We have a pretty positive meeting this morning with DS's teacher. Socially he's fitting in well, although a little quiet. That doesn't surprise us too much as he's still adjusting to this new environment.
Near the end of the conversation the teacher even said "I'm surprised that the district allowed you to skip, and that they didn't give you a hard time". ("They did", I replied.) But her attitude was telling: she was supportive of acceleration and appreciated what we were working towards. A good sign.
It was a good back-and-forth talk and the teacher is going to be trying to give DS differentiated material even if it's just writing more instructions on his homework. The math lessons already come with below, at, and above grade level. Unfortunately they'll only go broad, and not accelerate through subjects. Stated another way, DS won't get into any multiplication this year, only addition. However, the teacher will give DS the ability to go deeper with math by doing word problems, having to write more about how he reached his answer, etc. I think the teacher is doing a good job within the framework that she has and certainly some of the differentiation she's talking about with math and reading will help. So that was all very good. We'll have to wait for the GIEP to be completed to get further differentiation.
So my initial impression was that we do have a good teacher, that she'll do what she can do and we have established a good working relationship. Not the end-all be-all, but progress.
JB
