well, this didn't take long: crisis #1

Some of the stuff he doesn’t even remember covering in class, so it had to be “taught” or “re-taught” by us as we studied.

It’s a never ending fight isn’t it.I am at the point where I rather have her regular teacher teach her instead of the learning support because they don’t seem to have a clue.-Try to get what they are going to study in advance(sometimes a hard thing to do) I usually try to get videos from the library to add info and understand future lessons in class.-I would send the teacher a note asking if they had any ideas on how to make his understanding of class content easier.I would also list his accomodations and ask which ones they could implement.If the teacher does not respond send notes to IEP team and see if they can come up with suggestions that should at least get them talking together and fixing the problem. Hang in there-

Good luck to you. I am at the point that I feel like I need to go to therapy to learn to gain more strength to keep fighting . I am drained. I will pray for your strength as I pray for mine.

No advice right now-just that suggestion and a cyber hug!

Hi Lulu,
My son has memory issues as well so I understand your frustration and anger.

My son is a little younger and so far he has been getting by okay in school, but I expect some pretty low grades coming home eventually.

I plan to talk with his teacher regarding this. I’m going to request that he not be told (or be able to see) any “failing” or extremely low scores. I don’t know if she will do this for me, but I am going to request that she give those scores directly to me (hand them to me, send them in an envelope or email me the scores).

My son works very hard and puts great effort in his school work. He needs encouragement and not a message implying that his best is just not good enough.

I just posted without finishing my message!….Maybe if you explain the situation with the teacher she can give some accomodations (like not letting him know of failing grades, and/or offering to test him in ways that he works best (multiple choise, open book, essay, smaller chunks of testing…whatever manner allows him to show best what he has learned).

Good luck in getting this resolved. It’s important that the teacher be aware of this and how important that it is for your son to feel successful and not become completely discouranged. Try to convince her to become your partner in teaching him in effective ways and encouraging him to do his best and be positive about himself.

…now I’m going to sleep!

Sometimes, when faced with mircomanaging, the situation
can turn around.

When I was having trouble with a situation I decided
to start right at the top -
and requested a meeting with the teacher, the counselor
and the school psychologist and I outlined my position
on the matter and everyone got a copy of the email.

As if by magic, the problem got solved asap!
I have done this a couple times and it has
always worked.

Katy

I feel for you, I have a son with similiar problems. Get this, He has been being tutored for just over a year and now he is feeling successful. Well he had a homework assignment that he did on his own for social studies. I was VERY
proud of him, I cannot express how proud I was to see him working on his own for a change. All the answers were correct by the book. On Tues. he gave me that comp. question assignment, he missed all but ONE!!! He was so sad and frustrated. The content was correct, the answers were correct, they were all wrong because they were not in complete sentence form. Or he forgot to put a period at the end of the sentence. Mind me this is social studies not English, yet all wrong, no partial credit for correct answers. They were not correct only do to the fact they were not in sentence form. Even on questions that ask for a list. Unreal. I have taken the rest of this week to think this through and I did talk to one teacher. I will be in that school to change his IEP correct the situation and to make life more miserable for the teacher. Sorry teachers out there but if they cannot see when a child is makeing progress and feeling so successful for the first time in their life, then you give them a blow like this those kinds of teachers we don’t need. And because of teachers like that is why I take it to my sons IEP and make life miserable for the teacher. I do the research and find what will help my son and what will be more difficult on the teacher. Maybe its the wrong way to look at it, but it makes me feel better and it helps my son to continue you feel successful.

I know where you are coming from you should have heard some of the rants at my house in the past.

Some of the things that are done or not are amazing. Homework shouldn’t be you spend hours drilling your kid until everyone is in a hateful mood.

Guess you have to tell them what they need to do to teach your child.

Good luck.

P.S. Keep venting here awhile before you talk to the teacher.

studied and studied for an ocean/continent test-long words are so difficult for him to say, much less remember.

Sure enough, he remembered every single one but misspelled them and received a F. How am I supposed to motivate him to study if all his effort and time is ‘rewarded’ this way

After calming done so I didnt express myself in the words I was thinking ;), I had his IEP changed so points for spelling could only be deducted if it WAS spelling. I also requested word banks be used(they wrote ‘when possible” but I will upgrade to ‘always’ if needed-I dont see the word retrieval issue improving)

At a back to school night special education meeting one year at my kids k-5 school a parent brought up her concern of her child getting an F on a spelling paper. The Resource Teacher said my kids do not get “F“ ‘s and then turned to the principal and said isn’t that right. The principal said that is correct and we are dealing with a new teacher here who is not familiar with the schools philosophy. It was stated that the situation would be taken care of. If the child was failing they were not getting the correct supports or accommodations.

Have a talk with the case manager and find out what the school’s philosophy is. If the philosophy includes giving out “F“ ‘s then call an IEP meeting to beef up the IEP with support, accomodations and modifications as needed.

Helen

It does seem that so many people who should be knowledgeble or at least try to learn don’t. While we found many caring people, we also got tired of the ignorance and refused to let it destroy our child and our family. While our decision may not be possible for many we are thankful every day that we were able to do this. We maintained our son through middle school keeping him on an even keel by micromanaging when we needed to. Then we sold our house and moved a hundred miles to enroll our son in a private, college prep high school for learning disabled students.

Before we left, I went to a board meeting and told them how the district’s refusal to learn was forcing us to leave. We pay privately and have no strings to our old or our new public school district. Our son is learning interesting and challenging things. He is happy and progressing.

I always wanted the things I learned raising an LD child to improve the education for other kids too. While it did click with a few people, it was all too clear that it was too little, too late for our son. I was blessed to find a job in a public school program that is using the latest research to really try to make a difference for LD kids. So, into the second year of this four year journey, we are well and confident that our decision was right for us.

I am having a similar issue at school. My son is in 3rd grade reads 5th grade level books on his own time with excellent comprehension. One teacher even admitted this to me. Yet, during the placement tests which basicly involved reading words in isolation from a sheet of paper he tested slightly below 3rd grade level. So, he is reading books below both comprehension and reading skill level. They refuse to take the fact that his actual skill level is much higher into consideration.

I am really getting frustrated and angry.

So far, I have remained calm and addressed the issues with facts and research. There seems to be alot of information out there explaining the fact that children with visual motor deficits don’t test well. I really don’t understand the mentality that exists. It is blatant labeling. He is ld so needs to be in the ld group. They of course say that there are some reg ed kids in that group but the point of the matter is that if he can do the work he should be given the chance. He has worked so hard to get to this higher level. The only thing they do for special ed in my district is to dumb down the curriculum. That’s it! No remediation and now they don’t even want to judge placement on actual ability.

I honestly think there is a motivation to start kids in lower groups so that by the end of the year they can say look how far “we” took them. Pathetic!

In re-reading my post I did not put down all of the history that leads to this being such a big deal.

But you are all amazing and seemed to pick that up or remembered our situation from past ramblings and fits of rage.

Thanks for all your great advice and your compassion, I can always count on you all to lead me in the right direction.

We have a meeting on Monday morning to stop this in its tracks, hopefully it will be successful. If not, I’ll be back for more advice.

Thanks again and I return all of your thoughts and support for you and your children as well.