I've reached my limit. His teacher gave out this assignment to do this animal project. Some of it was supposed to be done in school and some at home. I took it upon myself to work with my son on it this weekend. Reason being, I hold no confidence in his teachers to help him. We completed the project and I let his teacher know. My son told me what to write and I typed it (he is allowed a scribe).
Yesterday when I picked up my son, he told me his teacher pulled him out into the hallway to speak with him. She asked why he finished it at home and he said he forgot he was supposed to work on it in school, too. Her response..."oh really? I don't believe you." She had the nerve to tell him she wants it done again in school, when the report we worked on his perfectly fine and acceptable.
So I emailed her this...
Ms. Friedman,
Noah explained to me that you and he had a conversation about his report. He said he told you that he forgot the animal report was something that was supposed to be worked on during class, and that your response was "really? I don't believe you." He also said that you requested he do the report again with Ms. Schaeffer. I made it a point to work on this project with Noah at home, because I do not feel confident that he is getting all the help he needs in school. Now if the goal is to have Noah copy what was typed, that is not necessary. He and I brainstormed this project, researched it and completed it together. I typed it for him, so he could concentrate on what he wanted me to write. After all, Noah is allowed a scribe as part of his IEP.
Frankly I am getting tired of all this. Noah is miserable in your class and doesn't feel like you understand him at all. I have instructed Noah NOT to do this report again. The report I emailed you has all of the information that was requested, and it was neatly typed. There is absolutely no need for Noah to do twice the work, when his initial report was absolutely acceptable. Now if Ms. Schaeffer wants to work with him on the poster, that is fine. We printed out a large picture of his animal, along with the animal name in the title. I explained to Noah that he could take information off of his typed report, to fill in the poster with the required information.
In addition, this homework folder system is not working out for me. I still cannot tell what you have looked at. Completed assignments that we put in, seem to linger in his folder. Please check in Noah's folder daily and remove assignments from the night before. Please only return them to his folder once you have visibly graded it. Any assignments that are left in his folder not marked, will be thrown away. There is too much clutter and Noah needs as much help as he can with organization. I will see you on Wednesday.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
I am meeting with the staff again tomorrow for another IEP and am going to raise hell. Wish me luck.
Kattoo13
Kick some butt and take some names!
I have total confidence in you.
(Oh, and my daughter did the same assignment less than two weeks ago. We did it ALL at home and she was told she could discuss it in class, but that any "written report" she could do at home, she was told this by me, and the teacher did not argue.)
Kattoo13
Kick some butt and take some names!
I have total confidence in you.
(Oh, and my daughter did the same assignment less than two weeks ago. We did it ALL at home and she was told she could discuss it in class, but that any "written report" she could do at home, she was told this by me, and the teacher did not argue.)
thank you! my son did his on the megalgraptus from the ordovician period. he's always been fascinated with prehistoric creatures. what'd your daughter do it on?
it sounds like your daughter has a good teacher. i spoke with the autism lady who observed my son in class. she said the school definately needs to make some changes and she also mentioned enhanced staffing.
thank you! my son did his on the megalgraptus from the ordovician period. he's always been fascinated with prehistoric creatures. what'd your daughter do it on?
it sounds like your daughter has a good teacher. i spoke with the autism lady who observed my son in class. she said the school definately needs to make some changes and she also mentioned enhanced staffing.
My daughter did hers on zebras. I kept it short and sweet. She loves zebras so much!
Her teacher has become a good teacher, for my daughter. She did not, by any means, begin that way. She was very tough at first and was doing a lot of things that I found to be less than helpful. For us, the IEP meeting made all of the difference in the world.
Wow, I wish they actually tried to understand back when I went to school.
... instead of making fuss and bad feelings whenever a problem seemed to appear.
My daughter did hers on zebras. I kept it short and sweet. She loves zebras so much!
Her teacher has become a good teacher, for my daughter. She did not, by any means, begin that way. She was very tough at first and was doing a lot of things that I found to be less than helpful. For us, the IEP meeting made all of the difference in the world.
aww that's cute. you are blessed your IEP is working out for your daughter 
I'm glad it went well.
Interesting that the rest of the staff agreed with you about your son. I think that as parents we aren't really aware of what the teaching staff think of each other. I have a friend who's a teacher at my son's school and although she hasn't said too much, I know that there are a couple of other teachers there that she has some reservations about.
Even before my son was refered to the Autism Team, I had some problems with his class teacher - she has put any problems down to my son being "immature", but the Assistant Head, who has experience of teaching children with AS, has spoken to her about it without me having to say anything. The Assistant Head was very diplomatic about it, but reading between the lines, she is aware of the class teacher's attitude and is determined to change it, or if overrule her if necessary.
I am so glad it went well. Did they come up with a new IEP for him or are they still planning? My daughter was just referred to some extra counseling in school as well, to deal with the stresses of learning differently. Maybe they have a program like that for your son as well.
My daughter does not see anyone outside of school (for counseling). She has, in the past, had stress from the obvious fact that she was unable to keep up with some of the other kids in class. So funny, she sees the ones that get it done faster than her, but never that there are some who take even longer than she does.
She is very confident though most of the time. Sometimes doubt creeps in, but mostly she says things like "I learn differently. I am good at art and science and math."
She had to get special approval for this new counseling, so I will see how it works for her. She loves to be pulled out of class for her time with the resource specialist. She considers it her special time, and the room where she goes to work is QUIET (which is REALLY important to her). I am fearfully waiting for the stigma of "special ed" to start, but have not seen any signs of it yet.
Kattoo13
Kick some butt and take some names!
I have total confidence in you.
(Oh, and my daughter did the same assignment less than two weeks ago. We did it ALL at home and she was told she could discuss it in class, but that any "written report" she could do at home, she was told this by me, and the teacher did not argue.)
thank you! my son did his on the megalgraptus from the ordovician period. he's always been fascinated with prehistoric creatures. what'd your daughter do it on?
it sounds like your daughter has a good teacher. i spoke with the autism lady who observed my son in class. she said the school definately needs to make some changes and she also mentioned enhanced staffing.
ATM: I'd be curious to have information on the Megalgraptus. The Ordovician period is just after the Cambrian period. How interesting! Please have your son give you the information, and then you can post it...
In any case, I cannot comment on this particular case. I do know why the school system has certain teachers who are not very good. It is simple. The teacher college system drains a lot of the spontaneity out of teachers. The quest for knowledge and truth is, well, drained out. The idealism is gone.
I know this from personal experience. We are not attracting the people we need with such nonsense teacher training programs. Let me say that we need less emphasis on mass produced human beings ("cohort" systems, NCLB, educational philosophies, et al) and more emphasis on people who are creative and who love learning. Frankly, the whole school system needs more individuality and less belief in mass produced factory humanity.
We need more Helen Keller's, Albert Einstein's, Riemann's and Picasso's in the educational system. We need less people who have their cards punched. I am for abolishing the teacher credential program as it exists, and replacing it with something more innovative.
That is my humble opinion.
All the best.
In relation to this thread - as far as Redoing the assignment...
When a rule is made by a school/teacher and enforced unfairly or arbitrarily we as parents cannot stand for it.
It happened before we got my daughter's IEP. I simply removed the assignment from her folder and it was never seen again. 
she said "well he already gets up all the time to get a tissue." i said "well he's doing that to avoid the task, because he doesn't understand what he is supposed to do. if you were there to help him as needed, he wouldn't be doing that."
That reminds me of myself. I find doing experiments in science very difficult because I have trouble processing that part of my brain. So I spend the whole hour and 15 mins of the lesson wandering around pretending to do things and then take the average of the classes results and change it slightly so it doesn't look obvious. I usually get the right answer when other don't.
I find doing the experiments patronising, we are not researching anything new. The results have been found previously so therefore there is nothing to prove. I do not care to pretend the outcomes have any relevance since if the are not the same as the ones in the book we are told they are wrong and to then make up an explanation to why they are wrong. This is part of the reason why I do badly in experiments.
In previous years we would always work in groups or partners so I would just get my partners to do it while I would overview it and write down the results. That worked reasonably well, also the experiments were only ever for 'fun', they were never on the exam.
However now experiments are on the exam, and we rarely get to work with a partner or if we do the partnerships are not made by the teacher anymore so therefore no one else will work with me. This has made my grade drop.
I get irritated when it takes me such a long time to process something simple and don't understand. I don't get help because my teacher usually cannot see anything is wrong. I cannot ask for help because the anxiety I get makes it difficult to speak, also in the past I have been told to "not be so ridiculous", "it's easy" or "no one else seems to have a problem". (Although i'm sure this would not be said by my current teachers I know it is still what is thought)
My other teacher Biology once took us for a lesson which involved an experiment. He noticed that I was doodling instead of doing the experiment. I told him that I didn't know what to do so I decided to draw instead. He found that hard to process because he usually thinks of me as very bright. He tried to explain it to me however I still did not understand although I pretended to so he would not think I was stupid.
Another lesson was taken once by another Biology teacher who does not teach me. He is very good, he is the only teacher in the school that I am aware of having the slightest form of training in regards to Autism. In the lesson he instantly knew I was struggling so he spent time helping me. He asked me simple questions about what I was doing which broke the experiment up for me so I was able to process it. It is a shame my set does not get him as a teacher.