Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My son had a rough kindergarten year. He had many trips to the principals office for disruption, not listening, not sitting still, some aggression, etc. I worked very closely with the school and even put him in outside counseling. Things definately got better although he never was even close to being a model student. He is a handful, always has been, and I expect that 1st grade won't be much different, although I certainly expect it to be better than the start of kindergarten was. We had discussed holding him back a year but neither his pediatrician nor his counselor thought we should do that and the school never pushed it at all (other than a retention letter sent home back in Feb just putting the idea in our heads that he might be a candidate for retention). As much as you think he is not paying attention, he still does very good independent work (teacher actually commented on it), reads at a level higher than most kindergarteners, and writes better than most children his age (although he has now broken his right hand so his left hand writing is about where his writing was a year ago). Anyway, that information is why we didn't hold him back, he is ahead academically.
My question though is, when we have meet the teacher on Monday, should I bring up his behavior to his new teacher? I am assuming she will have some idea from his writeups, or will she have access to that information? I am torn between being proactive about it and giving her a preconceived notion that he is automatically going to act up or "be bad". My understanding is that his new teacher is a very good, experienced teacher. A friend of mine's daugher had her a few years ago. His K teacher, while we absolutely loved her, had only been teaching a few years and it was actually her first for Kindergarten. So what do you think? Any teachers out there to give me their advice?
I'm not a teacher, but chances are the new teacher already knows some of your son's history. I can understand that you don't want to influence her thinking but I think a heads up on some of the things you've been working on at home and in school settings would be appreciated. Then you can establish a trusting relationship from the start and open communication which is so important for your son's school success. My son had some initial difficulties adjusting to 4 year old kindergarten. It seemed to helped the rapport with his teacher when I initiated discussions such as, "how is he doing...I know he tends to get silly have you tried this...or, is he following directions better-we've started a behavior program at home and we'd like to know how he's listening at school..." I would try to keep things positive so she doesn't develop negative opinions (i.e., instead of saying,"he's a handful" you could say, "he had some trouble adjusting to the school routines last year. We tried these things _________and it helped him in this way_________. Please let me know how he's adjusting to the school routines right away so I can tell you some more things that have worked for us at home." It sounds like she has a lot of experience and will be great for your son! Best of luck!
Sounds a lot like my son at that age.
It could be that boredom is a part of the problem. If he is ahead of his peers academically have you thought about magnet schools, gifted classes, split classes, or whatever your school system uses?
A second grade teacher told me about some tricks she used on "challenging" students, like my son was. She used these on him with great success:
*He was placed at the front corner of the classroom so that whenever the teacher was giving the class instructions, or had important information for them, she would stand beside his desk and place her hand on his shoulder as she made the announcement. It was discrete and she knew she had his attention.
*He was often given small "jobs" that allowed him to leave his desk occasionally and released a little of his pent up energy. His jobs included erasing the whiteboard, straightening up the reading area, running errands to the office, that kind of thing.
*He was allowed to sit or kneel on his knees, or stand at his desk, which sounds like a silly thing, but she said she didn't really care about him shifting his position around at his desk, as long as he stayed at his desk. It seemed to work.
She also had a neat trick to cut down on his chatterbox tendencies, but that's another story...
She also kept her desk at the back of the classroom. She said when she was at her desk the kids couldn't tell whether she was paying attention to them or not, they always had to assume that she was, since they couldn't really see her. I always thought that was kind of sneaky of her. I admired that!
I'm a teacher and mother of a first grader. She started on August 11. While my daughter isn't a behavior problem, she's reading on a second grade level and was bored in kindergarten. When I met the teacher, I told her that my main concern was that my daughter not be bored and start to hate school. I can already tell in the first week that she is taking that heart. She gave her a vocabulary test and she tested on fourth grade. My daughter was thrilled today that she was given computer reading time while the teacher worked on lower-level reading for the others.
In your case, I would approach the teacher and tell her that he had difficulty in kindergarten (which is common). Tell her any techniques you or the teacher discovered that worked with him and let her know that you are actively involved. Suggest that he's bored and ask her to differentiate with your son. I would keep it as positive as possible. Teachers don't expect perfection in students--they just expect to be able to communicate with parents.
I am a teacher. My school has a team that works together to help students who are frequently in trouble or having problems learning. We work to decide whether or not the student should have an ADHD protocol filled out or if they should be tested for gifted or special ed. If your son doesn't listen at home, it could be ADHD. Part of the protocol for diagnosis of ADHD is that the student must have exhibited the behavior at both home and school. If not, there could be something else going on, like maybe boredom. At my school, we also work on possible behavior plans for children who are in trouble. A behavior plan uses positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. I would ask if your school has something similar.
Have you considered homeschooling your son? It sounds like he is not your traditonal cookie cutter kid that all schools expect. He may thrive in a setting where he can really be himself instead of having to conform to the often unrealistic goals of school settings.
Kids are often labeled as ADHD or just "bad kids" because they learn differently than most others and the schools are not equipped to teach every child in the way that they learn best. Your son, especially since you say he is advanced in academics, may just be bored out of his mind. That is something that homeschooling would remedy. Just something to consider...
I would keep the first meeting with his teacher very positive. She may or may not be aware of your son's past performance. I'm sure it's in his ***, but I know many teachers (me included) who refuse to read the cums in the first month of school because they don't want to start the year with any preconceived notions. Your son deserves a fresh start. Just because your son had difficulty with the kindergarten teacher does not mean it will be a replay in first grade. He's a year older and may surprise you with his maturity. I'd say how pleased I was to meet her, if there's anything you need please call me, that education is important to us, that we support you 100%, etc.
An experienced teacher will set the boundaries, relay her expectations, lay the foundation for the year, and deal with any issues as they arrive. If she needs to contact you, you have already let her know you are open to that and are willing to help. As a teacher, that would thrill me. Best wishes!
try to make him feel like going to school is fun....rather than a chore i got to AHHS so im still in school and when i used to think that going to school was a pain everyday it just made me want to skip school and not pay attention and try to finish the day as fast as possible but when i started high school i set a goal to have a different mind set about school and from there on ive been doing much better and i actually enjoy school
I'm glad you're not holding him back, especially since he's doing so well academically. If you did, then he'd still be himself and bored on top of it. Yikes. Some people are just more active than others and it sounds like your son is one of those. I don't think you should bring it up with his first grade teacher, either. She'll figure it out soon enough and hopefully her experience will enable her to handle him better. Yes, others have said this better than I have, but figured I'd just lend another supporting voice. Best of luck to you!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
