Back to School Gives Me Grey Hair

I'm back and mostly recovered from all the craziness that has been my life.  I have packed so much stuff into the last two weeks, I seriously thought I was in peril of my head exploding.  Fortunately, it didn't.  I survived.  As did all who accompanied me.

Like the rest of the world, my life is consumed with the chaos of Back to School.  The Boy is starting a new school this year.  Not only is he going into the 6th grade, he will be attending a small charter school in a near-by town.  He's crazy excited to be taking Latin (he's a dork, I love that) and start learning about ancient civilizations.  I'm excited about uniforms and small class sizes.

The Girl is starting 5th grade, back for her last year of elementary school with all of her favorite teachers.  I'm kind of nervous for her last year of elementary, only because I don't know that she's ready for the pace of middle school.  She starts August 30 and I have already left a message for her Special Ed teacher to call me.  I really want to make sure that she, I, and The Girl's new classroom teacher are all on the same page.  The goal of this school year is to make sure she is ready for a middle school environment.  That's it.  Not making friends, not developing social skils, LEARNING TO PARTICIPATE IN AND GET THE MOST OUT OF A CLASSROOM SETTING.

Sadly, I'm not sure if the school is ready for that.  For the last few years, The Girl has been permitted to determine how much time she spends in the classroom.  As her behavior is very disruptive, the teachers have always allowed her to leave the room for non-preferred instruction.  (Don't even get me started.)  They have completely created a monster and this year, it needs to stop.  I am going to demand that instead of allowing her to feel rewarded when leaving the room, there needs to be the implication of consequence.  They need to create positve reinforcement to keep her in the room for as much of the day as they can. 

While I understand that this may impact the education of the other 23 kids in the room, I think if they tackle the problem early, The Girl will assimilate quickly AND the other students will only be affected during the review portion of the year.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope to have the support of the administration.  I will definitely keep you posted!

Report Card Season

It's report card time again.  Generally, because of conferences, I know what to expect when the monsters bring their report cards home.  This year has been frustrating, however.

The Girl, as I have mentioned, has severe ADHD and is also diagnosed with ODD.  She has been on an IEP at school since the 1st grade and has been a part of the EBD program for the majority of her elementary career.  While I feel that these program have been beneficial in identifying how The Girl learns, I believe that over the last few years, she has grossly manipulated the program. 

It came to my attention mid-year that The Girl's para has been allowing her to dictate her work while the para writes it out for her.  I lost my fucking head was a bit upset by this and requested that it be put to an immediate stop.  In my mind, a 9 year-old 4th grader is still learning the fundamentals of reading and writing and should be fully accountable for writing out their own work.  In addition, I also learned that this para was coaching The Girl on how to complete portions of tests that were "too difficult for her".  This also pissed me right off put me out.  As far as I am concerned, the only way to determine if she "gets it" is to let her pass or fail on her own merit.  Mind you, I don't want to see my daughter fall flat on her face, I just want the school to be able to identify in what areas, if any, she requires extra help.

So, after these things were put to a stop, The Girl was put into a small break out group for 4th graders having difficulty with math.  Her Special Ed teacher thought that in addition to getting The Girl additional help in Math, it would be a great opportunity for building small group social skills.  I agreed and gave my approval for the break out group.  Initially, The Girl was coming home talking about the group and about how much better she was "getting math".  Intially.

I was made aware a few weeks ago that The Girl was no longer participating in this small group (and hadn't been for many weeks) because SHE didn't feel she needed it.  Ok, stay with me on this one...

I believe it is important for our children to take part in their education.  I believe it is important to empower our children and help them to identify what they need from their educators.  I believe it is important to give our children choices and allow them to make some decisions pertaining to their lives.  I also believe it is a parent's and an educator's responsibility to set limits on those choices and to help redirect those decisions when the decision is not benefitting the child.

Where am I going with this, you ask?

As I said in the beginning, it's report card time.  The Girl received a D- in math.  A D-.  It is the worst grade on her report card, in a subject she was to be receiving additional help in.  Help that SHE opted out of because "she didn't feel she needed it".  Where were her educators?  Why on Earth did they allow her to opt out of this break out group?  Why was I not made aware of her almost failing grade in this class when she decided she shouldn't participate in this break out group any longer? How on Earth are they setting her up for success when they can't even help her to be accountable for her education?

Her IEP follow-up and special education services re-evaluation meeting is this week.  You bet your ass better believe I will be bringing her report card with me...

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