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She did not attend 'sporadically', but did have a couple weeks out at various times in the year. Her grandfather is active duty military. Her grandmother was unable to get a job here when he transferred, so she commutes, but is only home for the weekends. They didn't know anyone and the school was unable to refer them to any help. They did not provide any instruction for the lessons she missed. As her parents (grandparents) are ESL, though she is not, they (the school) send her for additional help/tutoring, but according to the girl, they play games, but it didn't correspond with what was happening in the classroom.
Now that we have found each other, we will be able to help them out and she won't miss anymore school unneccessarily.
I do not want to teach. I have no desire to be a daycare provider. I wanted to stay home and raise my kids, not 30 others.
Of course, now I'm taking the other side of the fence. Parents suck too. I guess I was just angry about these summer school 'teachers'... who taught her nothing. But I will be homeschooling my kids from now on, to ensure they get an education... no more rolling the dice.
I had a student two years ago who told me he had never been taught a particular topic by his previous year teacher. I told him I was sure he was mistaken, and he swore up and down hadnt happened. When I reminded him that I taught him that when I was covering that class during a maternity leave and knew for a fact that I had taught he was embarrassed because he had really forgot not only the topic but the fact that I was his teacher for 1/3 of the year.
Kids who cram (and that is what summer school really is) are much less likely to retain information. I am glad you are feeling so self righteous that you put all the blame of this students issues on her teachers but I don't think you really have enough information to make that judgement.
And not for nothing, it is a whole different (much easier) ball game teaching one student than teaching 6 classes of 30+.
I have to admit that I was kind of interested in that too. I don't think knowing Roman Numerals means much in math nowadays. It means a little in terms of history.
FWIW: Many of my high school students (not just SPED kids), when they can't get their hands on a calculator, still count on their fingers and/or use TouchMathâ„¢.
I'm 53 and have a masters degree in engineering and a masters in teaching and, while I don't use my finger, I count dots. I envision dots around the numbers and add them up. This did not stop me from learning calculus. I suffer from CRS (can't remember chit). I can't memorize. However, I get the concept. So I add dots. (You don't want to know how I multiply, lol)
One of my daughter's friends has been staying with us, for the summer and continuing on through for the first couple months of school.
I am PISSED at the "teachers" she has had... how DARE they call themselves "teachers"?!
This girl is about to start 5th grade. She failed math last year (only the final semester) and so had to go to summer school for June. She got a 91% average in summer school, which led me to believe that laziness and her home life were responsible for her failing math (not her guardian's fault, situational).
I now know that to be not true.
I start my kids on math worksheets 3-4 weeks before school starts up - nothing difficult, just refresher stuff to keep their brains from turning to complete jello.
My daughter's friend was in her class last year. Her friend will be in the EXACT SAME math class as my daughter this year. This is not good news.
This 11 year old still uses her fingers to count (even up to 10). She does not know Roman Numerals, much less their rules. Forget about multiplication and division. My daughter does not 'fly through' these things, but the gap in between their knowledge is significant. Keep in mind this girl has a recorded 91% for 4th grade math, and as such was awarded "honors". My daughter got an 82%. Respectable, but no honors. But my daughter can add 10 + 10 without using her fingers. I'm not exaggerating.
By the time school begins again, I will have this girl caught up with addition and subtraction, as well as Roman Numerals, fractions, multiplication and division. She's not dumb - she's actually VERY smart.
But there is NO WAY she passed any test. I do not have a teaching degree. I will be homeschooling my son this year and have gotten those smug looks and remarks from teachers about how his education will suffer without a "real" teacher.
As evidenced by this girl's knowledge, none of the kids in this school district have any "real" teachers either.
This makes me sick! How do they give a kid a 91% in 4th grade math that still cannot add? She had NO IDEA about multiplication - I started with the 2s, but we had to go back to the 0s and 1s - she picked them up quickly, but SERIOUSLY?! She's 11!!!
Now, I understand that none of the "teachers" here on CD would EVER let this pass and this does not happen with THEIR students, but I am SICKENED by this and have NO RESPECT for the 4 "teachers" she had for the 4th grade, or the 2 she had for summer school. I'm going to have to show this to dh tonight - we may just need to homeschool our daughter too.
This is how these kids are getting left behind... the teachers are handing them grades and NOT TEACHING.
Your indignation is misplaced. The teacher (I assume it's a public school?) has absolutely no authority to hold back this student. Blame NCLB and the administrators of the school. No child is left behind anymore- even those who deserve to be. Sad.
I have to admit that I was kind of interested in that too. I don't think knowing Roman Numerals means much in math nowadays. It means a little in terms of history.
It it critical, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell what year a movie was made while watching the credits.
I have to admit that I was kind of interested in that too. I don't think knowing Roman Numerals means much in math nowadays. It means a little in terms of history.
I'm questioning whether it was taught in summer school. They don't have time to go over every concept taught in the entire year so they have to cherry pick so she could, easily, get a 91% in what they deem necessary to go on but not have all the details that aren't needed to go on (roman numberals) down.
I do think this girl could benefit from some 1:1 though. With her past attendance issues, there have to be gapping holes in her education.
It it critical, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell what year a movie was made while watching the credits.
You also need them in chemistry so you know that Iron III Sulfide is Iron "three" sulfide but that's much later and we have a tendency to repeat ad nausium when it comes to math. We repeat concepts 3-7 years after they are introduced so, usually, not getting to one wouldn't be an issue unless it was the same one all 3-7 years. If we taught the way they do in Asia, this would be a much bigger problem because they only repeat 1-3 years but they teach fewer topics per year so they are at less risk of missing any.
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