Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy placement with an elementary school teacher

Bostonian,
I think your first instinct to have a perfunctory manner is a pretty good one, but use it to communicate what you feel is important just in case they might take it into consideration.

I actually used a bulleted list last year, like an executive summary. I figured at least there wouldn't be the risk of them drowning in paragraphs or something.

We are not allowed to request a teacher either.

Last year I did a bulleted list emphasizing things that I believed were very important regarding the teacher’s classroom management style and their individual communication style (school-to-home communication). Qualities that I though would match my child’s learning style and also our communication style so there wouldn’t be such a huge mismatch like the previous teacher. This seemed to result in a somewhat better fit that the previous year anyway.

I don’t care if a teacher is “nice” or “nurturing” (haven’t had luck with those types), I really do care that they are fair, consistent, and manage the classroom in some sort of style that might be motivating for my child (not overly competitive, rewarding effort). The robust academics still seems to be a pipe dream, though this teacher does try harder at some tweaks than we’ve seen teachers do previously.

It wouldn’t hurt to throw in there some mention of preferring that the teacher work with individual learning styles or that she/he would be willing to subject accelerate or whatever the case for your child. I assume the school knows this about you already if you’ve tried advocating for your child, but I wouldn’t think it would hurt to mention it (if anything, just so they don’t think that you’ve given up!)