I have a new student in my class. My daughter, CG has joined us, and I couldn't be happier. See, there has been huge drama at school. There is a teacher, I'll call her CMIP, who is new and who is not running a Montessori classroom. All year there has been drama with people (us) trying to help her, get her training, show her lessons, etc. but she has been more and more obstinate until finally going completely cracker barrel in the last few weeks.
Well, she was my kid's teacher.
We had parent teacher conferences earlier this month. Hubs and I went in for our conference, and I was quite disturbed when it was over. CMIP has been all about the math this year, but when she says 'math' what she means is 'addition facts.' My kid - 2nd grade - has NO IDEA how to do dynamic addition or subtraction and has not been introduced to multiplication at all. Yeah, she's done tons of memorization work, but geez.
So I conveyed my concerns to Diana via email over the weekend (this was a week ago), and at the same time CMIP sent Diana a horrible email flinging all sorts of ridiculous accusations my way. She accused me of *screaming* at my students to 'Get away from me! Get as far away from me as possible!' and of taking over the Christmas music program and of talking smack about *Diana* and of basically being a horrible person. Diana asked me about it - showing me the actual email - and I told her it was a lie, that nothing she said was true. Fortunately for me, Diana has known me a long time and knows that CMIP is chock full of crazy . . . she believed me. That day was really crappy. I was sad and filled with stress. When the day was over I could talk with Hubs, and we decided to pull CG from CMIP's class. Not because of the interpersonal issues per se, but because of the glaring holes in her schooling. The fact that I'd never have to talk to CMIP again is merely a bonus. I called Diana and told her what I wanted to do, and she was supportive. She also said she'd convey the message to CMIP.
The next morning, CMIP comes over to where the rest of us are having our morning chitchat and goes on and on about how they're going to make GOOP in her class today! It's going to be so FUN! My kid is sitting right there, see, and come to find out later that *she already knew* that CG had been pulled from her class. What a horrible thing to do! It made me really mad.
Anyway, we got her into my class on Tuesday morning - just in time for TOWER TUESDAY! She completed four language skyscrapers in the morning - the first language skyscrapers she's completed ALL YEAR. In the afternoon I had Kati work with her on math and find out where she's at there. Kati says she's doing really well with static addition and subtraction, and that she caught on pretty quickly to dynamic addition but that she said she had never done it before. Nice.
I know I'm in a honeymoon period now, but the week went really well. CG has flourished in the classroom and hasn't been prone to clinginess or whining like I was worried would happen. She's good at self-directing and has yet to come running to me as *mommy* to resolve her problems. I'm sure it will come, but I'm not going to hurry it along.
There's so much else to talk about. I had a really good interaction with JS this week - that child has grown up so much! - and I got to go observe at another school. I've got a really cool spelling program in the works, and I don't carry around a bowling ball of stress anymore. I'm really feeling good about school these days, but I'll have to post again this weekend, maybe a couple of times, to get it all down. This posting is long enough already!
No comments:
Post a Comment