. I don't think he needs more HW. He is doing 30 mins. The GT teacher said GT kids just don't need to study. I question this.
Principal was suggesting ideas for DS but not elliminating other work. So appropriate work vs more work is what I'm looking for.
They have not put him in situations where he feelsisolation which is good. I think they have considered this.
The principal said, I don't need to work at this so hard. They know what they are doing. I think as a parent it's has become my job to better understand the situation since he did not learn very much the 1st and 2nd Grade and 3rd feels a bit insulting. As a child, who is the top student of his class, and on the GT bell curve 1 in 200-1,000, 2% of his age group, yet he is oldest in grade) they are not teaching to him. I think he feels like his day is filled with too much busy work. He is an ambitous kid, when it's meaningful. He is the first one done with his class seat work and has time to read.
The principal mentioned the regular teachers don't have gifted training. It seems pointless to go to them with any modification request. I would like to have a working relationship figured out with this in mind. I do see the principal and GT teacher has gifted understanding in many issues bit I'm not sure they have much experience accomidating this level of ability. Our district GT coordinator, for public school said her gifted students top off at 130. I wish I could explain the difference between 100, 130 and 140. GT vs. HG.
Principal was insulted I presented a portfolio of my DS. She said I think the teachers know the students very well. I said, I think this is true but there is more in here beyond what they see at school.
I do get why kids are accellorated so they get to blend in, have peers, get challenged, and there is less modification within the class room. I could see how one would be forced to do this because otherwise the needs may not get met. I'm just not there yet but might be in the future. We do a lot outside of school, but is that enough?
The principal said she is againstaccelloration. I'm not sure if that only means whole grade. Might she be open to subject accelloration?
Maybe the following is such a minor issue I shouldn't bother but I do see how small changes can make a difference. Principal had suggested slowing him down a bit with the reading and getting more depth. Can he do something else at school for his reading time? OR If he does AR reading at school could he skip it for his homework? 10 mins. of reading HW often turns into more. I would rather he spend time doing Scratch programming or typing or work in Mindware math books. Or I could come up with Mindware book related to reading. He already reads every night before going to sleep an hour or more. I don't want to discourage reading but would like him to use his time wisely to develop more in other areas. Right now, he is a bit stuck, rereading the same books over again and not too happy about it. He is resisting my suggestions for ways he can help himself find new books.
I would like to see if the principal is open to DS doing a pull out for an instrument, spanish or grade or two up in a reading class. If he could try this for a short time it could give us insight into how it would work for next year. I have a feeling the schedule will be an issue. The only way to do this is to get him out of some of the work he does not need. We have lost some of his trust becuase they were not condensing the Math work enough. He thinks more challenge = more work.
This is so long and a lot of what I've said here before. I'm still just trying to figure out the best approach.
Last edited by onthegomom; 01/24/10 07:27 AM.
