our school dist. had bad report cards--help!

On 4 Sep 2003 22:19:47 -0700, (ellegirl) wrote:

We just moved into town, my son just started Kindergarten. I looked
up our public schools and compared to other towns in our state, our
schools rated quite poorly. What can I do at home to help supplement
my child? I'm so overwhelmed by the info. on the internet. Does
anyone have any ideas? I am not interested in homeschooling, but are
there good cirriculum books out there that anyone can recommend? It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool! Help!

Thanks alot!

Instead of worrying about curricula to use for a kindergarten child,
take him to museums, plays, concerts, science fairs, any activities
he is interested in.

Help him explore the world. Go to garage sales and buy up old
appliances that he can take apart. Cook with him. He will learn
much arithmetic and some mathematical concepts from that -
measurement, volume, etc. When you go shopping have him
help figure out the totals and what change you will get. When you
are at a fast food restaurant, do the same. Read to him on any
subject he is interested in and let him read to you if he is already
capable. Use rhymes and poetry to enrich his language. Play
with words with him. Don't forget about physical talents and
learning. Play lots of cooperative games or games that have
rules - at this age, children like checkers and tic tac toe and these
are nice problem solving and strategy games. Connect four which
is a three dimensional tic tac toe is a good game too.

Let him dictate stories to you that you can read back to him. If he
knows what he said, he can easily read these to you. Let him
paint, play with playdough, color with markers, etc. Have him use
all kinds of art media to explore creativity. If he enjoys art read
about artists and show him their works.




--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

"ellegirl" wrote in message
om...
We just moved into town, my son just started Kindergarten. I looked
up our public schools and compared to other towns in our state, our
schools rated quite poorly. What can I do at home to help supplement
my child? I'm so overwhelmed by the info. on the internet. Does
anyone have any ideas? I am not interested in homeschooling, but are
there good cirriculum books out there that anyone can recommend? It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool! Help!


I'm sorry to hear this.

We recently moved to Calgary. We managed to avoid this situation by looking
up all the information on schools BEFORE looking at houses. I picked what
are arguably 5 of the top five school districts in the city based on reading
and math test scores and them my husband looked at houses in only those
districts. We found one on the same block as one of those schools and
within easy commutes to our work.

I realize its not always possible to optimize like we did but we will always
at least try to start with school district when buying.

Good luck.

--
sharon, momma to savannah and willow (11/11/94)

"ellegirl" wrote in message
om...
We just moved into town, my son just started Kindergarten. I looked
up our public schools and compared to other towns in our state, our
schools rated quite poorly. What can I do at home to help supplement
my child? I'm so overwhelmed by the info. on the internet. Does
anyone have any ideas? I am not interested in homeschooling, but are
there good cirriculum books out there that anyone can recommend? It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool! Help!

Maybe you could get together with the teacher to explain your concern. If
the teacher knew your child already has a grasp of the subject, she might
give him more challenging work herself. Though the school might not have
done well, the teacher might be excellent.

How about if you wait and see what actually takes place in class and see if
things don't pick up more after Christmas. Most teachers review what may
have been learned in the previous year for a few weeks so they can assess
the whole class and see what needs focusing on. If you volunteer in the
class, you will be able to see if your son is struggling or bored or just
plain happy with what is going on. Good luck. Just remember that districts
are made up of teachers and imo are what makes a school, not the overall
report card.
--
Sue
mom to three girls

ellegirl wrote in message
om...
We just moved into town, my son just started Kindergarten. I looked
up our public schools and compared to other towns in our state, our
schools rated quite poorly. What can I do at home to help supplement
my child? I'm so overwhelmed by the info. on the internet. Does
anyone have any ideas? I am not interested in homeschooling, but are
there good cirriculum books out there that anyone can recommend? It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool! Help!

Thanks alot!

"ellegirl" wrote in message
. com...
It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool! Help!

My kid is in one of the schools with the highest test scores in the city, and
all he's brought home so far is worksheets of gingerbread men to color. And a
cookie recipe. :-)

I wouldn't judge on the material that's coming home. And test score averages
may mean very little -- they seem to me to correlate most highly with
socioeconomic status of the students. They don't show how much they are
actually teaching the kids in a year, nor how good this particular teacher is
at teaching children of different levels in the same classroom.

I think if they're going to judge schools based on test scores at all, what
they should do is test a bunch of the *same* kids a year apart, and see how far
they've come. That would provide a much more accurate comparison. You'd see
whether *any* level of student was making an appropriate amount of progress.
The way they do it now seems like judging whether the kids are growing enough
by calculating the average of all the fourth-graders' heights each year. You'd
get "credit" for having a kid in the class who was very tall, even if s/he
didn't grow an inch that year, and you'd get the average dragged down by a very
short child even if s/he grew three inches that year.

--Helen

We just moved into town, my son just started Kindergarten. I looked
up our public schools and compared to other towns in our state, our
schools rated quite poorly. What can I do at home to help supplement
my child? I'm so overwhelmed by the info. on the internet.

I think the main thing is to just do what you would be doing anyway! Pay
attention to your child's education!

First of all, WHY does the district get poor grades? My daughter goes to a
school which is persistantly considered one of the 'worst' in our town. (The
district as a whole is pretty good, but her school has a lot of kids who
perform poorly, which reflects badly on the school itself.) The problem though
isn't with the school, which has many excellent teachers. The problem is that
many of the children come from low income homes, and the SES, for a variety of
reasons, affects their ability to learn well. Shaina, OTOH, does well, because
in our home, we take schooling seriously, and when she DOESN"T do well (and
yes, we've had some problems in this area last year....) we take immediate
steps to correct it. So, she does well in school, and the school is able to
provide her with the challenges SHE needs, while also working to provide the
children who are struggling with the help that THEY need.

So... instead of worrying about curriculum books, pay attention to what he is
doing in school. Provide a home environment that says that school is important
and fun. Instead of 'curriculum books', make sure that he has plenty of books
to read, and that YOU have plenty of books to read. (And that he sees you
reading them!)



It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool!

Well.... given that the year just started, and he's in kindergarten, this
sounds pretty reasonable. I wouldn't expect them to be working on much beyond
letters and numbers, colors and shapes and the like a week or two into the
school year. Hopefully, as the teacher gets a sense of what the different kids
in the class are capable of, she will be able to give the more advanced
students more challenging work. (And yes, part of your job in 'being aware of
what you child is doing' is keeping in touch with the teacher, and being sure
that your son is sufficiently challenged.
But don't jump to conclusions that he won't be challenged based on what you are
seeing at this point in the game. [Again, in my daughter's class right now,
they are doing a lot of review. She's in 6th grade this year, and they are
getting ready for the ISTEP test, [the state standardized test] in two weeks.
Since Shaina is a bit advanced for her grade, a lot of it's really basic
review for her, but the teacher is also finding a few things that her math
teacher last year neglected to cover.]

Hope this helps.


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

"Naomi Pardue" wrote in message
...

It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool!
(snip)

But don't jump to conclusions that he won't be challenged based on what
you are
seeing at this point in the game.

Right. In the school here in Calgary, they have combined 3rd and 4th grades
(called "grade 3" and "grade 4" in Canada) in one classroom (with two
teachers). My girls are in 3rd in different classes. I was having trouble
wrapping my mind around combined 3rd and 4th grades in one room because at
some point they have to be doing different work and the teachers will be
talking over one another. As it turns out, everyone did the same things for
the first week. I'm wondering what's in store for next week.


--
sharon, momma to savannah and willow (11/11/94)

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:56:45 GMT, "lizzard woman"
wrote:

"Naomi Pardue" wrote in message
...

It
seems like the paper work my child is bringing home, is the stuff he
did in preschool!
(snip)

But don't jump to conclusions that he won't be challenged based on what
you are
seeing at this point in the game.

Right. In the school here in Calgary, they have combined 3rd and 4th grades
(called "grade 3" and "grade 4" in Canada) in one classroom (with two
teachers). My girls are in 3rd in different classes. I was having trouble
wrapping my mind around combined 3rd and 4th grades in one room because at
some point they have to be doing different work and the teachers will be
talking over one another. As it turns out, everyone did the same things for
the first week. I'm wondering what's in store for next week.

Both of my children were in combined classrooms in 1st/2nd and 4th/5th
grade (in 3rd grade the numbers did not permit a combination that year
for my son and I cannot remember if my dd's class was a 3rd/4th combo
or not).

At any rate, direct instruction does not take place for all the
children at the same time. The way my children's classes worked,
children were grouped for the ability level work in whatever group
they needed to be in. And only one teacher was doing direct
instruction at a time while the other teacher might be working with
children who were grouped and doing a project or seatwork.

With my children, they did not have two teachers in the same room,
however. They had a reading/social studies specialist who taught
both grades that subject and a math/science specialist who taught
both grades that subject.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

In hlo6b.1670$Mg7.1108@pd7tw1no,
lizzard woman wrote:

*Right. In the school here in Calgary, they have combined 3rd and 4th grades
*(called "grade 3" and "grade 4" in Canada) in one classroom (with two
*teachers). My girls are in 3rd in different classes. I was having trouble
*wrapping my mind around combined 3rd and 4th grades in one room because at
*some point they have to be doing different work and the teachers will be
*talking over one another. As it turns out, everyone did the same things for
*the first week. I'm wondering what's in store for next week.

Well, I was in a combined class for grade 1 and grade 2 (also called first
and second grade here in the States ) when I was in first grade. I
remember it fairly well. For part of the time, the teacher spoke to the
whole class. For part of the time, she'd give us (the first graders) our
own reading or writing or arithmetic assignment, and then she'd be talking
to the second graders. Then she'd swap. I vividly remember how the woman
impressed upon us very strongly that while she was teaching the 2nd
graders we were NOT to interrupt her unless there was a major emergency.
When one of my first grade colleagues stapled his finger and my friend
Sharon and I went to go tell her, we walked up to her and said "Mrs.
Bartels, Mrs. Bartels," and she said "didn't I tell you not to interrupt
unless it was an emergency?" and, well, it took a few tries to get her to
realize that it was, in fact, an emergency (the kid was ok after a
staplectomy).

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large