I have had it with DS's teacher

[cole70]

DS is in 1st grade. His teacher is only in her 2nd yr of teaching. We are in the fastest growing school district in Illinois so alot of teachers have very little experience. We delayed him starting kindergarten because his birthday was right after the cut off so he is one of the oldest in his class plus we felt he needed the extra time. He was in a preschool class that used a kindergarten cirruculum(sp) for the yr before he started and did really well. He did fairly well in kindergarten with a teacher that had over 10 yrs experience teaching only kindergarten. Last report card we found out he was behind in reading and spelling. Reading we knew about but spelling was a shock because all his spelling test were coming back with at least 3/4 of the words correct. AND we were NOT told that he was put in a special reading class. I set up a meeting with the Principal and the teacher after the parent/teacher conferences because I did not like the tone nor the way his teacher was responding to my questions. I felt better after the meeting. The teacher was going to keep me up to date with progress etc and we were going to really work on things at home. A few weeks ago he got a 20 out of 27 on his spelling test. She wrote in LARGE red letters "TRY HARDER" on it-out of line in my opinion! Last Friday was a big spelling review of all the words they have gone over plus 10 bonus words they have come across but not spent time on. Yesterday DS came home and said he did really bad on the test. I look at it and he has all but one of the words correct and 2 of the 10 bonus words. I asked him how that was bad and he said it wasnt good enough. I asked him if his teacher said that and he said no but would not elaborate. He also brought home a midterm report saying that he is now also behind in math as well as spelling and reading. I find this hard to believe because he was doing multiplication in preschool. He is a wiz at math. My DH and myself work with him every night on spelling, reading and math. I feel confident in knowing what he is behind in which is reading so we are working extra hard on that. I also find him getting problems or words correct at home on his own and yet the very next day getting them wrong at school. I know something is not right here!!!!!! I feel his teacher is ineffective but there is nothing we can do. All of the classes are full and they cannot and will not switch teachers. I have a meeting scheduled with just the principal tonight about all of this. I am bringing every single piece of paper he has brought home so he can see some of the comments she has made and that he really isnt doing as bad as she is making it seem. I need to get to the bottom of this.

[chacha]

Does your son know how to tell time with the big hand and little hand? Does he know the value of a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar bills? Does he know numerical order, what comes next, etc.? There is alot included in the math class, as my son is in 1st grade and I do this with him. Alot of parents only think of the numbers, but there's more to it.

[cole70]

Chacha-thanks for the reminder. Yes he knows all of that. We work out of his math workbook that they use at school. So we are going over exactly what they are going over in class.

[DivineMsDi]

I totally sympathize w/you. I have a son in first grade who has a lot of problems because his writing is terrible. He has a learning disability (or possibly several) and he cannot write clearly. He forgets the way the letters and numbers go. He is, however, a very smart child, and can read well, understands advanced concepts and so on.

I am also a former teacher with a masters degree, and like you and your dh, work with our child EVERY night, on weekends and during breaks to keep his skills up to date.

Last week, despite my hard work drilling Alex, he got a 5/10 on his spelling test. :(

First grade is a pain in the butt, in my opinion! They expect these "babies" (sorry at 5 and 6 I still think of them as babies) to be totally responsible for so many things. My son is STRESSED!!

I asked my son's teacher at our conference WHY do they push these kids so fast? What is the point? She really couldn't answer me. I think kindergarten and first grade should be slower grades where they work on the kids' skills and get them confident for the upper grades.

Experience doesn't necessarily make a better teacher. My ds was put in K with the worst teacher I have ever encountered in my personal or private life. When we went in day 1 for the conference, she ripped my son apart because she thought she KNEW him after 2.5 hours. I yanked him out of there and complained to the principal (who stood up for this fine teacher of many years who also TRAUMATIZED my nephew).

You should ask the teacher what level is your son supposed to be at in these subjects? What is the norm for grades or abilities? Is he really "behind?" the standards? Is she just TRYING to make herself look good by having "good" grades for her class?

Try not to make the teacher the enemy. Maybe you can work with her to solve your son's problems or let her see what you see.

Good luck, sorry if I was ranting above.

[cole70]

Thank you for the insight DivineMsDi. At the parent/teacher conference the teacher showed us a chart that listed all the the children in order of skills etc. My son was 4th from the bottom (there are 25 kids in the class). She said at the time he was on the boarderline of what would be "failing" the class. She said that he excelled in art, music, pe, science, social studies, geography, computers and whatever else but was what she considered failing in reading and spelling. Math was a little above average at the time. She said that reading, spelling and math were the main ones she used to chart the class.

I tried to be very proactive. We met with her prior to the start of school. We tried to be involved in every way we can. When I ask the teacher for suggestions, the things she suggests we do are already being done. I am not getting the answers I need from her.

Why would he get the answers right at home and the very next day get them wrong in school, only to get them right at home again when we went over them?

I agree, they push the k and 1st graders way too much these days.

[cinnamonch]

You know her comments do not help his cause. Even if he cant read everything she rights, he has an idea and thats is not the kind of encouragement he needs.

What teachers need to realize is that not every child learns at the same pace or same way and if they actually took a minute or two, they would figure out what tactics they need to use for each one.

Its just parents figure out what works for each child in their house, the same should go with teachers.

[menanamama]

did you ever think he might have "test" anxiety. sounds like he could if he can do it at home but not when he gets to school...also he just might not mesh with the teacher and he could be trying so hard to impress that he ends up the other way. she needs to make it clear that trying his best is what is most important. try talking to her again...i would

[Blondiex46]

I would ask for an evaluation be done. They have 60 school days to do it but I would still ask for it. Sometimes kids do forget from the night before, so I would study them in the morning if possible and see if that works. What she did was uncalled for, but try to straighten it out and document everything. Every conversation that you have and what has been done. Spelling and Reading can be a big problem along with math, which you say is fine. The are not doing reading problems in math really so if there is a reading problem you won't see it yet. Also, where is he sitting in the classroom AND how is she giving the test, verbally I am assuming, but how much time b/t the words then she is giving them. Oh yea how is she giving them ie.. word...sentence...word?

[Freebeemom]

did you ever think he might have "test" anxiety. sounds like he could if he can do it at home but not when he gets to school...also he just might not mesh with the teacher and he could be trying so hard to impress that he ends up the other way. she needs to make it clear that trying his best is what is most important. try talking to her again...i would



My son has this as well. He is in second grade. We work VERY hard on his spelling tests, math etc. every night. There is a great program for the computer from Jump Start. It is a personalized math/spelling program. You can put in his words and he can play games while practicing. I live in IL. You can check them out from your library or from interlibrary loan.

My DS's 1st grade teacher was like this. Every time I would go in to volunteer, she woudl tell me all BAD things about him...nothing ever good. She finally had her baby and my son started to excell. Unbelievable.

Hope things work out for you.

[jedmatters]

but spelling was a shock because all his spelling test were coming back with at least 3/4 of the words correct. That is just a 75%, and some schools consider that borderline to failing (70 is the lowest passing grade at many schools).

A few weeks ago he got a 20 out of 27 on his spelling test. She wrote in LARGE red letters "TRY HARDER" on it-out of line in my opinion! That comes to a 74%. And writing TRY HARDER means she wants him to excel more.

Last Friday was a big spelling review of all the words they have gone over plus 10 bonus words they have come across but not spent time on. Yesterday DS came home and said he did really bad on the test. I look at it and he has all but one of the words correct and 2 of the 10 bonus words. I asked him how that was bad and he said it wasnt good enough. I asked him if his teacher said that and he said no but would not elaborate. We have had parents come to us about words that they said were spelled correctly, and we counted wrong. The words may be correct, but they were not in the order the test gave them, therefore wrong. And if your son said the teacher did not tell him to try harder or that it was not good enough, then you can not complain about the teacher's reaction. As he denied there was one.


He also brought home a midterm report saying that he is now also behind in math as well as spelling and reading. I find this hard to believe because he was doing multiplication in preschool. He is a wiz at math. Tests and homework can have varying challenges on children. Pre-school is not the same structure as school. And he may not be connecting the work trhe same way as pre-school days.


I also find him getting problems or words correct at home on his own and yet the very next day getting them wrong at school. I know something is not right here!!!!!! Spellinhg tests are nor memorization of words. They are mixed up and not in the order many students studied, and therefore they are not spelled correctly. The child expects a word to come next, and when a different one does, it confuses the child.
Ask what phonics and spelling method the school uses. Ours uses "Open COurt" and "Johnny can Spell" Get information on the one the school uses. Find out how to help at home with the program.

I feel his teacher is ineffective but there is nothing we can do. All of the classes are full and they cannot and will not switch teachers. I have a meeting scheduled with just the principal tonight about all of this. I am bringing every single piece of paper he has brought home so he can see some of the comments she has made and that he really isnt doing as bad as she is making it seem. I need to get to the bottom of this. You must go into the meeting not ready to punce on her. You must be open to her workings and remember it is her class. Everyone wants to think they have the perfect child, that can not be wrong ons chool work, but at school, the child may be different. Ask if you can do surprise visits at the school. The principal and you only know of. Not your son, not the teacher. See for yourself what a day or so is like. There may be more to this than a few papers can say.

[Linus1223]

but spelling was a shock because all his spelling test were coming back with at least 3/4 of the words correct. That is just a 75%, and some schools consider that borderline to failing (70 is the lowest passing grade at many schools).

A few weeks ago he got a 20 out of 27 on his spelling test. She wrote in LARGE red letters "TRY HARDER" on it-out of line in my opinion! That comes to a 74%. And writing TRY HARDER means she wants him to excel more.

Last Friday was a big spelling review of all the words they have gone over plus 10 bonus words they have come across but not spent time on. Yesterday DS came home and said he did really bad on the test. I look at it and he has all but one of the words correct and 2 of the 10 bonus words. I asked him how that was bad and he said it wasnt good enough. I asked him if his teacher said that and he said no but would not elaborate. We have had parents come to us about words that they said were spelled correctly, and we counted wrong. The words may be correct, but they were not in the order the test gave them, therefore wrong. And if your son said the teacher did not tell him to try harder or that it was not good enough, then you can not complain about the teacher's reaction. As he denied there was one.


He also brought home a midterm report saying that he is now also behind in math as well as spelling and reading. I find this hard to believe because he was doing multiplication in preschool. He is a wiz at math. Tests and homework can have varying challenges on children. Pre-school is not the same structure as school. And he may not be connecting the work trhe same way as pre-school days.


I also find him getting problems or words correct at home on his own and yet the very next day getting them wrong at school. I know something is not right here!!!!!! Spellinhg tests are nor memorization of words. They are mixed up and not in the order many students studied, and therefore they are not spelled correctly. The child expects a word to come next, and when a different one does, it confuses the child.
Ask what phonics and spelling method the school uses. Ours uses "Open COurt" and "Johnny can Spell" Get information on the one the school uses. Find out how to help at home with the program.

I feel his teacher is ineffective but there is nothing we can do. All of the classes are full and they cannot and will not switch teachers. I have a meeting scheduled with just the principal tonight about all of this. I am bringing every single piece of paper he has brought home so he can see some of the comments she has made and that he really isnt doing as bad as she is making it seem. I need to get to the bottom of this. You must go into the meeting not ready to punce on her. You must be open to her workings and remember it is her class. Everyone wants to think they have the perfect child, that can not be wrong ons chool work, but at school, the child may be different. Ask if you can do surprise visits at the school. The principal and you only know of. Not your son, not the teacher. See for yourself what a day or so is like. There may be more to this than a few papers can say.
ITA!

[EricsnKy]

but spelling was a shock because all his spelling test were coming back with at least 3/4 of the words correct. That is just a 75%, and some schools consider that borderline to failing (70 is the lowest passing grade at many schools).

A few weeks ago he got a 20 out of 27 on his spelling test. She wrote in LARGE red letters "TRY HARDER" on it-out of line in my opinion! That comes to a 74%. And writing TRY HARDER means she wants him to excel more.

Last Friday was a big spelling review of all the words they have gone over plus 10 bonus words they have come across but not spent time on. Yesterday DS came home and said he did really bad on the test. I look at it and he has all but one of the words correct and 2 of the 10 bonus words. I asked him how that was bad and he said it wasnt good enough. I asked him if his teacher said that and he said no but would not elaborate. We have had parents come to us about words that they said were spelled correctly, and we counted wrong. The words may be correct, but they were not in the order the test gave them, therefore wrong. And if your son said the teacher did not tell him to try harder or that it was not good enough, then you can not complain about the teacher's reaction. As he denied there was one.


He also brought home a midterm report saying that he is now also behind in math as well as spelling and reading. I find this hard to believe because he was doing multiplication in preschool. He is a wiz at math. Tests and homework can have varying challenges on children. Pre-school is not the same structure as school. And he may not be connecting the work trhe same way as pre-school days.


I also find him getting problems or words correct at home on his own and yet the very next day getting them wrong at school. I know something is not right here!!!!!! Spellinhg tests are nor memorization of words. They are mixed up and not in the order many students studied, and therefore they are not spelled correctly. The child expects a word to come next, and when a different one does, it confuses the child.
Ask what phonics and spelling method the school uses. Ours uses "Open COurt" and "Johnny can Spell" Get information on the one the school uses. Find out how to help at home with the program.

I feel his teacher is ineffective but there is nothing we can do. All of the classes are full and they cannot and will not switch teachers. I have a meeting scheduled with just the principal tonight about all of this. I am bringing every single piece of paper he has brought home so he can see some of the comments she has made and that he really isnt doing as bad as she is making it seem. I need to get to the bottom of this. You must go into the meeting not ready to punce on her. You must be open to her workings and remember it is her class. Everyone wants to think they have the perfect child, that can not be wrong ons chool work, but at school, the child may be different. Ask if you can do surprise visits at the school. The principal and you only know of. Not your son, not the teacher. See for yourself what a day or so is like. There may be more to this than a few papers can say.


Very well said and ITA.....

[buglebe]

Test anxiety is a very real problem, and it can stay with a person for their whole life.