Well as the second term comes to an end I feel that our family is enveloped in this new schooling gig. Parent teacher interviews happened this week and I confess that I felt a bit weird about it - surely I wasn't ready to be in the parents' seat?? Due to all the contact we ahve with the school and the wonderful way theya re able to develop partnerships with families there were no real surprises.
Words for Hannah:awareness; great improvement;confident; growing ability to communicate what she is able to do; identify; recognises; make connections; good; appropriately; enjoys; happy; gentle; extremely well; enjoys reading; energy, smile and involvement demonstrate her growing ability to be engaged and a part of classroom activities; involved; individually; sit and listen; easily distracted; follow; progress; encourage; great work.
Words for Kit:enjoys; kind; thoughtful; Christian manner; listens; eager to respond; discuss; knows and uses; sound understanding; manipulates and sorts and describes; asks questions; willingly explores; confidently able; pleasing; conscientious; excited about learning; always really positive; easily engrossed; happily work on his own; fair effort; delight to teach.
So all good! Except that soon I feel DH and I may have to decide how we are going to parent Kit's academic progress. I know he is smart - his report agreed with that. I know he is one of 3 kids in kindy who are clearly working well above their peers in some areas. Kit started at reading level 1 or 3 (?- can't recall which one now!) and is currently reading at level 10. He scored outstanding for all the reading elements - but what about maths? As first time parents we want what is best for him. We love him exactly as he is. We also feel a tremendous resonsibility to draw out the very best opportunities for him. I worry that on some subconscious level I at least am overcompensating for Hannah having an intellectual disability. I feel I have a really good radar for what she is capable of. I am not so confident of the same for Kit. He got about 60% outstanding 40% satisfactory in the various maths criteria. Some of the satisfactory grades - are for things that we think he has been able to do for a long time. Others I really dont' know. Does it matter? Certianly we know that literacy has a high priority in the kindy. I know that maths is taught but I don't have astrong understanding of how as yet. There was a parent training morning on numeracy but unfortunately I wasn't able to attend. I have heard that the school is just starting to be involved in mathletics - but I dont' actually know what that is. So there you ahve it - are we being unrealistic? Torturing our gorgeous boy with unfair demands? Our concern is if the teacher doesn't recognise his strengths - will she be able to push him? How much are we projecting our own literacy biased experiences upon our son? At this point I don't know - but I know that if there is an issue - teh earlier it is dealt with the better - so how early is appropriate and how early is simply first time parents being overly pushy and unrealistic?
I don't mean to take away from the whole report experience - we are very proud of the achievements of the twins and the quality of the teaching is high.
Kit tells me they will be tested in gymnastics tomorrow - Hannah ahs absolutely loved gymnastics this term. Her teacher said that there was one instructor in particualr who had a really good sense of what she should be able to do and who was able to modify activities for her. Kit tells me all the teachers help Hannah in gym. I am hoping that her teacher is able to get some ideas from the gym providers on hwo we can continue this activity for Hannah out of school hours...
Make sure that the teachers are aware of all Kit's strengths if you think that he is not demonstrating them at school.
ReplyDeleteKeep them accountable for reporting back on his waeknesses too.
I need to say at this point that I am a special education teacher and a mum.
I used to say ' It's only kindergarten, don't worry, it's early days'. Then my number 2 son hit school. He is now 17 and doing year 11.
Fantastic young man, everyone loves him ( even his teachers. When I look back over all his reports from Kinder through to now, I can pretty much see the same report.
Very bright child.
Can put his mind to anything he wants to do.
Not big on presentation skills.
Always wants to be first finished.
Great sense of humor but not appropriate for a 5, 6, 7, 8. 9. 10...17 year old.
Talks too much in class.
Fails to hand in assignments and homework ( even though he has completed the task - Go figure!)
Not the kind of report that you want to read when your child's teacher knows that you are a teacher too!
I have come to the conclusion that number 2 son is, who number 2 son is. No amount of pushing or pleading along the way has made a shred of difference to how he has performed at school because I was out of control of what happened once he was there.
I would have liked his teachers to have told me that work wasn't being handed in, when it was due rather than in the school reports, especially as he goes to a K-12 school and the pattern has existed for the whole of his school life!
He is growing into his sense of humor. Thank goodness!
Looking back with the wisdom that comes from hindsight, I would not have gone to parent teacher interview nights on the days that they were set. I find the standard 10 minute time slot a bit of a waste of time. They never run on time and I am always rushing from one teacher to another.
I would book an appointment for an interview out of P/T interview week so that I would have a better opportunity to talk issues through and set some goals that everyone felt accountable for.