The Oasis - A spot for FORT parents

[canuckinchile]

Not to be picky, but she had the 103 fever that evening I think Duxxy said. Lots of kids develop fatigue before the onset of a fever....dunno, but she may have not been running much of a temp earlier on in the day. Teacher sounds like she should retire though.

[Google]

 

[Muduh]

hep, our kid goes to what is called an Optional school, here. It's supposed to be for kids who are outstanding, but I'm not sure how they decide that a Kindergarten kid is or isn't. I could have TOLD them, but they didn't ask.

He just told me that his show comes on at 15 o'clock so I may have to rethink that advanced placement thing. It may not be working for him.

[DesertRose]

Originally Posted by Muduh

He just told me that his show comes on at 15 o'clock so I may have to rethink that advanced placement thing. It may not be working for him.

Muduh, don't rethink it yet!!! In French, we use the 24 hour clock. Which means we don't have am or pm. 3 h means 3 heures or 3 am. 15 o'clock is 15 heures, or 3 pm. So maybe he's right Maybe he's more advanced than you think

[Muduh]

I might fall for that if it hadn't been 6 pm when he said it.

[Duxxy]

canuck is right - the fever didn't show up until that evening - but had the teacher called (it was the 4th week of school she didn't know any of the kids) I would have known there was something else going on. We live in a working class neighbourhood - it's a neighbourhood we chose because it's central and close to everything and since I don't drive and I can't stand to be trapped it was a must for us. There are a fair amount of lower income families in this area and our school does have a breakfast club for those families that need it. I can see how she may jump to the conclusion that M didn't get enough sleep - on one hand you can argue that it shows her experience - in many cases lack of sleep may have been the case or one can argue that because of our area she just assumed that M was the product of a substandard lifestyle.
She was very surprised to see my husband and I together at the open house and she really shouldnt have been since the school is a real mix of family situations.
6 more weeks until Christmas vacation.

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by Muduh

Wonder what ever happened to teaching to different levels in groups? Didn't most of you have groups divided according to ability? I did and my kids did. That was, the slower kids aren't rushed through and the quicker learners weren't held back. Guess maybe that makes too much sense for our modern day educators. i also think it could be referred to as dumbing down our kids.

I wish I had some answers for you all but I think that each kid is a special case and needs individual solutions to the problem. Sounds like Meredith's teacher should have been put out to pasture a long time ago.

That's how they did it back in my day too Muduh, but I have fought against this for 11 years now. They don't do it because putting all the slower kids together gets them labeled and they don't want to do that as it affects their self esteem. What I've been told anyway. Meanwhile, my "gifted" student has spent almost 11 years in a school system that has bored the crap out of her. She has honors classes, but not all of them. She really excels in the honors classes as they challenge her. But in the regular ones, she is almost failing and its because she is so bored, she doesn't care.

We have made a really tough decision, one we have thought out carefully, planned accordingly and are going to pull her out of school in Jan. and homeschool her ourselves. My husband has an engineering degree and can do math that I never even knew existed, so he will handle that. The local community college will take her next year and the classes will count as both highschool and college. We have found a course of study that will accelerate her learning and with the college classes, we are hoping she will be challenged enough to possibly graduate a year early. But both last year and this, we have seen a huge change in her and its the way she's being taught. As we can't afford private school, this is our option and I think she will thrive on it. The laws here for homeschooling are pretty strict and the testing is done twice a year, so we will know if she is up to the state standards or not.
She scored so high on the state tests last year that they pegged her at the 11th grade level and she was a 9th grader. Hence part of the problem. If she can read, write and do math at an 11th grade level as a freshman, then having her take 10th grade courses this year, has her below her own tested level. And she's bored, bored, bored.
So we will try it and see how it works and if it doesn't, then next year, we will find a magnet school or something to get her in. They won't let her change this late in the year now.
They teach to the lowest kid in class so the smarter kids are left on their own and I think it hurts them not to be challenged and you run the risk of "losing" them to bad behavior, poor grades, etc., because they are so bored in school. And giving them "busy" work isn't challenging them, its just keeping them busy.
And the other problem we have is a teacher that we met at open house whose first words to the parents were: I am retiring after this year. He then went on and it was SO obvious that he is marking his time in the classroom dreaming of retirement and isn't actually teaching a thing. I have felt his attitude is: "I'm leaving, so they can't fire me and I realy don't care". This is one of the classes that she is bored in and is having problems in and hates this teacher because of his poor attitude towards the students.

I really NEVER, EVER, in a milllion years thought I would homeschool, but in order to "save" my daughter and keep her interested and keep her grades up, we have to do something.

Never say never, because you may just find yourself doing that thing you said you never would.

And Duxxy, I had my daughter pulled out of a bad teacher situation in 2nd grade. I made such a fuss and had documented myself the number of times that things were not "right" that they yanked her and put her in a different class with a different teacher and low and behold, all the "problems" stopped.
You are your child's ONLY advocate. No one is going to stand up for your child like you and this is what the principal told me when we went through the change of teacher in 2nd grade. So I have it on authority that this is corrrect! And that teacher was "let go" after that year, so there were obviously problems that the school knew about.
Keep fighting for your child. YOU know what's right and if the principal won't do anything, go over his head to the county superintendent. Don't stop until you get what you want and what is best for your child. My threats of getting the superintendent involved worked well in our favor (besides, he was my ex-BIL, although they didn't know that and I still had a good relationship with him, so I knew if the principal didn't change things, I could get it changed at the county level, but it didn't come down to that)
Good luck.

[PWS]

Originally Posted by canuckinchile

Not to be picky, but she had the 103 fever that evening I think Duxxy said. Lots of kids develop fatigue before the onset of a fever....dunno, but she may have not been running much of a temp earlier on in the day. Teacher sounds like she should retire though.

Aw, canuckinchile, you and Duxxy are too fair!
myrosiedog-- I think Duxxy's real problem is that it is a small school and she is the only teacher at that grade level. Unless she homeschools her child or transfers her to another school she is stuck with this one-year-from-retirement person.

[myrosiedog]

See, that's what I get for not going back and reading CAREFULLY.

We too are having mega problems with a retiring at the end of the year teacher that is just marking his time until May.

His first name is Elvis. REALLY. And I am wondering if on the last day of school, they will announce over the intercom: Elvis has LEFT the building!

I however think he's already left the building as he's just there as a warm body and isn't teaching anything.

[Muduh]

I went to scchool with a guy named Elvis.

mrd, lots of private schools give scholarships. You might look in to that.

Are you sure that you want a bored teenager hanging around the house 24/7?
You can't see me shuddering. can you?

[Gutmutter]

I went to school with a kid named Donald Duck...the fourth!