After a rough couple of days today seems to have gone MUCH better... despite being hit in the face with a soccer ball (so I guess that's saying something).
Her teacher even praised her today in front of the whole class for her neatness (which we all know is next to cleanliness which is next to godliness).
After 3 days of hearing her call Kid "slow" at least 5 times during our 30 second conversations (each day people) (and, yes, in front of her... cause you know what will make her work faster?... disparaging her), the praise was an astonishing turn of events.
Kid also got an A+ on her math homework. So she's somewhat redeemed after her B on yesterday's pretest. (that was rough, peeps, homegirl does NOT like less than 100%... and, yes, I do know where she got that)
One of the big problems is that everything they do is done old school style. There aren't any worksheets, all of their math work has to be copied out of the book and then solved... this takes a VERY long time (obviously). Kid likes to do things very neatly and that takes effort not speed and then she runs out of time to finish things, misses the directions for the next thing... and it snow balls. I'm happy to say that today she had managed to copy all of her assignments into her assignment book so that's an improvement. A lot of the issues are just basic things based on how the classroom is run that she is unfamiliar with and that the teacher seems to assume she'll just pick up or are self-evident. Unfortunately, if you don't explain that they have to copy their assignments down into their assignment book Kid isn't going to know to do that. I'm not really sure what the teacher's tactic is here... I'm definitely frustrated because we had had what I thought was an understanding before school started... but I'm just going in the room with Kid after dismissal EVERY single day to double check that she wrote all the assignments down and that she has all of the stuff she needs to complete it. Again, bringing home graph paper might be obvious to the other kids that have had to copy all of their work out of their books for years, but Kid (and I) aren't going to know that intuitively. Add all that to the fact that Kid just isn't good at multi-tasking and it's a set up for a really bad time. But today went better. I've steered her toward some girls I think she should play with at recess and she has taken my advice and it's worked out well.
Here's hoping next week is even better, even though we'll be adding in our arch rival spelling into the mix! Oh and one hour of homework a night (if you aren't slow... so 1.5-2 for you know who) for 4th grade!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
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