Try to know more about 1st grade teachers at PPE (home, elementary schools)

[h2seeker]

Hello all! My son is at kindergarden with Percy Priest Elementary school and will be at 1st grade soon. We like PPE and the current K teacher. Since teachers do not move up with students, I need to know more about the 1st-grade teachers and see which one is a better fit for my son.

These are the 6 1st-grade teachers at PPE: Karla Brooks, Laura Faison, Beth Hartsock, Susan Spaulding, Virginia Webb, Hillary Zeller. If your child was once taught by any of them, could you please share your impression of her teaching style, curriculum, homework, class grades, level of enthusiasm, and anything you want to comment on? Feel free to comment here or send a private message to me at gong.drum@gmail.com.

Without further information, I just trust that all of them are good teachers, because of the reputation of PPE. But I do have some criteria to select a better fit, such as how well the teacher teach math, manage class order, assign good-quality homework, encourage learning, and so on.

But I don't want to say much about my own preference and my son's situation, because I want to hear your own opinion that is not affected by what you think I am looking for.

You have a very nice day

[septimus]

Good luck with picking your kids teacher.

I think the best you can do is rely on school yard/pick up line gossip.

FWIW I was told by several people that they loved the teacher we have this year. We've been miserable. It has not been a good a good fit at all and I'm not the only parent unhappy. Maybe she's having a bad year, but our experience isn't been what her reputation in previous years.

With my other son we got an awesome teacher. She isn't the one most people ask for, but I actually was hoping we'd get her or another teacher and we did. We've had a great year.

My other son got a first year teacher who has been absolutely amazing.

[BirdieBelle]

Does Percy Priest allow parents to request teachers?

In my experience with elementary schools, the principal and team leaders work hard over the summer to group children together by personalities, learning style etc. Our elementary school does not guarantee parent requests.

Is your child generally agreeable, eager to learn and able to manage himself?

I agree with septimus that asking parents of rising second-graders is your best bet.

[h2seeker]

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

Does Percy Priest allow parents to request teachers?

In my experience with elementary schools, the principal and team leaders work hard over the summer to group children together by personalities, learning style etc. Our elementary school does not guarantee parent requests.

Is your child generally agreeable, eager to learn and able to manage himself?

I agree with septimus that asking parents of rising second-graders is your best bet.

You are right. Parents can't request teachers.

My son is very eager to learn, but he is not very good at listening to others and following teacher orders. He is just too curious and too eager to offer opinions and sometimes disrespect class order. Not very serious. I hope my son will continue to be so curious, but gradually learn how to be more respectful of others.

Thank you and Septimus for the replies.

[BirdieBelle]

Part of that is just his age, of course. But I hope someone from PP replies. I am not familiar with any current posters here who have kids there but you never know who is reading here without commenting.

Sometimes websites like Great Schools have parent comments. You may find some feedback there.

[Anony-Momma]

Originally Posted by h2seeker

You are right. Parents can't request teachers.

My son is very eager to learn, but he is not very good at listening to others and following teacher orders. He is just too curious and too eager to offer opinions and sometimes disrespect class order. Not very serious. I hope my son will continue to be so curious, but gradually learn how to be more respectful of others.

Thank you and Septimus for the replies.

How is your son with following non-verbal communication? Sometimes, a child is missing non-verbal communication and they compensate by trying to lead/take control by asking curious questions, offering opinions. They aren't deliberately disrespectful - they are simply weak in areas of following and joining (and that tends to be non-verbal). You might want to "lose" your voice for a couple of days to gauge where he is able to follow and join at non-verbal communication levels. (I have a child with special needs and this was one of our areas of developmental delays. I am not a professional.)

[h2seeker]

Originally Posted by Anony-Momma

How is your son with following non-verbal communication? Sometimes, a child is missing non-verbal communication and they compensate by trying to lead/take control by asking curious questions, offering opinions. They aren't deliberately disrespectful - they are simply weak in areas of following and joining (and that tends to be non-verbal). You might want to "lose" your voice for a couple of days to gauge where he is able to follow and join at non-verbal communication levels. (I have a child with special needs and this was one of our areas of developmental delays. I am not a professional.)

Although I was asking about teachers, your reply will potentially help me a great deal. This is the first time I heard about the concept of nonverbal communication, but when I look it up, I realize some big gap in my home education. I will start paying attention on this. So thank you!

[Anony-Momma]

Originally Posted by h2seeker

Although I was asking about teachers, your reply will potentially help me a great deal. This is the first time I heard about the concept of nonverbal communication, but when I look it up, I realize some big gap in my home education. I will start paying attention on this. So thank you!

We were never allowed to ask for a teacher; however, we were allowed to ask that a child NOT be placed in a teacher's class if we had a prior experience with a teacher. My older child had one horrible year/teacher in elementary school and I knew that the teacher would be a poor match for a younger child.

To help the staff place children, we were asked to describe and submit in writing our child's strengths and weaknesses, learning style, what kind of teacher he relates to. The non-verbal communication piece may be something you choose to describe for school staff as they assign children to teachers for next year. Good luck!