Hi There,
My son is in 7th grade gifted class in middle school. We transferred from private school to public this year and thought that it would be a good idea for accelerated learning in his areas of competence. He went into the gifted class in December. From the start there were some problems. His grade went from a 98 to a 79 in the course of 1 1/2 weeks in the class. Much to our surprise the gifted class was more along the lines of a very difficult english class. There is no weighting of grade either, so he did get grade up to a B, but it didn't allow him to get honors since B in gifted same as B in normal classes.
We have told him to try and do his best with this class. The teacher is scary to him. She scolds the children that they are to come to her with any questions and if a parent contacts her, she gives them grief in front of the class.
Now for the problem today. Finally a project came in that wasn't just heavy on English lit, or acting, which seems to be the important topics to date. It was to make an invention (model or prototype), make a power point and present it. He is a bit shy and the teacher gave him a 60 on the presentation and a 72 on the project overall. She said that the invention was not creative, nor useful, nor fulfilled a need. She said that he was too nervous for the presentation( she actually gave him a 1 out of 4 on rubric for nervousness). Finally, she allowed the kids to have a free for all Q and A session where the other children got a bit obnoxious in questioning.
My son had a working prototype of what he called a locker dryer to dry out the swim gear from kids gym. He had watched a video on how to disassemble a hairdryer. He pulled out part of heating coil and fan and soldered it to battery pack with my help. He had powerpoint telling function, need, brandname, schematic diagram and pictures of the making of the prototype.
I don't know what to do. He had been so excited about this project and now feels like crap. He hates this glorified English class. Teacher is defensive of grading.
She is likely to be same teacher next year for gifted. I feel like we're going to have to pull him out. I don't see this getting better. Should I discuss this with counselor and principal? This is all new to us.
Thanks
Nancy
