Just wanted to give everyone an update on DS6 currently in second grade. We had our first one-on-one meeting today with the homeroom teacher and GT teacher. Because of the baby it was just me meeting with them as DW had to stay home.
The good news is that I think this was probably the most productive meeting we've had to date, aside from the meetings where we got our actual GT designation.
The first half of the meeting we talked very constructively about DS's current social/behavioral issues. He has a tendency to seek attention and make random noises that can be inappropriate and distracting. It's possible that he has over excitability issues and it's something we've observed at home. The great thing about this part of the discussion is that we were all on the same page and the teacher, I thought, had a very good perspective on things. We were really discussing this as a team effort and the teacher was very open to what I was saying. If you were to observe this meeting in contrast with last year's meeting you would see what I mean. We absolutely have some work to do here and this could be a great growth area for DS.
We then shifted pretty seamlessly into the academic issues. It was a good discussion in that I re-affirmed with the GT teacher that I understand why she's not seeing DS do certain levels of work and I think I got across that often it is a motivation issue with our DS. If he's not interested in something it can be REAL difficult to get him to do anything. Find the right motivation, and watch out! I think I was also able to get across that sometimes if you're asking about a particular concept and expecting a certain explanation--especially in math--you're not going to get the standard second grade answer. This was particularly relevant when you're asking why 2 + 4 = 6 which is the same as 4 + 2 = 6. To our DS it's obvious. It's just not always easy for him to express the obviousness!
Probably most importantly, I got real insight into our district. The homeroom teacher was real open to ideas for DS. However, both of them pointed out that they are severely limited by the admin and they can only do what the admins approve. And that in our district, they absolutely positively cannot do any curriculum out of lockstep with the rest of the classroom.
Believe it or not, this actually got me very excited. I have teachers who want to do the right then but cannot because of admins. So the people that see DS day-to-day (the good and the bad) legitimately want to help. Any concern I had about elevating my advocacy and having people who directly interact with our DS is now gone. The admins may have this policy but I know that PA Chatper 16 means that the school cannot just say no like that. If the teachers are saying they want to help but cannot, then we're actually in a great position.
Knowing this (and not really getting into all of the details with them on where I expect this to go) I then told them about how we'd be fine with having DS do math on the computer using one of the various programs available. And that I have no problem advocating for that. But in order to do that, we'd have to get more details established on his PLEP. Give him the end of year 3rd grade math exam (or an abbreviated version). They were both all for it! In fact by the end of the day I had emails from one of the teachers that they've already started to get things in motion for both a math and a reading evaulation. Once the PLEP is appropriately well defined, we will have a very strong case for the school not making adequate accommodations for DS.
Now it's not that I want necessarily to go to due process or arbitration but if you've been through the process in PA and you can picture where we might be headed, you can see that we are (I think) in a really good position for the next serious rounds of advocation. The teachers are taking the right steps and we're laying the foundation for proving our case. It's just a looooong process. For the first time in a long time I was optimistic about what we can do for DS at school.
JB
