Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Finding the right Kindergarten teacher for ee

Yup. This is a big part fo the reason we're homeschooling. I couldn't feel good about leaving my child with a woman who thought this was a great strategy for dealing with 6yos. :p

Did I mention she had a LOT of behavior problems? And strangely enough, the biggest trouble came from the kids IDd as GT already. (Color me surprised...sarcasm, sarcasm...)

So does that lead to better teaching or more challenging work? No, it leads to less recess and more bribery.

I get mad every time I think about it...Sorry to go OT. I won't post about it again. Promise!

Then I'll post about it! I think our teachers were separated at birth. This sounds a lot like our teacher and it seemed to be brightest boys often in the most trouble.

There is another teacher at our school that got the threat of a law suit this past year because she left a 2nd grader unattended in the classroom during recess repeatedly. The family got to hand pick a new teacher for their child. They got the best teacher in the school and magically this boy had no behavioral issues in his new class.

Even the bright *girl* was in trouble in our class. Neither she nor my son had had so much as a behavior warning the previous year, when they were with the teacher who believed in teaching every kid and who differentiated the work.

Coincidence? I think not!

Maybe we are better off painting a picture of who our dd is and see if a lightbulb goes off in there head. because our district has all kids bused to one k-3 school... assuming the teacher serves both am and pm... there are probably 8 teachers so maybe not as big of a pool as i was first thinking (forgot about the am/pm thing and was just thinking 250 kids in that grade divided by about 24 (yes 24-25 in k, 28-30 in 1-3).

i'm less concerned with serving the gt factor this year then the emotional side of ee. today i realize one thing though ... i think there is a difference between some basic maturity behaviors and being an emotional child. we don't do much wacky immature behavior but we do sometimes struggle to manage our emotional response to things. we can sit still. i just worry if someone offends her by her own definition if she respond appropriately. but in a seperate thread i agree with one response about kids being different with others than with their families.

What constitutes responding appropriately, or inappropriately, for that matter?

I remember that you posted about that once before, but I can't remember the specifics. Do you mind refreshing my memory?

FWIW, a lot of kids this age haven't really learned to moderate their responses. I'm not sure that's even a GT thing, thought the often-typical GT heightened sense of social justice can make it worse.

My "lessons learned":

-A teacher with a great reputation (that knows they have a great reputation) may be a difficult one to deal with, as they feel like they have little to learn let alone allow any "special accommodations" for a child since all children are special and gifted.

-A teacher who has issues in their personal life, will totally mess up a gifted child, as gifted child perceive this way more than any other child and may even internalize it and blame themselves.

-A teacher who is creative and imaginative can hold a young gifted child's attention and figure out creative solutions, even unconventional acceleration or grade skips (gasp!!!).

-A teacher who thinks only boys are gifted in math and recommends 10 boys an 0 girls from a class to GT math, may not be the best fit for a math savvy GT girl, LOL!!

Can you tell we've had some interesting teachers?? I am so excited to have a GT specialized teacher this year. Our best fit otherwise was our 2nd grade teacher, who was a real life Ms. Frizzle from Magic School bus. Set the bar real high for any other teachers we will ever encounter.