Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional How to approach school about choice of teacher

Hmm interesting. There is an in-service day on the 20th of the month ... I wonder if that is what it is for... We have a meeting on the 7th re assistive technology I am definitely going to raise the issue then. It is a lot to sort through but I definitely don't want to keep leaving it to chance ... I left the para choice to chance and it was disastrous every time but when I made my voice on the type of temperament the para was to have they provided someone really great. I think a discussion about it could be helpful... Thanks all!

Irena, I don't have much in the way of good advice here, but want to wish you good luck with it!

FWIW, our elementary school allowed parents to request teachers, so we did make a request every year. It was probably an easier situation than yours in some ways - we were at a small school (only 2 teachers per grade level), and there were many involved parents so it was easy to get tons of parent perspectives on the pros and cons of each teacher. There was also a bit of cross-teaching going on, so sometimes I'd have already had the chance to have my child exposed to a certain teacher.

That said - when it was time to turn in our request forms, I made sure that what I wrote in the request highlighted what type of teaching style etc worked best for my child rather than just stating that we wanted to request teacher X.

I also found that feedback from other parents varied widely (as another poster mentioned above)... and many times feedback from other parents that I trusted didn't work out the same way for myself or my child if we ended up with that same teacher - for all sorts of reasons, and the 2e piece complicated everything.

That said, overall, I think that in general most parent feedback was reliable re the things such as accessibility of the teacher to parents (were they willing to meet with you, listen to your input etc), were they set in their ways, were they strict or were they so mellow their class was out of control - those types of things.

Good luck - I hope your ds gets a wonderful teacher next year

polarbear

It's wonderful when a child and teacher are well-matched, but when creating classrooms, the school also considers the dynamic of the group. Although, we had a year when the teacher would have been fine, but somehow the dynamics across the entire 2nd grade were disastrous. You could tell on the first day that things weren't right. DS came home in tears a few days a week gasping "I just want to learn." Halfway through the year, they regrouped by math readiness because no one, least of all DS, was learning, and things improved. The next year, not only did he have a wonderful teacher (and start the accelerated math and LA classes) the class make-up had everyone smiling on the first day of school, and it lasted all year.

We get to request but it isn't guaranteed so it is best to put a couple of options. The problem is it is hard to know- I know several people who recommended last year's teacher (I didn't put in a request because I didn't know any of them) but he was a terrible teacher for ds. The kids find out their new classes a week before the end of school.

Our elementary school put a lot of thought into DS's teachers, and it was always part of the IEP meeting -- although I didn't really have much say in it. They knew what they were looking for, and they knew their teachers, and it turned out fine. I had only one request, and that was already decided three years ahead of time -- the fifth grade teacher that he went to math class with, starting in second grade. They got along so fabulously that it was just a given that he would be in his class in fifth grade.

I requested DD get the same teacher that DS had in first grade, and she did -- whether they took it into account or not is a mystery. Unfortunately, I said "I'll never ask for anything else" and now I'm regretting that because her teacher this year is not a good match and may be moving up to third along with her next year. We'll see if they let me go back on it.

Officially, they do not take requests. DS was a special case, with his IEP and ALP and stuff.

Personally, I don't see why they have this policy -- it would make more sense, to me, to let parents make requests and match as many as possible, then fill the classes with those who didn't have a preference. But what do I know.

Here it just isn't done-- you can't mention specific teacher names. There are too many parents who'd push to have the teachers with good reputations. I can understand why they don't want to deal.

We have had private conversations with the current-grade teacher to make sure she understands what we think DS needs (again, no mentioning names). And I think the staff is aware of many issues and usually eager to place kids correctly.

I just always assumed that it would make it harder to distribute the workload fairly for the teachers if there were an uneven amount of kids in a room with IEPs or other special circumstances. I don't know all the reasons, but this is a good reason, imo.

Our school is moving toward team teaching. Last year, he split time between two teachers. This year, it's between four. So in our case, asking for a specific teacher would not have worked.

When he was in Kinder, I did ask for a meeting with his teacher at year-end (she encouraged parents to meet with her for an end of the year wrap up so you would know what to focus on over the summer --- loved her!) I asked her then if she knew which teacher he might get. She told me they hadn't made their recommendations yet at that time. We discussed his personality, ability/willingness to listen/follow directions, etc. and I asked her to *please* consider the teachers' personalities and recommend whichever she felt would handle him and his needs the best. We had a great experience with his first grade teacher, so I think she chose pretty well.

Maybe that's a way to approach the teacher? Perhaps not outright ask, but lead them to the water you want them to drink by showing how your son and the teacher of your choice are a great match.

I know that you have had lots of issues with the school. Is there a staff member that you trust with whom you could discuss the best way to approach this with the team? I think that it is a good idea to raise the issue. Maybe you could ask them to add this to the agenda to give the team some warning that you would like to address this topic? You don't want the assistive tech people to feel like their meeting has been hijacked. They may tell you that they'd rather schedule another meeting but that's better than them feeling like they've been ambushed.