Sunday, November 22, 2009

Overwhelmed Or Lazy?


Minerva's percentile for reading is 54 and her math level in in the teens. No one can understand why Minerva is not doing homework or trying to pass her classes. Minerva does not have a job. Her only chores at home involve studying. Her parents, the school psychologist and her teachers think she is lazy. I think she is overwhelmed.

How can anyone expect a child who performs at such a low level to be able to complete high school work? Her course load includes algebra, living environment, world history, English, French, technology, gym and resource room.

BTW, I learned about some of this by talking to Minerva's English teachers who sat in on her annual (or tri-annual or whatever it is called) IEP conference. I also got to share my take on the situation with him and he agreed with many of the points I made. So, to my attacker, I do try to talk to the teachers of my students. The sad thing is that if I hadn't forgotten something and had to return to school at 4:30 to pick it up, we would never have spoken about this. You see, in a school the size of Packemin HS, collaboration, while nice and extremely necessary is not often possible.

5 comments:

Ricochet said...

It'd great when you can talk to your peers since the kids don't share everything with everyone. That's how I found out that a kid who'd been out for three weeks wasn't in juvie but had been translating for his grandfather.....

I agree she is overwhelmed. Ideally, you'd be able to differentiate the instruction to bring the math down to a level she can learn from. Too bad none if us have the time or the number of students to be able to do that.

mathman42 said...

Change French to art. isn't Foreign lang just a year requirement ? Sounds like she is a 9th grader. Give her whatever she is able to read and understand and write about in any way, shape, or form. You don't want the same situation as before to occur. Maybe there is art talent.

Pissedoffteacher said...

That would take intelligence on the part of the guidance department or the psychologist that makes the recommendations.
Her English teacher is giving them an easy book, but, that combined with all the other work might be too much for her to handle.

mathman42 said...

So talk to the psychologist if you think she is a candidate for flipping out. You do not want that to happen. If you know her parents or culture you should have an idea of what pressure they are putting on her. Do what you think is right.

I got a U on my observation and honestly will likely do nothing different.

Pissedoffteacher said...

She's not a candidate for flipping out. I just think she's not working as hard as she should because the work is too much for her.

The U sucks. A 40+ year veteran teacher in my department is getting u ratings too. He is great. There is a plot in place to get him to retire.

Mathman--send me your e-mail so we can chat privately about issues sometmes.