Lizze and I have teacher conferences scheduled for tonight. Unfortunately, we have some concerns about Elliott’s teachers and want to hear their side of things. Elliott has been struggling with his math makeup work and according to him, he’s asked for help a few times this week but his teacher won’t help him.
This isn’t our first rodeo so we don’t assume that Elliott’s accurately perceiving what’s taking place inside the classroom. At the same time we aren’t assuming that Elliott’s wrong either. We know enough to know that teachers aren’t perfect and that things happen that we wouldn’t think would happen.
I’ve not known Elliott’s teachers before this school year and so I have no history with them. They’re newer and it’s always a good idea to make every attempt to get to know our kids teachers.
Lizze and I are firm believes that as parents, we have a responsibility to our kids to be as involved in their education and we possibly can. That includes getting to know the teachers and staff. We fully intend to do just that tonight at conferences. My hope is that this is all a misunderstanding and we can get this resolved, so we can all move forward. ☺
Jimmy, i noticed the ‘roll’ typo too and it make me laugh because he and i were discussing reflux on his other post
I’m glad I made you laugh..or Jimmy made you laugh. I’m glad we made you laugh.. ☺
I’m not one to nitpick regarding typos, but it’s pretty funny that you misspelled “role” in your title to this post, considering the subject matter! 😉
Good luck with conferences. I would suspect that you’ll come away with a completely different perspective as to the situation with Elliott. I would doubt that it’s as simple as Elliott clearly and repeatedly asking for help at appropriate times only to be flatly refused such help. I’m sure you’ll get the whole story, which could lead to discussions with Elliott on how to better communicate with you and/or his teachers when he needs help.
Oh.. Thanks Jimmy. lol
That was an autocorrect thing. I fixed it everywhere but the url. Don’t want a dead link… ☺
I can’t reply to replies
That is sad that the parents are like that, I mean if anything you all have at lease one thing in common that you could get together about
I totally get it about the classroom parties, but do they have like holiday concerts, do they do plays or anything like that?
Also sad about the PTA, those groups have the power to change things. All types of things for the better
I totally agree with you and I’ve pushed for it but it never happened. Frankly, I have too many battles to fight already or I would continue to pursue it.
What other active roles to do you play in their education other than going to conferences? I know there are grades, and you don’t need to talk about that at all. But like other stuff. Tell me how they are in school, are they nice to their peers, do they have friends, are they helpful and attentive? Do you know the friends and their parents? I know you said you don’t have play dates, but do you all converse at these conferences, or at concerts and things?
Is there a PTA you could join, does the school have a suggestion box? Do you get he syllabus for the entire year/quarter/semester and if you do, do you try to engage the boys about things they will learn in the future?
Wow.. Okay.
Unfortunately, most of the parents at the school are not very social. There used to be a PTA of which Lizze was the president. It was like pulling teeth to get parents involved. The PTA is no longer active and I don’t know why. There were changed to the school a few years back and they seemed to have sorta just dropped the PTA.
There’s a big list of things I’d like to do but we aren’t allowed to. Parents are not allowed to attend things like class parties and many other classroom functions. It’s deemed too disruptive for the kids.
What we can do is stay on top of what’s going on. Maintain good communication with teachers and staff. Help with homework. Attend any and all functions we are allowed to.
Play dates are tough and like I said, most of the parents keep to themselves. It’s sad but it’s also the reality of a school like this.