A Miracle...or something
Today I had an interesting conversation with my son's teacher. She said "Is this really the child I heard so much about before the start of the year?"
By this she meant "He's not nearly the demon he was said to be"
My son got off to a bad start last year and it ruined the whole school year. He refused to do his work, acted out in class, and eventually got violent (I was actually told that a para could sue me because he kicked her). The principal, classroom teacher, para, counselor, speech therapist, and special ed teacher had a conference with me to "try to deal with the situation". It was basically an hour of trying to figure out why he does this and how I deal with this type of behavior at home. I got the "You're so full of it" look when I told them that he didn't act like that at home because I do not put up with that type pf behavior. Well things continued to get worse, and in November they took him out of the classroom and put him in a room by himself with a para.
April rolled around and I had to fight to get a meeting with the "group" to discuss wether it was really in his best interest to move on to first grade. At first I was just told "We don't believe in retention." I eventually got my meeting and was convinced that moving on was best for him. I also was able to get him back into the regular classroom for the last few weeks of school.
The theme I saw most throughout the school year was "Be sensitive to his feelings." What a bunch of crap! All he was doing was pushing his boundaries and they kept loosening them instead of standing up to him. He walked all over them, and I tried to tell them that they needed to put their foot down and tell him how it was going to be. Never happened.
Fast forward to this year. I have been told by his teacher, his classroom aide, and the counselor that he is a joy to work with this year. He is actually one of the best behaved students in his class. He rarely gets in any trouble whatsoever. What is so different about this year? Did I do lots of work with him over the summer? No. Did he get counseling over the summer? No, in fact we stopped going to counseling and took him off the meds they put him on in February. So what changed? His teacher. This year's teacher will not put up with his crap and let him know that from the start, and he is a totally different child because of it. I love this woman! I haven't been called to the principal's office once this year...and we've been in school almost a month.
And the best part...this year he tells me he loves school instead of crying that he doesn't want to go to school because he's stupid.
Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to comment!
By this she meant "He's not nearly the demon he was said to be"
My son got off to a bad start last year and it ruined the whole school year. He refused to do his work, acted out in class, and eventually got violent (I was actually told that a para could sue me because he kicked her). The principal, classroom teacher, para, counselor, speech therapist, and special ed teacher had a conference with me to "try to deal with the situation". It was basically an hour of trying to figure out why he does this and how I deal with this type of behavior at home. I got the "You're so full of it" look when I told them that he didn't act like that at home because I do not put up with that type pf behavior. Well things continued to get worse, and in November they took him out of the classroom and put him in a room by himself with a para.
April rolled around and I had to fight to get a meeting with the "group" to discuss wether it was really in his best interest to move on to first grade. At first I was just told "We don't believe in retention." I eventually got my meeting and was convinced that moving on was best for him. I also was able to get him back into the regular classroom for the last few weeks of school.
The theme I saw most throughout the school year was "Be sensitive to his feelings." What a bunch of crap! All he was doing was pushing his boundaries and they kept loosening them instead of standing up to him. He walked all over them, and I tried to tell them that they needed to put their foot down and tell him how it was going to be. Never happened.
Fast forward to this year. I have been told by his teacher, his classroom aide, and the counselor that he is a joy to work with this year. He is actually one of the best behaved students in his class. He rarely gets in any trouble whatsoever. What is so different about this year? Did I do lots of work with him over the summer? No. Did he get counseling over the summer? No, in fact we stopped going to counseling and took him off the meds they put him on in February. So what changed? His teacher. This year's teacher will not put up with his crap and let him know that from the start, and he is a totally different child because of it. I love this woman! I haven't been called to the principal's office once this year...and we've been in school almost a month.
And the best part...this year he tells me he loves school instead of crying that he doesn't want to go to school because he's stupid.
Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to comment!
posted by nebraska girl | 5:52 PM
2 Comments:
This is awesome. For the record, I am the SECOND teacher, LOL! And yes, the student I'm talking about is mostly bad for a teacher he perceives "hates" him. A teacher's attitude can make all the difference in the world.
I hope you son never has a problem like that again (KOW), and if he does, I hope you email me early on in the situation so that I can try to help. It breaks my heart to think of a kindergartener that out of control; you're going to love my next post on parenting...still in the works.
This was a rough year for us. Their dad and I has split up that spring and we moved to the town where I was going to college and working so I didn't have the hour drive every day. His teacher had previously taught 4-6 graders and had never taught kindergarten before. When he started acting out she sent him to the counselor who showed him sympathy and allowed him to play with the toys in his office. Things got worse from there. It was a perfect storm of bad decisions by the adults in his life and he's the one who suffered, poor kid.
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