Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Educating the teacher - need some help

While our hunt goes on for either a better school for DD9 (we also plan on having a mega meeting with the current public school principal, DD's psychologist, etc to see what we can do) DH and I are going to take the time to educate the 4th grade teacher about HG kids and hopefully paint a positive picture of DD, her quirkiness and all her amazing qualities. I've been to Hoagies and several other sites looking for articles to give to an elementary teacher. Do you all have some suggestions? I would like some hard hitting articles. This teacher has already said things to DD which lead me to believe that she's not a sweet teacher who is going to take us at our word. DD said before she went to bed tonight that she didn't want to go back to school. I need some good information to help the teacher understand just why DD does some of the things she does so maybe school can be a bit better for DD.

I think the best way you can educate the teacher is to listen to her and see what her perspective is on your dd. Then reframe her thoughts and expectations so she can see things more as you do. Once you know her perspective, you can find literature that will back up what you are telling her.

Yes to what MON said. Listen first.

I've never found it helpful to hand a teacher articles about gifted kids in general (or any other general topic). If you need them to know your DD, facilitate that instead. Your DD is not all gifted kids, she's herself.

I think that if you ask the teacher her thoughts, and then give her articles to show her a different perspective, she will take it like you are arguing with her or criticizing her viewpoint. I've never tried to give teachers articles on giftedness, but I have tried articles on disabilities, or at least I've given them links in emails and said "I found this helpful in understanding DS (or DD). The article lists some modifications that were helpful for a similar sounding child" (or whatever...I'm just making this up). I think the key is to make it come across like you are trying to help her, rather than make her think differently. I also think it's helpful to actually go in and talk to the teacher one on one (assuming you are not too upset, because that would probably be apparent, at least with myself, it's hard to hide. In that case I'm better off with emails which I can go back and re-write if they come off too strong).

hello, this is very interesting for everyone to reading a literature book perfectly & meaning full process.

Not all teachers welcome help or advice from well-meaning parents. Even though you are the expert on your child, this is their profession, and it's useful to approach them with that in mind.

So what are you saying? Just do nothing and hope they figure it out? I think it's a parent's job to attempt to educate teachers on whatever disability or condition their child has, esp. if things have not been going well for the child. The parent is advocating for the child. It doesn't need to come across as "pushy", as in giving the teacher an article and saying "please read this by Monday and let me know what you think", but offers to give information should be fine, esp. if it's something that the teacher would not be normally trained on. Developmental coordination disorder, for instance. When I explained information about my DS, I gave them a link and said "This explains it better than I can." Most people in the education field don't know what it is. Or "slow processing speed". I doubt that was ever covered in teacher training courses. I think some articles can come across as pushy or critical of the teacher so parents need to be careful and do it judiciously. If the articles are just on "giftedness" and not a very specific issue other than that, I agree that can be taken the wrong way.

It will be very hard for me not to go in without armloads of data as I am a research junkie, but I will sit and listen to the teacher with an open mind (try to). She has already made my child more miserable than she already was, and I have found that none of the teachers are familiar with HG kids so my go to behavior is to hand out articles. We are also going to let the teacher know that DD has ADHD inattentive type since DD has been scolded repeatedly for forgetting items. We let a few weeks go by to allow the teacher to settle into the year and to get to know DD. I think we waited too long.
DD is now asking not to go to school so this is really tough. I hate that the other school we were wishing to switch to was not the best fit so we are stuck here for now.

This sounds like a good compromise to me - I can pick out very specific points that I want to address (poor working memory!! visual spatial kid!!!) and go from there. This teacher just does not "get" DD so I'm glad I saw this post before I logged off.

Is there any kind of guidance counselor or student advocate in the building? You mentioned she is getting a 504, I think? Or am I thinking of someone else? Maybe that person can act as an advocate and go in and talk to the teacher? That person can act like they are both on the teacher's team, plus the child's team.