...it' another. Or another. Or another.
Every Monday, Emily's teacher passes out their homework for the week, which includes a cover sheet that details which assignment is due when. She then has to copy each assignment on to the corresponding day in her agenda, which I am supposed to sign nightly and she is supposed to return. If she returns her agenda signed each day, she gets a sticker. If she gets a certain amount of stickers she gets to pick out of a prize bag. The prize may be something like a homework pass, a new pencil, a small piece of candy etc. It's the teacher's way of rewarding the children, but it's also one way of fostering parent involvement and awareness. The teacher also provided each student with a folder for transporting homework and papers to and from school.
I am sure you can see where I am going with this.
Since the beginning of the school year (on September 6), I have signed the book all of five times. Five times out of a possible fourteen.
She has remembered to bring her homework home and we have sat down together every night while she did it (she can not be left alone for even a minute, or she completely loses focus and/or starts talking about things unrelated to homework). So I sit there, every night, offering support and help when needed, but mostly just as a guide to keep her on task. I ensure that the paper makes it from the desk, to her folder, to her bag. I remind her every morning to bring home her folder and her agenda, and sometimes her glasses, which she has left at school on many occasions. I usually remind her twice...once as she is on the way out the door and once again as the bus is pulling up. She has forgotten her agenda book more times than she has remembered it, not turned in homework assignments that I know full well have been done and put in her folder and then in her bag, she has left her glasses at school countless times.
Today, she remembered her agenda, her glasses and her folder with her homework in it...and she forgot the cover sheet that explains which assignment is due when. She usually has 2 papers per night, for a total of 10 papers per week, in addition to the occasional paper that she didn't finish in time at school so she has to finish at home, which, for the record, is a whole other entry).
Basically, her spelling assignment on all past Mondays has been to write her words three times each, so I just had her do that. The second paper is usually a math one but there were five math papers so I didn't know which one it was. I was tempted, for a minute, to sit there and make her do every single paper there (including the non math ones) as a "punishment" for not bringing home the syllabus. I figured that might be punishing me more than her (it would have taken a good chunk of the night) so I decided against it.
The thing is, she is on a 504 Plan that specifically calls for her to be reminded to bring home important papers and homework. When I asked Emily if the teacher gave her a one on one reminder she said no, that she reminded the whole class at the end of the day, but not her specifically. From my perspective, a reminder to the class in general should be enough, and being honest, I can't see why, when the teacher says something to the effect of, "Put your homework and agendas in your bag" Emily just doesn't, you know, do it. The fact is that a lot of the time she doesn't.
I have tried talking to Emily about this, asking her what will help, and what she actually needs in the way of support or reminders or whatever that will result in her remembering everything she needs to remember. She hasn't come up with any ideas on her own, and truth be told, in our conversations, she has been horrified by my suggestion that the teacher speak specifically to her about this on a daily basis. She doesn't want to be singled out.
Last week, after one of these discussions, I gave her three days to prove to me she could do it. Two out of three days she remembered, Friday she forgot her agenda.
Despite her protests, I am thinking I will need to have a discussion with the teacher, requesting that she uphold the 504 plan accommodations and remind Emily individually to bring pack her stuff etc. I am toying with the idea of having the teacher not only remind her but check to see that she has done what she needs to.
To be honest here, I sort of feel guilty asking this of the teacher. She is responsible for so many kids...why should Emily require extra "work?" No matter how you look at it though, she does (need a little extra attention etc). She just isn't the type of kid that can sit in a class all day without that one on one interaction. They have IEP's and 504 plans for a reason.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Any ideas of what I can do to help Emily remember?
All I can say is that I am at my wits end. I don't know what to do anymore...and it's only the 3rd week of school!
So she's pretty much a normal kid of her age, maybe leaning ditzier than some, who is perhaps forgetful as much because of being monitored so hard as in spite of it, and needs the lesson of failure to learn about responsibility, preferably when she's in, say, 4th grade, rather than in, say, college without constant supervision and a special plan.
ReplyDeleteAnd plus how sad is it that in my day there was no homework to speak of until 5th grade. At which point I absolutely loathed it because I was physically slow at doing it, so that half hour of homework could take me two hours. Time that was mine; I'd already done my time in school for the day.
Other than that, yeah, the teacher isn't doing her job if she's not following the 504 closely.
ReplyDelete