Sunday, August 5, 2012
When my older daughter J was in sixth grade, we were not very pleased with her teacher. Although he was theoretically teaching the Gifted class, we found him to be both cursory and unprepared in his instructional delivery. We felt like he took advantage of the abilities of his GATE students by dumping work on them with little explanation. They frequently were left to work on their own from the textbooks, and not one of his many projects for the entire year came with written directions or grading rubrics. Plus he wasn't very compelling and there were many discipline issues and disruptions.
For our younger daughter, I very expressly requested a different sixth grade teacher. The year has begun and we got our pick. For the days before school began I was getting so nervous about it, I even started having bad dreams about Mr. F. That he showed up at our house to hand out inexplicable projects.
So B, and we, felt thrilled to see her placed in Mrs. H's class. Mrs.H has turned out to be AWESOME. There could not be a better match for B's learning style. She's young, she's bubbly, she's enthusiastic. She has clear expectations and excellent classroom control. She's making everything fun. B comes home from school every day bubbling over with stories, and talking about how much she loves class. Even better, her two best friends are in there with her. In fact so many parents of GATE students requested not to have Mr. F that Mrs. H is covering GATE curriculum as well. So it's a total win.
Best, best, best of all, Mrs. H is a super-active kinesthetic learner. And so is B. So everything they learn has gestures or hand motions that go along with the information. The class provides many opportunities for moving and talking. I am SOOOOOOOO relieved.
My giving for today was the purchase of a $25 Target gift card for Mrs. H to buy school supplies. With the California budgets in such difficult straits, teachers are getting less support than ever. I always support my children's teachers with supplies and donations, and this year it is a true delight to help Mrs. H have whatever she needs to do her best teaching.
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Today I cleaned the kitchen sink.
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