Gratitude Sunday

Coming of Age 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

My heart is so full today. I cannot begin to express what this day means for me. So much of Tyler’s life is a struggle… for him as well as for his mama. To see this young man I grew from my own body coming into his own… to have members of my beloved community come to me and tell me they were honored to have been on the review panel when he had his interview…

Those of you on my Facebook know I’m reading Gregory Boyle’s book, Tattoos on the Heart. With as many excerpts as I’ve copied from my kindle, I don’t know how you could miss that tidbit. So in keeping with that theme, here’s another gem.

“When you fill my heart, my eyes overflow.” ~ An Algerian Trappist

Boyle, Gregory (2010). Tattoos on the Heart (Kindle Locations 377-378). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

http://www.facebook.com/v/2079595270848

Unitarian Universalists believe that all religions should and can be accepted. A Unitarian Universalist believes in equality for all religions and every race. Unitarian Universalists often believe that religion is a search for meaning. It is more of an openness to new experiences rather than a set of beliefs. Religions help us to realize that every piece of our lives is related to the others.

Some Unitarian Universalists often think of religion as a time consumer for Sunday. Some Unitarian Universalists think of religion as a way of life, a sacred search for meaning and understanding. Some Unitarian Universalists believe in God, some don’t. Some believe that the theory of God is used to bully other religions and some think that God is a force, a feeling that flows through us and connects us to one another. To seek God would be to seek yourself and your surroundings.

Ho Mitakuye Oyasin. This means, I am related to all things and all things are related to me. I don’t believe in God I believe in love and faith. No matter what the situation is I will stand on the side of love, which means I care for the equality of all living things.

Cyndi has a PSA for little & not so little boys…

 Kid’s Crest Sparkle Fun toothpaste will NOT disguise the holes you put in the living room wall while playing with the samurai swords that belonged to your great grandfather.

Blue gel doesn’t turn white. It just stays blue, and stains the wall. It will also cause your mother to spew obscenities, after which you will get a lecture from your father that lasts a solid 45 minutes (and counting).

wild child goes to see big bird…

 …but not on Sesame Street!

In my little circle of parents from SoMo, Tyler is one of the oldest children. People have been stressing me out by asking me what I’m doing about high school for at least a year now.

High school? My little shortie? All, um… 65 (maybe) pounds of him?

*shutthefuckup*

Our Journey: ADHD & Gifted « curlykidz

There’s still more here and there, but I think I have the bulk of the “milestones” transferred.

Archive for the ‘ADHD & Gifted’ Category

via ADHD & Gifted « curlykidz.

#ADHD (& Gifted) « @curlykidz

OK, I’m busily transferring more of those blog archives from other locations, and have been focusing on some from about two and a half years ago, when my oldest hit a dark, scary, and unfortunately, very common place for kids who are exceptional learners: anxiety, depression, and thougths of suicide.

Here’s the link to the ADHD/Gifted archives:

ADHD & Gifted « curlykidz.

Q1 Report Cards & Halloween Costumes

Tyler has C’s in Albegra & Language Arts and B’s in Science, Social Studies, PE & Electronics Band. Overall I’m happy with his report card; his average GPA is better than it’s been for a while. I’m not happy about the C’s, obviously, but I’m most concerned about his grade in Algebra. He has tests each semester that he has to pass with a 70% in order to get high school credit for the class. I’m having a hard time figuring out how much of his grade is effort (or lack thereof) or subject content. I guess the district has a new policy where kids have to be re evaluated for 504′s every three years. This gets on my nerves for several reasons, one of which is that on the paperwork I have to fill out, they ask me to provide copies of report cards. ?!?!?!?!

Halle has a C in math (what’s UP with math this quarter?) and has herself convinced that it’s soooo hard. I watch her try and use strategies to solve problems that I swear to God add like, three or four extra steps. So we’re working on that, and she’s got A’s in every other subject.  She says she wants to run for Student Congress this year instead of Conflict Manager, which is a relief to me. Iasked her if she was going to join Buddy Club this year, and she said no… if she does Student Congress and Buddy Club it’s just too much running around (all these activities happen during lunch recess). I thought that was pretty impressive… hopefully she’ll be able to maintain that awareness of what she can handle & what’s going to just stress her out, unlike those of us who “should” ourselves to death.

Daija is coming along… she’s got self control & taking esponsibility as areas of concern, and everything else is developing or proficient (she doesn’t get letter grades yet). We’re working on that as well… Mommy needs to be more consistent! We spoiled the baby, and now I’m paying for it (and sadly, so is her teacher).

We went and got costumes last night, and somehow, not one of the kids is a vampire. Tyler is an “underworld outcast” and Daija is a US Diva. Halle said over the weekend she wanted to use last year’s costume (she was cleopatra). So I may be dressing up as cleopatra’s mother again… and we’ll be doing our usual Halloween tradition of trick or treating around the neighborhood for a minute and then heading to Doomtown at Rawhide.

ADHD, middle school, and assistive technology

Well, I haven’t blogged about it much, but I have become a prisoner of Tyler’s homework.  He is having a really tough year.  In preparation for middle school, the 5th grade students have reading, writing, and math with their homeroom teacher, and have block scheduling for social studies and science, each with different fourth grade teachers.  On top of that transition, Tyler goes to the gifted teacher for reading and math.  So his day looks like this:

Homeroom
PE, Art, or Music
Homeroom
Reading
Social Studies/Science
Homeroom
Math
Homeroom

So Tyler deals with three to four teachers on a daily basis, and has classroom changes almost every period.  That’s a lot of transition, and he has a really hard time getting back into a calm and focused state.  He gets very little done in school, and he spends most of every evening a) doing work he didn’t do in class or b) on punishment for not bringing home work he knows he didn’t do.

Reflecting Versus Reacting

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From: “Ellen C. Braun” Ellen@RaisingSmallSouls.com

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Imagine with me for a moment that you have just arrived home from a
party.

“Honey, I’m so hungry, do we have anything good to eat?” you ask
your spouse.

“Hungry!” Spouse exclaims, “How could you possibly be hungry; you
ate tons of food at the party!”

Or, how about this scenario:

“Sweetheart,” you begin as you turn towards your spouse to express
yourself, “I’m really very hot. Would you lower the thermostat
please?”

“Hot!” Spouse practically shouts, “I’ll tell you what hot is- go
outside in the sun, then you’ll feel hot! When you come back
inside, you’ll realize that it’s very comfortable in here.”

{End of imagination exercise.}

Reflecting an emotion- towards a child, spouse, or friend- will make
all the difference in the world in how their self-esteem and
relationship with you will develop.

I can honestly say that if I had to choose one article that is the
most essential for parents to read, it would be this one! Read
more here:

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To our children’s success,

Ellen

43 Remson Ave, Monsey, NY 10952, USA

 

Typing for IEP or 504 Accommodations

Tyler has been using Scholastic’s Type to Learn at school as part of his 504 plan.  He absolutely loves it – and has ‘forgotten’ to go to the cafeteria for breakfast once or twice in his hurry to get into class early to play it before school.  I had assumed it was something only the school could get, but there are two downloadable versions for about $15…

Type to Learn Jr. and Type to Learn

as well as their full versions that are available to the public, and most of which won’t break the bank. 

Scholastic/Sunburst Type to Learn Software

Check with your tax professional, but personal use items designed for or recommended by a doctor as a way to mitigate a medical condition or learning disability can be deducted in your taxes or reimbursed by a flexible spending account.  BTW, I was able to get reimbursed with no questions or delays from my TFSA for the Watchminder2, an event that rivaled Moses parting the Red Sea.  I am not kidding – my issues with AON are a standing joke to my neighboring coworkers.  I wouldn’t say that I hate the company or their brain dead customer service agents, data entry clerks, and managers… I simply dislike them with the white hot intensity of the Sonoran Sun in the sixth year of drought.  Unfortunately, the product (though designed for kids with ADHD) couldn’t hold up to the reality of being worn by a kid with ADHD.  But I have my eye on another reminder device that might be everything the Watchminder2 was supposed to be.

{big breath}

March 26, 2006 – Sunday 10:41 PM

Thursday we had the follow up appointment with Dr. Kessler’s PNP, Theresa Rimer.  Dr. Kessler is the director of St Joe’s (not luke’s) AZ Child Study Center, who was on the panel that rewrote the AAP criteria for diagnosing ADHD in children, but you probably know that from the blog link.  Sorry, I’m still a little in awe that we see this guy.  After we got the referral in 1/2005 when I was worried, we also scaled back on his meds.  Things had been better, but in October I noticed some changes in his behavior (socially) that I thought coincided with the last school change, and in November, a spike in other behaviors that coincided with a trial of strattera and Joel announcing that he and Sandy were having ‘baby surprise.’

ARTICLE: Growing Up Gifted with AD/HD – 2006

ARTICLE: Growing Up Gifted with AD/HD – CURLYGURL’s MySpace Blog | Cyndi–s Jewels

March 7, 2006 – Tuesday 11:50 PM

ARTICLE: Growing Up Gifted with AD/HD Category: Life I’m twelve years old and for as long as I can remember, I’ve had opposite sides to myself. I’m told that I’m “gifted” — very smart and creative. But I also have to work really, really hard at things that seem much easier for other kids, like memorizing and paying attention. Here’s an example: In math and science and in art, I’m quicker at figuring things out than other kids. Like when my teacher tells us a new way to subtract fractions, it seems obvious to me and not to other kids. But when I’m trying to listen to someone talking or lecturing, my mind starts to wander. Link to Full Article

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Tyler’s 504 (long one)….

With Tyler’s report card, I also got a letter from the school requesting my permission to formally evaluate him for gifted services.  Can’t remember if I posted about this at the time, but one of my reservations about sending the kids to this other district is that their guidelines for gifted services are exactly as mandated by state law… a score on an approved test of 97th percentile or higher.  Our home district, because of the socioeconomic factors and high ESL (english as a second language) population, offered gifted services to students with lower scores, but I can’t remember what exactly the cut off was.  This isn’t a problem for Halle, she scored ”98 plus” on the Raven’s, but Tyler’s highest scores were 95th & 96th e (on the WISC III), he is below the cut off for gifted services in the Kyrene district.  Of further concern to me, is that Kyrene’s initial screening test is the CoGat,which both the kids have taken and neither did particularly well on.  Many of these ‘IQ’ tests are commonly known in academic communities to be racially, culturally, and economically biased.  White suburban kids tend to do quite well on them… and so do white midwestern kids where these tests are normed.  Brown inner city kids, not so much. And I guess it goes without saying that the CoGat isn’t the test of choice for children with learning disabilities of any kind, including ADHD.  I spoke with someone in gifted services at the district, as well as with the gifted teacher at the school, before I enrolled them and was comfortable with the discussion, and it was agreed by all that we’d address whether Tyler needed the gifted curriculum after we saw how he did on the intake evaluations and in the regular classroom, since it’s more academically advanced than the one he was coming from.  He was placed in the gifted reading class as a guest student the first day after his initial reading evaluation showed he was reading at an 8th grade level, and he was placed in the highest math track in his regular classroom (he missed an entire quarter on division while he was at the f-ing charter school reviewing 2 and 3 digit addition ).

So I gave permission for him to be formally evaluated, but had some reservations because I anticipated he would be given the CoGat.  Next night I find out that Tyler is being tested in a group setting, and had not asked for a study corral, which is one of this 504 accomodations.  Now, Tyler is the first ADHD/504 student his gifted teacher has had, so I figure it’s an oversight.  I get in touch with her to express my concerns and there’s a flurry at the school because apparently, Roosevelt didn’t include his 504 when they forwarded his records.  I should have known.  However, Lisa indicates that Tyler’s verbal comprehension score (95th e) on the WISC, coupled with the fact that he does have a condition that impacts his performance on standardized tests, may be sufficient to formally qualify him for gifted services in reading, but they will need to qualify him with another test in order for him to go into the gifted math class. So we tentatively scheduled the testing to reconvene after Tyler’s teacher, the special resource teacher who handles special ed (aka SPED), and myself meet and develop a new 504.  Because the 504 I had to go to the RSD office to get is expired anyway (they have to be redone each year).  In the meantime, I’m told by Tyler’s teacher that Tyler is not allowed to have accomodations during a gifted evaluation, per the SPED teacher, per somone at KSD.

You can imagine my response.  I’ve read Section 504, thank you very much, and my understanding is this… congress guarantees my son reasonable accomodations because he has a disability that impacts his learning, and to deny him those accomodations would be considered discrimination against a student protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  So basically, someone is telling me that Kyrene’s standard policy for access to gifted services discriminates against students with disabilities.

I don’t think that’s actually the intention… gifted students are a small percentage of the student population, as is the percentage of students who qualify for 504 plans.  The percentage of ‘twice exceptional’ students like Tyler, who are both gifted and learning disabled, is even smaller.  It seems that Tyler may be the first 2E student any of the staff I’ve dealt with thus far have ever encountered.  And everyone truly seems to have the best of intentions where Tyler is concerned, so thankfully I’ve been able to approach this in a positive and collaborative manner.

So we had the 504 meeting, and really expanded on what had been there before to address some issues I see starting to crop up (there’s a lot more writing this year, which wasn’t an issue last year) and I was really happy with the classroom and homework accomodations we came up with, some suggested by Tyler’s regular classroom teacher & the SpEd coordinator, which I wouldn’t even have asked for.  I’ll share more of that when it’s final though.  We decided that we’d really need to meet again to finalize it since we were an hour into the meeting on a Friday afternoon, and Ms. Sped asked if I had any other questions.  I asked Mr. 4th Grade about Tyler’s math performance.  I wanted to know if he felt Tyler needed the additional challenge of the gifted math curriculum, or was he just keeping up where he was.  He indicated that when he breaks the kids up into skill groups in his classroom, he groups Tyler with the kids who are in the gifted math class and that he felt Tyler could definitely handle it.

So then I dive into the whole ‘accomodations’ thing and explain that not only for Tyler, but for the ‘greater good’ I want clarification on the district policy as it was explained to me… to the point that I want to know what this policy is based on.  I explain my understanding of 504, and that based on my understanding, their policy violates federal law… and if that’s not the case, and there is some obscure law I don’t know about that says disabled students are not entitled to protection under 504 for gifted services (which I can’t imagine, since gifted services fall under special ed in AZ), then I want to know chapter and verse what that law is and where I can find it.

We’ll be having a Child Study Team meeting to finalize the 504 plan.  Ms. Sped was very candid that my points were certainly valid,but unfortunately beyond her expertise.  She volunteered to make sure that both the School Psychologist and the District’s Director of SpEd are in attendance at our next meeting so that they can address the issue in detail.

originally posted Tyler’s 504 (long one)…. – CURLYGURL’s MySpace Blog | Cyndi–s Jewels

Update: Tyler & Halle’s New School

Tyler and Halle started at their new school on Monday. Halle was placed in the Multi-Age Group (MAG); the group consists of children in 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade who work with four teachers for those three years. The kids are grouped by ability rather than by age or grade, so you can imagine I was very excited about this option. Her homeroom teacher is Mrs. P, and she had a reading evaluation her first day and was placed in the highest first grade reading group with Mrs. G. Her reading and math homework is picking up where she left off at the end of kinder, so the weeks she spent writing the letter O at the charter school didn’t cause her to fall behind. She seems to be settling in very nicely. There was a MAG Family Potluck at school tonight and she followed along with the songs the class performed pretty well for only having four days to learn them! She was assigned two study buddies (Tara and Mo) the first day of school to kinda show her around and keep her from getting lost (the building is kinda circular); Mo’s father stopped me to introduce himself and say that Mo’s been talking about Halle non-stop ever since Monday. I’m her mama so of course I think she’s special, but she is so shy sometimes that it always surprises me to hear her described as if she’s the Pied Piper.

I had been a little nervous about Tyler’s classroom placement; the Kyrene district offers gifted services to students who score in the 97th percentile on an achievement/IQ test; while Halle qualifies with a test score in the 98th percentile, Tyler’s highest score is ‘only’ about the 95th. I had talked with the school’s gifted coordinator about how strictly they adhere to that criteria. I said that if Tyler is challenged in the regular classroom, great, but if not, would the school take into consideration that Tyler has ADHD, a condition protected by the IDEA, and provide gifted services even if he didn’t technically qualify, as it could easily be argued that his ‘disability’ might have had a negative impact on his score. I was assured that their focus was on the best interests of the child. She and I agreed to see how things went the first few weeks and if he wasn’t challenged, he would be evaluated for the language arts and math gifted classes. I figured that was better than what we had at the charter school (nothing), but really expected I would have to push for it if he needed it. I spoke with Mr. C for a little while after classes started about how Tyler’s ADHD affects him both academically and socially and was really heartened by the conversation and the interest he had expressed in helping Tyler grow. I was sitting at my desk counting down the minutes till school released at 2:30 so I could call and see how the kids’ days went, and at 2:21 Mr. C calls to let me know how Tyler’s first day went.  Said Tyler had a pretty good day, they did the reading evaluation and since he had scored at an eighth grade reading level they placed him in the gifted reading group.  I almost fell out of my chair… a) I knew he read above grade level but didn’t think he read that far above grade level and b) I was fully expecting that I would have to push in order for him to get into either the gifted language arts or math classes.  Mr. C said that Tyler seemed to be at the higher end of the students in his class math wise, but hasn’t been introduced to a couple concepts (i.e., double digit multiplication).  He said he’d worked one on one with Tyler and got the impression that it would not take him long to catch on and be ready to move on with the class.  This was a little disappointing, not for the new school, but that the eight weeks Tyler spent reviewing addition at the charter school did cause him to fall behind.  But the positive note is that I am really confident that this teacher will get him caught up and that if Tyler shows indication he’s ready to move on, it’s not going to take a massive fight for me to get him into the gifted math class.  Mr. C goes on to talk about how Tyler works in a group; I had indicated he has had trouble working in groups because he is always sure he’s right and has a hard time accepting otherwise.  He noticed this while he and Tyler were working one on one, and that he was observing Tyler while he was working in a foursome during science.  He said Tyler definitely seemed to be a take charge kind of guy and that he’d needed to step in a couple times and remind Tyler to let the others participate.  He sounded a little hesitant, as if concerned I might take offense, and asked if I’d be interested in Tyler participating in a group that would begin meeting after break that focuses on working together and getting along.  Now that Tyler is no longer struggling academically, my next biggest concern are his social skills – his tendency to butt in or try to take over definitely impacts how his peers feel about him and he just doesn’t understand that what he considers being helpful, they consider bossy – I think I said yes before he got done asking the question!  That night I made sure to ask Tyler about what he’d done in science, and I have never seen him so animated about an experiment.  Since he struggles with following sequential directions, science isn’t exactly his favorite subject.  I could definitely see how his excitement would lead him to try and just take the whole project over.  I’m not sure how he’s doing socially in his class; however, several students stopped to say hello to him at the assembly tonight.  I’m just not sure if they are kids he knows from his grade/class, or other kids from this area who bus over from this neighborhood.

 I can never remember what I’ve told who; so if you’re wondering what led to the kids leaving our home district in the first place and/or them switching schools two months into the school year on top of that, here’s a brief recap of the sitch:

 

Tyler, having finished third grade at a K-3 school, would have transferred over to the gifted magnate at a 4-8th grade school. I had some concerns from the outset about the quality of their math program, and was pretty mortified by a conversation I had with the 4th grade gifted teacher.  Y’all know Tyler has plans to work for NASA, and those plans include getting into an Aerospace Magnate program that’s offered at our local high school in addition to taking honors math classes.  I had no confidence in the quality of instruction he’d be getting, and started investigating other options.  I had planned to leave Halle at MLK; I was so pleased with the 2nd/3rd grade gifted classes there and she had just qualified for the program.  But then the district implemented a universal literacy program that was (IMO) basically an intervention program targeting very low level students.  I just could not see Halle being challenged by it at all, and decided to leave the district all together.  I was considering a neighboring district with a good reputation that offered bus service to this area, or a new charter school a few miles from my work that had a campus in Tucson that was ranked as an excelling school by the AZ Dept of Ed.  There were some challenges at the time with the bus drop offs in the afternoon in addition to my concerns about gifted services, so I went with the charter school because they committed to me that their smaller class sizes would enable my children to accelerate without being held back.  That turned out to be the complete opposite of what actually happened during the eight weeks were there, and that’s putting it mildly.  Just when I had reached the breaking point with the charter school, I was able to make arrangements for after school care that would allow the kids to attend the school started Monday.

Meeting Follow-Up

Dear Mr. Principal,

I wanted to follow up with you regarding our meeting three weeks ago.  I am disappointed to report that in the last three weeks, I have not seen any significant improvement for Princess (1st grade).  Briefly before the holiday, she was bringing home extra worksheets that were closer to the level of work she was doing in kinder; however, one night she had two of the same worksheet and indicated the teacher wanted her to do the same worksheet, twice.  Additionally, she had a Saxon worksheet she had completed without error the week before.  I spoke with Ms. 1^st Grade on the telephone, who indicated she was giving extra worksheets to her advanced students and confirmed that she was giving them duplicates for practice.  I could not think of a tactful way to share my thoughts on the logic of that practice, but I did express that while I appreciated her efforts to challenge Princess, having the advanced children do the same assignment twice and giving them extra worksheets in addition to the regular class work almost punishes a child for being academically gifted.  I pointed out that it seemed more logical to simply give the child work that is academically appropriate to their skill level. Ms. 1^st Grade indicated to me then that she had to follow the curriculum.  This is completely at odds with what I was told by Ms. Marketing/Enrollment prior to enrolling my children at SSA and what we discussed in August, which was that while there was no gifted program, my children would be allowed to accelerate within the curriculum and would not be held back.  I haven’t seen any ‘extra’ worksheets since that conversation, but the work Princess brings home continues to be the equivalent of the sight words and spelling words that her kindergarten teacher assigned during the first few weeks of school.  I ran into Princess’s kindergarten teacher last week and when she asked about Princess’s new school, all I could say was, ‘At least she’s bored in a class of 10 instead of being bored in a class of 25.’

 I also mentioned that Wild Child had not had any assigned homework.  He started having homework the following week, however, he almost never brings it home because he has finished it in class.  I have inquired with Mr. 4th/5th Grade multiple times as to whether Wild Child is indeed turning in his homework and his answers are generally vague.  I have made it a point to speak with Mr. 4th/5th Grade on more than one occasion about Wild Child’s severe executive function deficits and hyperactivity; as the parent of an ADHD child Mr. 4th/5th Grade assured me that he was very familiar with the needs of students with ADHD.  Unfortunately, I have not seen any evidence of this.  There has been no follow up from Mr. 4th/5th Grade confirming whether or not Wild Child is turning in his homework.  I have also seen no graded homework or class work. I have asked Wild Child if Mr. 4th/5th Grade ever gives reminders such as, ‘make sure you have your books or assignments, etc; either to him to the class at large, and he says there are none.  It has also become apparent that Wild Child spends a considerable amount of time in class where he is supposed to ‘find something quiet to do’ while Mr. 4th/5th Grade teaches the other grade.  Never having taught myself I can’t say I know the best way to manage any classroom, mixed grade or otherwise, but leaving about a dozen children, at least one of which has hyperactive and impulsive behaviors, to their own devices seems unwise at best.  What I understand from Wild Child, and I admit that his perspective is not always the whole picture, Mr. 4th/5th Grade instructs them to work on homework, read, or draw while he teaches the other class.  I don’t get the impression from Wild Child that he usually has any specific class work he is supposed to be doing while the other grade receives instruction.  I don’t think this classroom environment has the structure or organization that Wild Child needs to be successful, and I am having an increasingly difficult time picturing my child in it for one year, much less two (although if we stay the year, perhaps next year enrollment will have increased enough to have separate 4/5 classrooms).  I mentioned in our meeting that Wild Child seems to have a great deal of time to draw – frankly I’ve become concerned this 4/5 split classroom has left my child only being instructed about half the time he’s in the classroom.  I admit to being spoiled as Wild Child has had some truly exceptional teachers, but he has never had time in any other classroom, not even with the first grade teacher I thought was mediocre at best, ever had time to sit and draw, nor told to bring a book from home to keep busy with.  And I should probably ditto that for Princess; she comes home with anywhere from one to five pages of notebook paper covered in pictures and with little notes written on them.  Additionally, the work that Wild Child is doing, particularly in math and spelling is not the level of work he was doing in third grade.  I’m especially concerned to have read on Mr. 4th/5th Grade homework log that the 4th and 5th graders are both doing the chapter in the spelling book.  This week’s words definitely easier than what I’m used to seeing Wild Child bring home and I can’t help but wonder what fifth grade would hold for him in this classroom.  

 A side note:  I see no correlation between the spelling words and any of his subject matter and am not sure what is being done regarding integration of subjects.  In 2nd and 3rd grade, Wild Child’s spelling words ALWAYS were related to what he was studying in math, science, social studies, or language arts.  My daughters spelling words at the beginning of her kindergarten year were always variations of the group of sight words she was learning, and by the end of the year her teacher had all but given up trying to challenge her ‘apple group’ and started asking them what they wanted to learn to spell… so Princess came home with spelling words like ‘significant’ and ‘cooperate’. 

 Finally, I wanted to comment about the after school activities.  I was very perplexed to get the list of proposed activities and see that the only options available to my 4th grader would be music, sports, and spelling.  There is nothing for science or math or strategic thinking (chess, etc), which was what I was expecting from SSA.  I left a public school that offered band to all 4-8 students as well as football, basketball, soccer, and softball, so the fact that his options are basically a watered down version of extracurriculars he could have had at the school I pulled him from is incredibly disappointing.  I was even more perplexed that K-2 students have three more after school options than the 4th graders do, and that their options are more academic than those offered to older, more mature students with longer attention spans.  Can you give me any insight into those disparities?

 Regards,

DA MOMMA

Quandary: 2005-2006 School Year

The gifted coordinator tested Halle about two weeks ago, and she scored 98+ percentile on the Ravens. Our district uses the Ravens test because it’s non-verbal and less biased than most other IQ tests. The highest percentile ranking is the 98th percentile, so if a child does better than that, they can’t get a score of the 99th percentile… they are said to have scored 98+. Tyler took this test when he was six years, 4/5 months and in the first grade, third month? I think, and scored (pre-meds, mind you) in the 92nd percentile. Halle is 5 years, 9 months, and just finishing kinder. I had expected her to do well, but I really hadn’t expected her to ceiling the test. The gifted coordinator told me she doesn’t know what to do for Halle next year and suggested she and I meet with the principal. I sent the principal an email last Wednesday requesting a meeting but haven’t received a response. To be honest, I don’t have very high hopes of an acceptable placement. Out of the four 1st grade classes, one is a bilingual classroom (and the teacher is retiring) and one is ESL. In the two traditional classrooms, one teacher took a administrative job at another school, so there is a sub and no permanent replacement as of yet. And in August I witnessed the teacher of the other ‘regular’ classroom ‘disciplining’ two or three little boys who were being sent to lunch detention and I was really bothered by her tone and body language… as well as her volume. I didn’t hear every word she said, but far more than I think I should have heard given the distance between where they were and where I was standing. I would not be comfortable working with her because that incident would always be in the back of my mind and I would always be concerned about her addressing Halle that way. And if Halle is bored now, I can’t see how she’ll be challenged in a bilingual or ESL classroom. Tyler was in a bilingual classroom for first grade and I felt he grew so little as a student in that environment.

Last Wednesday I also visited one of the charter schools I mentioned last month – based on what I’ve read at their web site it seemed to offer the most of what I would be looking for. I toured with the school’s community relations person, and was really impressed with the philosophy and that the school had the student’s work displayed everywhere, bio’s of all the existing teachers. The staff is very diverse, which is important to our family. There are a handful of staff members who are Muslim and from the middle east (three from Turkey), one is Jewish, and another is from Venezuela… and then there is a teacher from Kansas, which from personal experience is really almost like it’s own little country (or planet). They incorporate character development into their curriculum. They use Saxon Math, and let the kids go as far with it as they can. Their sixth grade students are doing calculus. No classes more than 24 students. They do math placement tests for all incoming students… with beginner/intermediate/advanced levels in each class, and offer free tutoring to get kids who are behind at grade level and to give extra attention to kids who are needing extra challenge. They have a mentor program, also free of charge.

After the visit I was thinking about it a lot more seriously. That same night, I went to the ‘open house’ at Julian, where Tyler is supposed to go for fourth grade. I was hoping to meet the teacher and discuss their math curriculum. I had looked at Julian’s report card, and the AIMS %ile is in the teens for both 5th and 8th grade last year, and just 3 years ago was less than 10. I was further concerned to read the following, which was listed as an achievement for the 03-04 school year:

70 students in the RSD tested into Honors Algebra on the Phoenix Union School District Math placement test. Of those, 12 were from Julian. Nine of those 12 were not enrolled in the  gifted program and three of the 12 tested for placement in Geometry.

I think this is great for the nine students from traditional classrooms, but I find it alarming that only 25% of the students were gifted. Not that there should have been fewer ‘traditional’ students, but that I would certainly expect for a gifted program at a school that feeds into a high school with an Aerospace Magnate, to have at least as many gifted as non gifted students achieve placement into honors math. This furthers my concern that the math curriculum for the gifted classrooms is not accelerated.

Well, the event was basically a band showcase where there was not a dedicated opportunity to meet the gifted teachers, and that it had already been performed at King Tyler had already seen the entire performance. I was even further disappointed to learn that there would not be any kind of open house for the gifted program or in general for transitioning third graders and their parents. I attempted to speak with the gifted teacher for 4th grade, and inquired about the math curriculum. She asked if I wanted to know what my child needed to know for fourth grade. I clarified that I was asking what differentiated the gifted curriculum from the traditional curriculum. I was told that there wasn’t really any difference, she just usually finishes the book (I guess the other class doesn’t?) I then asked what concepts she would be covering and was told that there would be a lot of review because the incoming fourth graders wouldn’t be up to par in math. She assured me that this was a district wide problem and included the students coming over from King’s gifted program. The other teacher (whose name I didn’t catch but she may be the ‘math chair’) seemed to concur. Based on feedback I’ve gotten from multiple educators about my son’s math skills, and considering that King’s 3rd grade math AIMs rankings are twice that of Julian’s 5th grade math rankings, I was pretty skeptical of that claim, and downright dismayed at this clear expectation/culture of mediocrity. As I pondered the futility of asking what would be done to challenge students who were not needing remediation or who excelled she invited me to visit her during her planning period at 2:15. We discussed my work schedule, she indicated she was usually on campus until five and perhaps I could come by then. I was about to suggest perhaps a conference call, when she wandered away from the conversation without excusing herself, and never returned. The other teacher remained and indicated that there would be an open house about a week before school starts. I told her very candidly that I had reservations about my son attending school there and that their math program, while the largest concern, was only one of them, and I was not comfortable waiting until school was about to begin to address them. I mentioned the excerpt I quoted above from their scorecard and expressed my concern about the complexity of the curriculum and asked why more gifted students hadn’t placed into honors math. She appeared surprised, as though the disparity in the numbers hadn’t occurred to her, and suggested that was a good question and one that might be good to ask the 8th grade math teacher. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Preparing students for an 8th grade honors placement exam is not the sole responsibility of the 8th grade math curriculum, it begins when the child enters the school, as each grade builds the foundation for the next. I don’t want to hear what is being done to prepare kids in the 11th inning! I pictured posing that question to whoever teaches 8th grade and being told that the seventh graders weren’t prepared… and then that the sixth graders weren’t prepared, and so on until I reached Ms. Dunn to hear that the third graders are not prepared. The phrase ‘passing the buck’ rang through my mind. The next morning I inquired with Tyler’s current teacher specifically about his math skills, and whether a) I should anticipate that he will need remediation for fourth grade math or b) that he will languish in a classroom where most of his peers need remediation. She assured me that she felt Tyler’s math skills were above par and he is well prepared for fourth grade math. She says she has never gotten any feedback indicating her students were unprepared, and that she watches their test scores and that her students have done very well in math. The teacher also indicated that she keeps in touch with several students who have gone on to Julian and has specifically inquired if there was anything that they were struggling with and that none of them have indicated having trouble with the math curriculum.

I’ve talked to both Joel and Ro about the school situation, and they’re both open to the change. I have a few more questions for the school and I should probably visit at least one of the other schools that looked like possibilities to get a comparison. But at this point it’s pretty likely the kids will be going somewhere else for school next year.