Middle School Dilemma Part II

[stacie]

For those of you who were interested in an update, things at my son's school did not improve. The promises the principal made never materialized. And she seemed unable to make any decisions and take action. I honestly was becoming more and more agitated. When my 6th request to conference with my son's new teachers went unanswered or even acknowledged, I was furious and all reasonable conversations were done. I was able to talk to administration only by cornering them at the school. I returned my focus to finding a new school.
We started at a new school on Monday. On the first day, the office staff and VP knew who we were when we arrived. We had only dealt with the principal previously. By Wednesday, my son no longer felt like the new kid. The teachers, students and administration made him feel welcome. I immediately received course outlines and have a clear understanding of the expectations. There are expectations and in return the students have pride in their school. The children are dressed appropriately and do not bring things that create a distraction like skateboards to school. The only down side is the drive twice per day. I just turn off the radio and chat with my son. I figure this will be a good time to talk about things that he might not otherwise.
I am sad for the kids at the other school. I am mostly sad for the parents who stood in the courtyard and complained. They didn't feel that fighting for change would make a difference. They will come to believe that the things going on in their school happen everywhere.

[crazycanuck]

Good to hear your son is now in a school that will help him succeed.

Must run.

C

[margo49]

Life goes forwards, Stacie and things generally work out for good in the end. I am happy for you and your DS.

Btw, the idea of using the commute for chat is good as I think that unstructured together time which things can develope out of is a really important part of parenting ('scuse the grammar, I hope you know what I mean)

[Running Mommy]

Missed what was obviously another thread, but so glad your son is happy in the new school. In the proper environment kids will thrive, and LEARN!

As for the chat on the ride home. I experience that everyday as the bike bus driver. Not only do I get to chat with my son about his day, but the other kids as well. Sometimes I wonder if I know more about the kids days than their parents do...

It's also nice being able to see them off in the morning and remind them all to "make the right choices"...

Anyway, good on you for seeing that there is a better way!

[wannaduacentury]

Missed what was obviously another thread, but so glad your son is happy in the new school. In the proper environment kids will thrive, and LEARN!

As for the chat on the ride home. I experience that everyday as the bike bus driver. Not only do I get to chat with my son about his day, but the other kids as well. Sometimes I wonder if I know more about the kids days than their parents do...

It's also nice being able to see them off in the morning and remind them all to "make the right choices"...

Anyway, good on you for seeing that there is a better way!

Rm, you might be the best thing the other kids see all day, maybe the other parents don't have chats w/ them, you're still a positive force in their lives. Kudos to you. Jenn

[Veronica]

I feel sorry for principals. In my district, elementary schools with fewer than 700 students don't get a VP. There is a ton of paperwork that principals are required to do. The discipline is horrendous. And it comes from all grade levels. We have K and first grade discipline issues. And my principal doesn't get to decide how a lot of things are done. The superintendent and the state are dictating things now.

Regarding discipline, all suspensions are supposed to be in school ones now, as directed by the superintendent. She feels there should be interventions in place to prevent the need for suspensions. Unlike junior high and high schools we don't have a dedicated all day suspension room. So these troubled kids get placed in another teacher's classroom. These are kids who are getting suspended for getting physical with other kids, leaving school early, being seriously disruptive in the classroom... And I have yet to see any new interventions being put in place to help these kids.

Stacie maybe the teachers and principal at your son's first school were really crummy. But just maybe they are facing a lot of other issues, that you don't know about. Education is a tough place to be right now. No one is in it for the money. There are huge demands being placed on schools to perform to certain levels. How many of you can evaluate the meaning of archetypal patterns and symbols that are found in myth and tradition by using literature from different eras and cultures? Or solve problems involving linear functions; write the equation and graph the resulting ordered pairs of integers on a grid?

Those are two things ALL my fifth graders are supposed to be able to do by the end of the year. These kids are ten years old! I have kids who are reading at a second grade level. I have kids who can't subtract 5 from 13 without using their fingers. Yet they are supposed to have mastery of those two things plus more than 50 others. And that's just in math and Lang. Arts, science and social studies add in 30 more. If we don't score well enough, we risk being taken over the state. Teachers are under huge pressure to get kids to do well on tests.

What do we do about kids who are so far behind? We can't retain them. That's bad for their self-esteem (whatever that is... I prefer self respect myself.) They don't qualify for extra help. Here the parent has the final say about retention and many refuse. It's a sad situation and one that no one seems to have an answer to.

Each teacher got $100 to spend on supplies for the year. It's gone already for copy paper, pencils, binder paper and composition books. I've already spent nearly $500 of my own money since September. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I run out of supplies.

If the teachers at the first school have had a start of the year anything like mine, their lives have been pretty sucky. My alarm goes off at 4:30, but most days I've been waking up between 3:00 and 3:30 too stressed out to go back to sleep. So I get up and grade, create lessons to fit the demands of the superintendent, look through our curriculum to see if I can make it fit what she wants...If I'm lucky I may work out for 30 minutes in the morning doing yoga or Core stuff. That's if I feel like I've got a good handle on things. Otherwise it's work until I need to get ready to go to work. I have students from 8:00 until 3. Two or three afternoons a week I have meetings until 4:30 or 5. I get home and I work until 8, taking off about 45 minutes for dinner. I haven't ridden my bike, other than my 4 mile commute, on a week day since Sept. 14 and that was only because we had a half day.

I'm glad you found a place that you like for your son. I just want you to understand that there is a lot more going on at that first school than you are probably aware of. And a parent who "corners" the staff, would make me extremely uncomfortable. I hope things work out for you and your family.

Veronica

[Running Mommy]

Ahh V....

I've said it many times before, but TEACHERS are the TRUE HEROES/heroines of the world. THEY should be the ones making the multimillion dollar salaries! Not those Ego bloated sports (football, baseball, basketball, etc) stars!!!

BTW- Our principal has a K-8 school of 900 kids- and NO VP!!
He wears MANY hats on any given day, but I think overall he does a very good job.
Come to think about it, he even has to do crossing guard duty! One day they were short a crossing guard, so I made all the kids wait for me while I pitched in as crossing guard for the day. Yeah, it's a balancing act alright!

[stacie]

I'm sorry things are so frustrating for you V. I agree that the problems are far beyond the school level in many situations. I hope your situation improves.

[maillotpois]

Glad you worked it out.

So far so good for us. She's making some new friends, which is tougher for her than the academic part.

[stacie]

Mail, I still cringe when I think back to middle school. I think the social aspect is tougher for girls very often. She'll be okay. She has you and you are so aware. Good luck.

[alpinerabbit]

There are huge demands being placed on schools to perform to certain levels. How many of you can evaluate the meaning of archetypal patterns and symbols that are found in myth and tradition by using literature from different eras and cultures? Or solve problems involving linear functions; write the equation and graph the resulting ordered pairs of integers on a grid?

Those are two things ALL my fifth graders are supposed to be able to do by the end of the year. These kids are ten years old! I have kids who are reading at a second grade level. I have kids who can't subtract 5 from 13 without using their fingers. Yet they are supposed to have mastery of those two things plus more than 50 others. And that's just in math and Lang. Arts, science and social studies add in 30 more.

There must be something seriously wrong in the US system.
How come the demands are so steep and then don't rise anymore by High School? (well hardly unless you want to go to college...) I went to an US high school (public, mediocre and what I saw 10 years later was it got worse) - for a year - my pre-graduation exam (10th (?) grade requirement) was not much harder than what I had to pass after 6th grade in Switzerland.

Most of my "medium" English classmates would hardly have been able to do what you describe - how on earth would 10 year olds be able to?

And linear functions? Are you guys nuts???
That's 7th grade stuff here in Switzerland. AND we start school one year later (!)
So the base is not laid, instead kids are overwhelmed with the above stuff? Quite shocking indeed. We do things slowly, but more kids are able to perform, apparently. Apparently.

Sheesh. I am glad I did not go to school all the way there.

[Veronica]

Politicians decide what the kids should know.

When I started teaching 15 years ago, the harderst math in 5th grade was fractions with unlike denominators.

We expected the kids to be able to write a decent summary, understand the concept of plot, setting, genre and theme. And we still had kids not able to do these things.

Some idiot somewhere decided that if the standards were higher, the scores would go up. They don't understand that there are developmental levels in children and not all kids reach those levels at the same time.

V.