Parent-Teacher Conference Report:
The conference was great! I officially *adore* DD5's teacher. She said DD is doing fabulous overall, gets along well with everyone in the class, seems very happy, etc. Teacher seems to genuinely like/enjoy DD which of course makes me very happy in and of itself.
She mentioned DD's handwriting and general writing composition skills as being the areas she sees as most in need of improvement; however, she said these skills are developmentally appropriate for first grade level (which is actually good, considering by age DD should be in K this year). She's not sure how much we can/should push DD in these areas. I agree with this.
She showed us the results of DD's first Accelerated Math work at 2nd grade level (she scored 89 percent; 59 out of 66 problems correct). Teacher was impressed, both by the score and by DD's attitude. She said DD was "gung-ho" about doing the Acc. Math and worked at it diligently, even though teacher told her she could just do a little at a time, like one page a day (it was 16 pages long). She said DD said "Oh no, I can do it! I want to do all of it right away."
I told her DD was equally enthusiastic about the Acc. Math at home and that she told me she wished she could just do "her own math" instead of doing 1st grade math with the rest of the class. I asked if that was a possibility? Teacher first said, "well, I'm not sure what I would grade if she did that." I said it just seems pointless to me, if DD is capable of doing 2nd grade math, to have her repeating 1st grade stuff instead of learning something new. I asked if there was a way to assess DD to see where she really is, such as give her end-of-year tests, etc., and use those results for her grades? Teacher said, "Actually it would be pretty easy for me to find out if she has mastered the first grade math curriculum... yes, I think that's a good idea and I will do that." (Hooray!)
She also said she had already discussed DD's situation with the district curriculum director, and suggested setting up a meeting for the three of us to talk about what else they could be doing for DD at school. I am beyond thrilled about this! I think if we have the curriculum director on board it will make things so much easier for next year. Instead of just me, as the parent, asking next year's teacher what she's willing to do with DD, it will hold so much more weight to be able to go in and say "this is what the district curriculum director endorsed last year for DD...."
We never talked about what DD could be doing one-on-one with the parapro because I found out that time is now being used for DD to do Acc. Math. So she is not currently reading or doing anything else with the parapro. This is okay with me; I think having her do the math is great for now.
Another interesting thing: Teacher mentioned that it is hard for other teachers in the school, and in the district, to believe that DD is really doing what she's doing. She said she's talked about DD doing 5th grade reading and other teachers have said, "Well, she probably just has the words memorized" or "she's probably just sounding out the words, but doesn't understand them, so you can't really call it reading...." Teacher said she told them, "No, this kid is really READING! She's reading, she understands it, and she remembers it."
Wow, did I love hearing this. I cannot tell you how good it felt to know that we have a teacher who not only "gets it" but is "defending" DD's giftedness to other teachers.
I left the conference feeling like... "YES! We have an ally!"
