My son’s first grade teacher had a baby in August so he had a substitute for the first 4 months. She was very good and did not let the kids take advantage of her but I am hopeful that the regular teacher, with time under her belt, will recognize some of my son’s behaviors and know how to deal with them appropriately. He has been working with the school guidance counselor who is a social worker. The school system is not designed to properly handle boys (they even showed us a movie that stated that fact last term) so this woman is called upon to teach the boys better behavior and calming techniques. Over the Xmas break I ran into 2 parents of Kindergarten boys and was surprised to hear that their sons were also “patients” of this guidance counselor. My school will stop at nothing to get all the boys into conformism mode – it won;t work with us!
Anyway, I wanted to have a chat re the transition with his new teacher so I left her a note Monday morning. She responded Monday afternoon referring to my request as a “big” meeting where the spouse should be present – this made me angry as it was being overblown, something the administration at my school is famous for. I set her straight Tuesday at pick-up as my spouse does not have the time away from work to deal with what is in reality a “small” meeting. The guidance counselor was there this morning which was a bit of a help as her guidance with the teacher could help: cause I want my son to get more attention than the other kids and she is the one to let the teacher know he gets services now and is entitled to that extra attention!
We had 8 minutes to talk, I quickly told the teacher I was the disciplinarian in the house and I wanted to support any efforts she made to keep my son on the right path re rewards or punishments (I could not think of a more diplomatic word). I have a weekly treasure chest that my son gets something from on Fridays along with game playing at the consoles they leave out at game Stop and Blockbuster – he loves the Wii and Xbox and i am not buying them!
My sion also knows if he has a day where he had a lot of inappropriate behaviors that some of the consequences include no TV at night and/or the throwing out of a Spongebob DVD, a most prized possession. I have not had to throw anything away this school year and I am hopeful that these consequences will help him keep some self-control so when he goes to the school bathroom he doesn’t start singing loud opera to entertain passersbyers when he should not be disturbing the school!
I can’t stand that i never know when the cell phone will ring and it is someone from administration complaining about my son, but I have learned to advocate for him as the school doesn’t, i.e., last year he had a tough time on the roof play top and the principal called, I later learned I should have asked where her staff was. He was blamed for too many things which would have taken too long a time to occur with the proper supervision and I have a right to expect they have the right amount of supervision, they are the ones who let things get out of control! I was new in Public School last year and did not know all the questions to ask. Now I hope I am better prepared to support my child!
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