I have been debating introducing a new type of series for the blog called “Ask the Teacher Tuesday.” I’ve been hesitant, however, because I don’t want to come across as if “I know it all” and “this is how you do it” and “if you don’t do it this way, you are doing it wrong”, but I am a teacher by trade and finally decided that I could possibly help my readers out with information on how to help your children succeed in school. Of course, as in any profession, there will always be conflicting arguments on what is best for children and what the best methods are to use, and I respect those arguments as long as the well being of children is the primary goal.
My goal is to help parents with questions that they may have but don’t know who to ask or where to find the information in books. I want to be as straight-forward and unbiased as possible, and avoid speaking “teacher-ease”. The subject of the questions could, for example, address study-skills, communication with teachers, communication with your child, or specific subject questions in math, science, etc.
I hope to begin getting questions, concerning education, from you, the readers, that I will be able to answer on Tuesdays. Depending on the amount of questions I get, I will choose 2 or 3 of the most relevant ones, to highlight each week. So get asking!
Feel free to leave comments on this post with questions, email me, or ask your question on Twitter.
Any advice on when/how to start teaching reading?
Ok, so I am curious what a teacher really wants from a parent.
I have a super sweet, super smart little 1st grader (insert proud momma here) and I of course want the best for her. My daughter started school 3 weeks ago and I have not pointed out to the teacher that she is super smart, but the teacher has already made comments to me about how absolutely delightful she is to have in her class and how she can always count on her to follow the rules. She has mentioned that my daughter is a very fluent reader and has a love for math.
My daughter scored well enough to be in the gifted program, but we chose not to put her in because it’s a self contained gifted program and as a 1st grader we want her to have fun and enjoy school, not feel stressed.
At what point do I say adding 5 + 3 is just not enough for her? I volunteer every Monday in the class and I’m there to help her out whenever she needs, but I don’t want to take advantage of that exposure to talk about my kid.
Do I wait for the teacher to approach me with options to challenge her or do I start asking? I don’t want to be THAT Mom, but I’m starting to feel like it.
Thank you.
That is a very legitimate concern. What I would suggest doing is to contact her homeroom teacher and request a conference with her and the gifted teacher, as soon as possible. Explain your concerns with them. If you do not want her to be in a self contained classroom, they may be able to have her pulled out part of the day to be with the gifted class and part of the day with her regular class. Or all three of you might be able to come up with a different solution. I know in the district I had the privilege of teaching in, we had a WEP (written educational plan) for each gifted student that documented how I (the teacher) was meeting the needs of that individual student). At the school I was at, we did not have a pull out, self contained gifted class. But we did have a gifted teacher that was in our building one day a week to work individually (or in small groups) with the Identified Gifted students.
But most important is open communication and willingness to try different methods until one is reached that both challenges your daughter and one that your are comfortable with.
Please let me know how it turns out!! And of course if you have any other questions, feel free to contact me! Can’t wait to hear from you!