Thursday, March 4, 2010

Feeling The Momma Bear Instinct

I talked to Sarahs' teacher today, very casually she calls me during Sarahs' recess time when I'm dropping off some water for Sarah because of her cough. She tells me that she talked to the panel and they decided that Sarah should stay back a year,shouldn't Dann and I have been a part of this decision? I told her that Sarah has improved on her reading and some of the kids are behind her. Then she told me yes she's noticed Sarah improving in reading. Then she says it's mostly her writing that needs work and if she doesn't improve she wont be ready for first grade. Well to me I think since she's improved so much in reading, numbers, and her abc's in the past month or so then it's only fair to assume she can improve more with her writing in a couple more weeks. She told me she wanted to schedule a meeting with me to show me the difference in her writing and the other kids. I told her lets wait a few weeks or so. It would have been nice for her to schedule a meeting with me to let me know about all this instead of springing it on me like that in the first place. I know Sarah can improve and I get tired of her teacher overlooking so much of what Sarah is accomplishing. It's definitely an emotional thing but I think more so it would be good for Sarah to move forward because she has learned so much and it would be nice for her to keep with some of her class mates. It would also be good for her to move on to a new teacher with a different teaching style. Her teacher doesn't even seem to want to look into an option, like my mom suggested summer school, I think that would be a great option. The panel hasn't even tested her yet to see if she meets the qualification and it's not even the end of the year! Is today some magical cut off date where by Sarah ceases to learn or improve any more?! To me that is just negligent,this kind of attitude get's me so upset, I know it's not a big deal to repeat a grade but I feel like her teacher has way too much indifference on the subject, and Sarah deserves more of a consideration then that.

2 comments:

Grace said...

Honestly, it seems like the teacher is looking for reasons to hold Sarah back. She keeps adding something new when Sarah proves she knows what she is supposed to know. I agree with you maybe it is the teacher who is the problem. Since it seems to me that Sarah is improving because she is learning everything from you. If Sarah is ahead of others as well then I think she should go on. Maybe you should talk to an Administrator at the school about these concerns to find out alternatives. Not only just summer school but tutoring or maybe even having some kind of skills test where they can fairly decide where she is education wise.

Beth Madden Burdette said...

I agree, it's pretty ridiculous, some one was telling me that there is some sort of quota that they have to fill for holding kids back, but I can't see how or why that would be true. Dann was looking at her work from a few months ago and saw how much she's improved from last quarter, so we have the proof to take to the meeting with us. I just wish her teacher wasn't throwing this kind of stress at us.