Our Meeting With the Principal and Teacher Went Really Good!

I didn't want to leave my readers hanging...so the meeting with Isaak's Principal and teacher went really good!

We didn’t go in attacking anyone. I was afraid I would cry, and didn't. It was great we had everything written down, so we didn't forget things.

We do know Isaak has filled his own plate too full. Two things in particular are towards the end of his school day: Chorus and Student Council. Student Council doesn't happen all the time. But they have meetings, and rotate with taking care of recyclables. When those things happen Isaak has to hurry to go to Safety Patrol. Then he can't get back in his classroom to get his homework. He sometimes misses the end of the day announcements. He may drop one. He’s a people pleaser, so that might be hard.

He tanked a test, so we talked about that. He’s usually great with math, but word problems get him. He’s to practice online. The teacher is going to be more informative on when tests will happen. Right now we only know the day before. If he doesn’t have his math book with him, then we can’t help him. He didn’t know what deposit or withdrawal meant, so vocabulary talk before tests. Other kids struggled with that too.

It turns out because Isaak’s a people pleaser, he does too much homework. She’ll give him every other problem, and he does all of them. He thinks he’s being ultra good by doing that.

I talked to the teacher about delivery. Like instead of saying, “You have 14 pages of fun work to do by next week, or you don’t get to watch movies with the rest of the class.” Say, “You have to do 2 pages a day out of this packet, for a week.”

The Principal will be meeting with him to talk to him about his thoughts. He knows who Isaak is, but has never really had to get to KNOW him because he's a good student that pretty much stays out of trouble. The Principal wants to get to know Isaak more.

We have a follow up meeting in January.

I do think the teacher is hanging onto busy work too much. She loves these sheets that has a big scrambled up long word, and the kids have to make shorter words out of the letters. Then there's another side that has synonyms on it. I suggested to keep doing them, but also having reading with questions that go with a book of of their choice. I don’t know that, that will happen.

I guess they are having more recess time, but Isaak didn’t think so.

The Principal thinks Isaak is too tuned into others emotions, which their are some bad apples in the class. He’s also full of empathy, so that will be hard to overcome.

I made it clear that this is our first year with problems. It’s not 1 person’s fault, but we have to work with one another to figure out why he’s struggling.

The view of it seems that he filled his own plate too full, and for some reason hasn't connected well with this teacher.

One thing is great: Isaak's teacher has gotten him to work faster. That's always been a struggle. He's just a slow poke. His teacher last year tried using a timer, and that sort of worked. His big eyes kept glancing at the timer. She shows the class a photo on a screen, puts it up for a certain period of time, turns it off, and makes them write down all they can about the photo. It's cut his test taking time down a lot! He still tests well. 

Random Tid Bits

1. It's been raining in Omaha, Nebraska for days! There's possible snow in the forecast. No thanks! I want summer back again. 





2. We met with Mr. Principal in regards to Isaak. Isaak's no longer going to take kids to the bathroom. He was one of 3 boys selected to do so. Most of the kids in class were picking Isaak, when they had to go. He was missing out on lessons at school. Then he was ultra emotional at home. He didn't get how to do his homework. His teacher didn't want to take the whole class on breaks because of the time lost in their school work. My thoughts were - her time lost. The other way - his time lost.
   
   I went through his teacher first. She just said, "I can't take him off that. He's one of the few boys in the class I trust." I didn't just walk in to the Principal's office, and blame the teacher. I said, "Isaak's plate is too full. He signed up for Safety Patrol (which is every day), Student Council (which meets once a month), Chorus (misses class for), Show Choir (before school once a week), Strings (misses class for), Soccer, and Basketball (which are both after school). Little man was overwhelmed.
   
   Other topics we went over: Kid's forming "Cool Clubs" that Mr. Principal was unaware of, and the class talking a lot and missing recess - I mentioned they could run the track instead to at least get some activity. Isaak's teacher also said to Isaak, "Why did you say all that to your Mom?!" in regards to my email. Isaak felt like crying, and bawled at home. I said, "Kids should talk to their parents! I'm happy my 10 year old son talks to me!" Mr. Principal agreed. 


3. I felt good about how things went. Then yesterday Isaak said, "Mom did you know teachers have favorites? I'm one of my teacher's favorites. She told me so." (insert inner eye roll, and why in the heck is she telling the kids this?) I covered quickly by saying, "Isaak favorites change. Somedays I like you better than Mica and visa versa. I love you both. It's just that one child may be easier to get along with on a particular day." He said, "Do you have favorites with your students?" I said, "I have students that are challenging sometimes. I've had students ask if they were my favorite? Then I said to them, 'You are, along with the other 30 students in the class.' That seems to satisfy them." I want Isaak to like his teacher. I have to say that she rubs me the wrong way. She's fake happy it seems. She smiles with a frown face. I've never seen anyone do that before. Her mouth is frowned down, but her cheeks and eyes are uplifted. 


4. Travis' boss lady keeps giving him things. A foam pumpkin to decorate, so I decorated it up like an owl for him. I didn't take a picture. Next came a wooden leaf. I did take photos of that for a future post. She's given him candles, cozy socks that are very girl like and Isaak wanted, and Keurig pods. For one Travis hates flavored coffee, for another we don't have a Keurig machine. I open them up, and dump them in our legit coffee pot to use them. Do you like plain coffee or flavored coffee? Do you have a Keurig machine?





5.  Mica's in a thing called Quiz Bowl. It's like Jeopardy, except you don't answer with a question. He has a group against other groups from other schools. We had no idea that it would be so time consuming when he signed up. It's every Tuesday after school, and 2 Saturdays a month from 8:30 to 1:30 or longer. I was feeling less than thrilled about this once I found all that out. Then I thought about it...I'll have one less child on those days. That's not all that bad. Possibly I'll go to get him one day before he calls me to take a few pictures.