Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Ray of sunshine - updated

DS6 is in 1st grade this year. Last year was a constant fight with the school trying to get them to assess DS and appropriately place him. I decided reading wasn't worth the fight at the time as he could read what he wanted at home and had some peers in his class. Math was a different story. They never came close to meeting his needs there. It was so very frustrating to watch him have to do stuff that he had been doing for quite some time. I had a meeting with the principal before the end of last year to let him know of my continuing concern and to suggest that DS be accelerated another grade in math. Working with the 2nd graders who are doing 3rd grade math might be a place to start. He listened, even wrote things down, but no acceleration was provided. DS is in a math group doing 2nd grade work and he got an awesome teacher as one of the co-teachers so I thought I would watch for a little until 3 days later I got the syllabus and it was all stuff they knew he knew last year. I let the teacher know that DS's one question he wanted me to ask at Back to School night was "Why is everything so easy?" which got the typical response of "we are aware of the issue and will differentiate as needed." to paraphrase. So this last week I've been working up the energy to start this fight all over again but yesterday they contacted me!! They said that they have decided that they "feel it would be best to explore different options for providing enrichment opportunities for DS in mathematics". They are going to have a joint GT/Math meeting next week to discuss how to proceed and will get back to me with the results. They even thanked me for my advocacy!

Could that possibly be the sun peaking out from behind the clouds?!?! Now to have the patience to wait for the meeting next week...

Yay!!! Hope this is the beginning of the school wanting to help your ds!

Also, gives me hope when I hear positive school stories.

Keep us posted!

Fingers crossed!

As a follow-up, today I got approached by the head GT teacher/Math specialist and she told me that she would be meeting with DS6 2 to 3 times a week for 30mins for math. She was very excited about the things that she would work with him on but said that they wold try not to introduce much new content. Not sure how I feel about that but we'll see. I received this email today from another of the GT teachers...

Hello!

I wanted to let you know what we came up with at our math meeting yesterday.

We talked as a math team about how best to address stretching DS. We are so excited that Mrs. Teacher made time in her schedule to plan and implement a challenging set of lessons and skills targeted so nicely for the needs of DS. With Mrs. Teachers extensive background in GT and GT math, she has a plethora of ideas to be sure that DS's needs are met. It was fortunate that we had a few teachers in the meeting who know DS and his needs well. We are all confident think that the logic, reasoning and problem solving will be just right for DS and serve him very well for his entire educational experience.

Thank you so much, Mrs. Teacher! We all look forward to seeing DS stretched and met appropriately.

Because his needs are mentioned several times but not listed or described, you may find it reasonable and appropriate to respond by acknowledging their plans, thanking them for their interest and support, then asking for a concrete list of needs to be addressed. You might also request having his work products from these sessions come home, as a means of keeping you apprised and in the loop.

Do you mind if I'm cynical? They didn't say WHAT they would be doing really. Just that they were planning on and talking about doing. It also is cautionary to me that they "would try not to introduce much new content". So how will this help him? Is that how they teach there... try not to introduce anything new? Those words are often code for "enrichment" or doing MORE of the same boring work. Doesn't sound like he is learning if there is no new content. They also did not mention a begin date in what you've shared.

My experience was that my son was placed in the grade above with a new teacher who had just transferred out of teaching gifted because of course she would be phenomenal! I'm thrilled she is no longer in gifted education because it boggles my mind how 3wks of day and night drill and kill in single digit +/- would be appropriate for a child who had shown his complete mastery of that on their testing only a few months before. She openly said my child would never show he was gifted in her class. So my lesson there is that adding the tag "gifted" to a teacher doesn't guarantee anything about his or her fitness to teach such children.

I hope I am way off base and your gifted person sees his abilities and gets him in to some appropriate content.

Yes, I would be cautiously optimistic.

To avoid (or minimize) the sense of riding an educational roller coaster, parents may wish to make a list of partnering questions (such as needs to be addressed, sending work home for parental inclusion and oversight). Asking these types of partnering questions and learning to manage our expectations also keeps parents in a good position to answer our child(ren)'s questions and manage their expectations.

The sun just disappeared behind a big storm cloud.

Reply saying that you agree - the new Maths like p-adic teichmuller may be a stretch right now so perhaps sticking with the old stuff like Euclidean geometry proofs, algebra and calculus etc will be sufficient - for now at least LOL

I agree with a lot of what you all are saying. I am trying to stay optimistic. The letter was very flowery with a lot of patting themselves on the back and not a lot of substance. The start date should be next week. The teacher that should be working with him is planning on showing me what materials she wants to use.

When I asked about them not wanting to introduce much new content she stated that they were concerned that it would severely limit his opportunities to have learning experiences with his peers. He would probably exceed their offerings around 3rd grade. I asked about walking the 20ft to the middle school next door and was told that they don't do that.

Since I did not initiate this conversation/assessment I am willing to do a little wait and see. I will be asking the GT teacher to arrange more of a meeting for us to discuss this situation versus a quick show and tell. In fact I think I'll send that email tonight.

Are there any ideas you guys think i should run by them besides the possibility of subject acceleration and possibility of allowing an online math program such as EPGY or CTY?