I've also let our teacher know I'm happy to talk to the administration if she prefers - phrased in a cooperative manner with her, but nonetheless making the point that I'm serious about our requests ...That might be a tack worth taking if you hear resistance from your teacher at your Oct. 4 meeting.
Good luck Coll, excellent suggestion!
I'm glad that Oct 4 is rolling around finally - and maybe the meeting will go well, but there is such a thing as 'LOG' or 'levels of giftedness'
It may well be that no teacher in the world would be able to met your son's needs in a first grade room, because (it's possible) that even amoung a gifted class, his educational needs are profoundly beyond the other kids in his class. That doesn't mean that the other kids aren't 'really gifted' - just that there is as much vaiation in the range of gifted as there is in the range of Developmentally Disabled.
I would send an email to the kindy teacher and ask if she wouldn't mind 'just happening to bump into' the first grade teacher and asking after your son. She likely can do it in an inoffensive way. If she can do it before the October meeting then you are likely to get more done, since you won't be in the position of convinsing the teacher that your child 'really, really' has unusual needs.
BTW - it's great that your child is behaving. It may be that the misbehavior is directly related to the lack of academic fit in the classroom. Maybe not. There is a lot not to know when a child is an outlier, and it sounds like your child is - even in this classroom devoted to gifted kids. I just wanted to let you know that this is quite possible. I also wanted to steer you away from thinking what I would have though when I was in your shoes. It isn't that the other families are 'bad' because they are content for their children to become lazy and unchallenged at school. It isn't that you are odd for wanting what no one else seems to care about. It's that your child
might be different in LOG and in personality to the point where the gulf between what is being taught and what he NEEDS to do is much much larger than for the other children.
My hunch is that you'll need to be asking the First Grade Teacher's blessing to take this up with the administration, because (maybe) your child has very different needs than the other children -even though they are all gifted by someone's definition - in the room. So if there is a gifted 2nd or 3rd grade classroom, that may be were your child needs to spend some or all of his day.
The best way to know is to sit and observe the classrooms. Maybe you can get permission to do that while you wait for October 4.
Also - make some notes about how your son's distress expresses itself. Painting the social-emotional dimensions of the problem explains why you are so worried and upset in language that school folks who haven't lived with a child like yours need to hear.
Good luck, Let us know, Happy New Year!
Grinity
