Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need advice for teacher meeting

Just wanted to update...

We had the meeting last week with DS's teacher as well as one of the more seasoned Montessori teachers in the school in the upper elem room (where DS sometimes gets to go and work on his lessons).

The gist is that while they understand that he is gifted and his brain functions differently, there is a certain amount of assignments that he needs to complete in order to "move up" to second grade (even though he is doing mostly 3rd grade stuff anyway...). In Montessori, they have materials for each lesson and the child must complete the task with the materials and get it checked by the teacher to be considered "complete."

Apparently, the other 1st graders are capable of getting about 70-80% or more of their assignments done during the week. My son is getting less than 50% of his work done. He will get started on something but then starts "playing" with the materials, not using them in the "proper" way. He is assigned 5 lessons to do in a day normally.

I told them about the slow processing and everything so we decided that the teacher will allow him to complete some assignments orally or with her working as his scribe in order to speed things up and have less distractions for him. She also agreed to cut some of the more redundant work (like extra math worksheets). We also decided to create a notebook so the teacher could communicate daily with us about what DS did at school. I was thinking it would help set up some kind of incentive at home if we knew exactly what he did.

Needless to say, for the rest of the week nothing much changed. A couple days he worked on things but never completed them. Friday he actually finished 2 things. He is also very down on himself saying that he can't do it or will never be able to finish all the work. In one case, he had 45 minutes to work on 25 division facts before going to art class. She said he didn't do any - he told me he got 3 done. Who knows?

I started the week thinking we needed to look at ADHD or LD (which will may still do) but now I am wondering if it's just this environment that is not working for him. He does exhibit some of the same behaviors at home though, so I'm not sure. He can be terribly stubborn and you have to call his name about three times to get his attention or get him to do something.

Anyway, we are planning to apply to the gifted public school (but we don't live in the district yet - our house is for sale right now). I have to ask this teacher to fill out a form for it LOL I'm worried her comments will prevent him from getting accepted.

Well, our adventures in gifted education is in full swing now. We'll see what happens next!

My kids were in a full-on Montessori for 2 years. We left in large part because it is actually a very rigid system. For example, my younger son was 4 and could tell time very well. However, he had to do the "jobs" for telling time "the Montessori way." It was very boring and repetitious for him; I don't think he got alot out of that. They did not allow you to "test out." It may be that long-term, Montessori isn't the best fit for your child.

It could be the school, it could be an LD. I don't think you'll know which (or if it's both) until you've had a thorough evaluation by a neuropsychologist, and until you've switched your ds to a different school situation. There are some things that appear to me to be very good about your current situation - his teachers are listening to your concerns and trying to make things work for your ds - this gives you a chance to try different things and see how they work for your ds. OTOH, some Montessoris can be very rigid - but again, it sounds like you've had good response from his teachers in trying to help him be successful and he's still struggling.. which makes me think an eval now, before you make huge school decisions, is really important.

Have you thought about transferring him to your neighborhood school for the short term? That would take the Montessori element out of the questions.

polarbear

Unfortunately, the neighborhood school isn't an option due to logistics (before/after school care, my work location, my DD is in Montessori too, being indebted to our school for the rest of the year for tuition, etc.) and the fact that school is the in bottom 10 in test scores in the entire state. It would be a disaster, I'm sure. The gifted school we are looking at is #1 in the state. I am intrigued because they work with gifted kids all day, every day. They are likely to have seen several kids like him come through. I want to apply to at least have the option when it comes time to make a decision in the event the rest of the school year doesn't go well. I like options!

I've been searching online for neuros and came up with two possibilities but neither of them explicitly mention gifted kids. I may need to ask our pedi and see if she knows anyone. His well visit is next month but I may need to call her earlier.