Awful long...sorry.
What I thought was going good: The gifted pullout(ETC, Extended Total Curriculum) has increased to 1 hour/day. The local Art Council is providing to all interested, Art instruction 1 day/week after school, for free. Despite the remark about not reading more than 1 book/day, GS figured out how to read as much as he wants without disrupting the teacher's system. He seems happy in his regular class. ETC is a bit boring right now.
Friday I emailed the ETC teacher to inquire about a math club & contests for the elementary. I'd emailed last spring and she said to get back with her this fall. She replied they had no resources for the math club, but she thought she might do some contest type stuff in ETC. Then she said GS9 told her he didn't want to be in ETC anymore. She asked his regular teacher how things are going, and she said he doesn't seem real motivated in her class.
So, this is what I replied:
I'm not sure what to think about the lack of motivation you're seeing.
I know he's not real enthused with ETC this semester, even though he loves reading. He did read Hatchet last year, along with 4-5 other Gary Paulson books. He's not real enthusiastic about rereading books. I think the only books he's chosen to reread were some in The Chronicles of Narnia series. We talked about ETC last night, and I told him I'd get it at the library and read it with him at night and have discussions. He'd rather talk about a book than write answers to questions in a study guide, so I thought that would help his enthusiasm.
As for Mrs. H class, I wasn't aware there was any problem there. Looking at the Progress Book online right now, he has 3 A+ & 3 A's, with the 3 A's just barely missing the A+ mark. He met all his AR goals by Monday. He's never had any homework that took over 5 minutes--I can't exactly call RAH & AR reading 'homework' since he reads for pleasure. From what he says, he really likes her so I can't see it being a personality conflict. Do you think it could be a lack of challenge in Mrs H's classroom? I've seen some changes in him this summer; he's gone from needing a lot of easy accomplishments & outside reassurance to needing more challenges.
That was the heart of the email, I added some pleasantries at the beginning & end, bolding added for this post. I emailed the reply too late for the ETC teacher to respond yesterday, so I was going to wait to post this until her reply. But I had time right now so I'll just add her reply to this thread when I get it. GS has made a few grumbles about things being really easy this year. I talked to him more about ETC and he's a bit stressed about the format. They work individually, read a chapter silently, fill out a study guide and vocabulary worksheet. That is NOT GS's method of learning. On top of that, despite the fact I asked them to test GS for reading ETC at the end of last year, they put it off for the beginning of this year when they tested all the kids eligible who were not already admitted. They separately test referrals for math and reading. So he started ETC 2 weeks late and he really hates being behind the other kids, so he's stressed about that.
We're 5 weeks into the new school year, his lowest subject average is 97, he has no intellectual peers in his regular classroom, and isn't allowed to discuss with them during ETC. If I let him out of ETC I don't know what he'll do for an additional hour in his regular classroom. He's got too much free time in there now, given the number of Captain Underpants and similar books he's read during class. Oh, and he's gone through 6 of the Murderous Math books already.
I'll wait on a reply from the ETC teacher, then I think I'll probably contact Mrs H, his regular classroom teacher.
