Just Got Off The Phone With The English Teacher

B

Bunny

Guest
difficult child's English teacher called me a little while ago, and right now it looks like we are all on the same page. He agrees with difficult child is a very smart kid and that he can do better in the areas that he seems to lacking. I gave him some background information, pretty much telling him why I think he has trouble with spelling and punctuation, and he agrees with me and thinks that my assessment of the situation is spot on. He gave him a short test in class to make sure that it's not a question of whether or not can comprehend the work. He scored the second highest grade in the class, so that is not the problem. He seems to have formed a plan to help difficult child. The teacher was going to find what class he was in when he got off the phone with me and go and talk to him and explain how he wants to help him. It will require extra work on difficult child's part and I have assured him that I will help difficult child in any way that I can here at home.

Hopefully, difficult child won't balk too much about this. He's going to get a 79 for the quarter and he's much more capable than that. I know it. The teacher knows it. Even difficult child knows it. I think the fact that difficult child came to me and asked for help works in our favor.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Sounds like a great teacher who is very willing to work to pull out difficult child's best! Hope all goes well.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Fingers crossed. Maybe I've become too cynical, but I have encountered too many teachers who had their own ideas on how to help ("I talked to him for half an hour on the Peloponesian Wars, he stayed quiet and made eye contact the whole time, he really should have it down pat now,") but who had no idea that difficult child 1 could zone out and not hear a word even when his eyes were focussed on your face. He never responded to being told; he always needed it in writing. But he learned how to 'fake it' early on, and the teachers never learned this. Too many teachers would do things their own way even when I warned them, and then act as if I was nuts. Or the teacher would give up. "I tried; I talked to him; didn't make a blind bit of difference. I'm not wasting any more time on him, certainly I'm not going to bother giving him that written list you want. Not if he won't listen."

So go carefully, keep working with the English teacher and remember, you know your child better than they do, so be prepared to keep updating the teacher. Also listen; sometimes a teacher does get it, and sometimes the teacher's observations can produce a light bulb moment for you.

You never know.

Marg
 

lovelyboy

Member
Holding thumbs! I agree....stay part of the plan and ask feedback from your child so you can see how and what he hears and understand....:)
 
B

Bunny

Guest
Right now, the plan is for difficult child to attend the extra help session the teacher is holding next week (He was supposed to go to the one this past week, but never told me about the test, and never went to extra help). The teacher is going to make him go through the essay that he wrote for the test and correct all of the spelling errors. Look the words up in dictionary so that he knows that they are spelled right, and re-write the essay.
Next we are going to work on getting him to expand his thoughts on what he is writing. He'[s not giving enough details, so he's losing points there, too, but the teacher thinks that's a defense mechanism. The less he writes, the fewer spelling mistakes he will make, the fewer points he'll lose.

Teacher said that he would keep in touch with me an if I had any questions to e-mail him and he would call me so that we could talk about it.

difficult child is on board with this (at the moment). We'll see how this goes.
 
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