Blog Week 5<p>
This week we are talking about conflicts and how to work
through them without anyone getting hurt or in general how we are dealing with
the situation. The conflict that is affecting me and my family currently has to
do with my granddaughter’s school. My granddaughter started kindergarten this September
and there have been issues from the beginning with not only the teacher, but
the principle also. My granddaughter will be six in June, so this makes her the
youngest in her old class and new one, the problems started when she was placed
in a chair at circle time (because she talks to others), not allowed to have
recess most days and not allowed to eat or finish her lunch. Both teachers are
telling us she is spitting on children (something she has never done), she is
also messing with her classmates papers in some way, we are not saying she is
perfect-but the school is telling us that she is misbehaving EVERYDAY! My daughter
and I have had meetings with not only the teachers, but the principle and they
tell us that she is doing better one day and then horrible the next. The principle
has also been caught lying to us about what she said she was going to do with
my granddaughter. She told us she was going to take care of the teacher that
was labeling my granddaughter as a trouble child and did not. What we are
seeing is the school protecting the own and not putting the children’s safety
and well-being first (we have talked with other parents with the same type of
problems with this school). <p>
I guess what I am trying to say is we have tried to work
with the school and stay calm, but no matter what type of strategy we go in
with-it doesn’t work. We have tried to be cooperative with the school, but as I
said, they say something and do another. We thought after moving her to another
kindergarten class thing would be better, but after one week, the emails and
bad cards started coming home. My granddaughter is at the point where she does
not want to go to school at all! We are educators here-any suggestions would be
greatly appreciated as to how we work with this school and get her back to
enjoying her learning experience. She is also experiencing bulling from the
children that are in both her classes (present and old), most of the children
in her classes are 7 or almost seven-to me this is too old to be in
kindergarten! Is this the new norm? To keep your child out of school until they
are this old? We are running out of options and are now thinking about
homeschooling her.<p>
I have not experienced this before but I do sympathize with you as a mother and educator.I believe educational centers or schools should always put the child interest and well being as priority and therefore if there are challenges with the child they should be looking for ways to help address it with support of their parents.I believe a conversation that focus more about facts on the child's behavior is necessary ,labeling or focusing so much on the child's shortcomings rather than her achievements would not help.when the facts is known then both parties can work together;school can suggest seeing a school counselor if it is truly and sincerely required and parents can talk to the child to really know what is going on.Its possible that her various outbursts is a result of being bullied but when the focus is only on her then no solution can be offered.I hope that eventually you would have a solution that benefits all;especially the child.best of luck.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you are dealing with this. I know as a educator some parents are shocked when I address behavior with their child. When I am a parent, I am sure it will be also hard if my child was being "labeled" as your grand daughter is. This is such a tough situation and I wish for you that everyone was working as a team to better the behavior and find causes for what might be causing this negative attention. Working as a team and using the techniques that we learned this week would only benefit everyone's situation. I would also suggest having your grand daughter see the school counselor (the one at our school is very supportive) and opening up that communication because they are able to look at both sides of the situation and might be able to give different viewpoints and opinions. All school districts also have a parent liaison that could also help. It is also not right that the other children and bullying her. They are only doing this because they might be mocking different adults behaviors as well. I would say to make a positive behavior chart at home and reward her when she does well and eventually have her work up to so many to earn a "good behavior" or if they follow the stoplight for behavior "a green party" where everything that you eat is green that night. I hope everything gets better and hopefully all parties can be respectful and help the situation and not harm the child.
ReplyDeleteSusan, have you or your daughter tried spending a few (whole) school day with your granddaughter to watch and see how the teacher interacts with her, see if she truly care about the well being of your granddaughter. I did this with my daughter and I found that the teacher did not know how to interact or teach my daughter. I had to help my daughter and the teacher to understand one another and help my daughter to learn what was exspected of her in the classroom. ( I had to do it)
ReplyDelete