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Comment by jordan04n on June 8, 2010 at 9:34pm

While I chose not to micro manage my child I am concerned about the direct meaasages he gets from the world...tv. advertising, mall, outside infulences that are not healthy.

Comment by Roberta on March 28, 2010 at 8:37pm

Hi Lisa,
Totally agree about the teacher tenure thing. From talking to other moms, I learned that there was a certain second grade teacher I did not want my daughter to have. I actually heard this from two teachers as well. When I spoke to the principal from last year, he told me that I didn't even have to say the teacher's name because he already knew. That was crazy to me that everyone knew that this teacher was bad--including the principal--but because of tenure nothing could be done. Craziness.

Comment by Lisa Williams on March 28, 2010 at 8:24pm

Hi Roberta, I am so glad you are having a better year! yours story sounds very similar to our situation in many ways... this is the school my husband went to from headstart through graduation, I went there for the last of my 9th grade and all of my 10th grade year. I would have graduated there as well, but my family moved "to town" and I finished up at a different school. From the time he entered Kindergarten, I too volunteered to help out... with the exception of being an Avon Rep, I am a stay at home mom and have always made sure our teachers had all my contact info and until this year, had very good relationships with them. I have even helped teachers other than my son's, was asked to "sub" for a class for part of a day so the teachers could attend a banquet in their honor and there wasn't enough certified subs to fill in. I have always made sure I was there for any special days like holidays or field trips. I always took lots of photos and supplied them to the teacher that does the annual so the kids would have lots of pictures of their class in there...I am just like you.. I am so angry at this woman that I can not be in her classroom. I feel she has undone so much good and who knows how long it will take to regain that level of excitement and joy for learning? I am hoping my enthusiasm for learning will hasten the process over the summer and I can make some headway. Since it is a smaller, county school we think it is best to get him into a new environment in the fall. I think something that really irks me about the whole thing is that teachers get tenure in such a short time.. about 2 years, and then the school is reluctant to do anything about the bad ones. Add to that that this school is small and there are several teachers that are related... lots of moms, daughters and nieces..... It's my opinion that they have fished from the shallow end of the pool and that is has been detrimental to the students. We will probably go do some interveiwing in the next week or so so we can decide where he will be in the fall. At least one thing has possibly come out of this.. I am going to have a whole new set of questions to ask of the people I have to trust with the care of my son for 7 hours a day!

Comment by Roberta on March 28, 2010 at 7:28pm

Hi Lisa,
I know the feeling. My daughter started at her new school last year. She was in first grade and I was really excited because we had recently moved back to my hometown and couldn't wait for her to attend the elementary school I attended. It was horrible from the first day. The teacher was new to the school and didn't even have her door open on the first day of school to meet the kids. My daughter would not have known what to do if my husband and myself had not come with her. Then on her third day, she was so upset when I picked her up because the teacher had passed out classroom folders and told my daughter and a couple of other students that they couldn't have a folder because they would not be in this class anymore and would be going to another school. I was mad. You don't tell a first grader that who is starting in a new school in a new city. Got the run around from the principal until I called the Superintendent then emailed every member of the school board. Got an apology and my daughter remained at that school. But for the year, interaction with the teacher was tense. It was to the point where I wanted my husband to go to parent teacher conferences so I wouldn't have to talk to her. And, I am one of the parents who likes to volunteer in class and field trips. In the end, I wished I had removed my daughter from that first grade class and put her in another. Instead, because her newfound friends were in her class, I left her there. But, towards the end of the school year, I got the 411 from other moms and requested her second grade teacher. We ended up getting a new principal and I emailed her thru the superintendent about my request. They obliged and her second grade year has been great. I volunteer about once a week, am part of the PTO and can talk to her teacher--who is a very nice lady. The difference between first and second grade is nite and day. I only wish her second gade teacher was teaching third grade next year.

Comment by Lisa Williams on March 28, 2010 at 2:03pm

Hi all. I just joined the group. I have an 8 year old. He is very bright (like his dad!) and we have been very blessed to have had some very very good teachers from preschool through second grade. They helped put him on such a great path and helped me foster a love of reading and learning in him. He was always excited to go to school because he couldn't wait to see what he would learn that day. At the end of each school year, I had teachers come tell me they wished he had been in their class! This year, however, has been a complete nightmarre for him and us! The teacher he has is a yeller, and is very inconsistant with her rules, homework assignments, tests, well pretty much everything. It has made it unbearable for us. She has taken a child that liked school and loved to learn and made him not like school. He is afraid of her so he won't speak up even when he NEEDS to. A few weeks ago, he came home with rock in his shoe because he was too afraid of her to take off his shoe and get the rock out. It had been in there all day. In just the last few weeks he has acted out and it has escalated to her dragging him to the principals office three times and wanting him either spanked or suspended. When she calls, I don't get the truth about what happened, so we have started having to drop everything and go to the school ourselves. Then we find out that she has totally misrepresented the situation. I just learned the other day she talks about her personal family issues with the class... her son getting a speeding ticket (and bringing the ticket to class!) and talks of kicking her son in the rear t oget him moving when he wouldn't do what she told him to. She has also popped some of the students on the back of the head in class.... two of the incidents invloving my son involvded... you guessed it, kicking and popping another kid on the back of the head! How can we get him to understand it's wrong when SHE is doing it in class?!? With only two months left before the Summer break, we may have to have him removed from her class. My husband is going to have a talk with the principal in the morning, but I am not optimistic. The principal is new this year and doesn't seem to have good leadership or authoritive skills. We have already decided he is not returning to that school in the fall. I can not continue to subject my child to that atmoshere. I have spent this year a nervouse wrech. I can't imagine what must be going on inside my son's poor head!

Comment by Jen Ryan on March 12, 2010 at 6:10pm

Mostly fine, but my 7yo first grader has been caught stealing 2x in 2 days. Candy from inside the teachers desk on day 1 and another kids snack on day 2. Well 3 times in 3 days actually. I caugh him telling is 4yo brother to put candy at the grocery store in his pocket 3 days ago. IDK where this is coming from. I've talked to him about not becoming a "bad guy" and that to be a good honorable person means we don't steal and he's grounded for the week, but IDK. I was thinking of taking him to the police station so that THEY could really put the fear in him. I know he's only stollen small things, but I'm thinking this needs to be nipped in the butt in the beginning and fast. Thoughts?

Comment by Tricia Gobber on March 3, 2010 at 8:06pm

yes his teacher says the same thing, nip it in the butt while age is on his side

Comment by Tricia Gobber on March 3, 2010 at 8:24am

I have a special needs son who we adopted from foster care in 2009. He is 6 but mentally because of abuse he is very far behind. We struggle everyday with school, he is just not catching on. He goes to tutoring, meets with an intervention specialist and he will also be doing summer school. My main concern is after all he has been through and all he tries to do to get caught up, he is still going to be held back. I worry how this will effect him.