Not thrilled with PS

PipSqueak0313

The past two years I've had my older son at a private school.  We decided to remove him from the private school even though we loved it due to finances and his lack of effort.  Went on Tuesday to register him for his junior year at the neighborhood high school.  Dh and I left the public high school with many doubts about our decision to change ds's school. 

Yesterday, I got an email from the school that started off with a statement that I was receiving the email because P. D. was enrolled as a student and if P. was not going to be attending to let them know.....my ds's initials are Z.D. and the P is dh's and my last name (and my younger ds's too).  Today, I get an email from the same person.  The main part is an announcement for jr and sr girls regarding powder puff football during homecoming and then it has an apology for screwing up ds's name in the previous email. 

Anyway, after we left the school on Tuesday, dh, ds, and I have been tossing up the idea of enrolling ds in an online high school.  The local school district just keeps giving us the impression that they're not very competent.  The fact that ds would be going from a school that has integrated technology into the school work (i.e. lectures were done in power point and the students took notes on their required laptops in class) to a high school that didn't even allow laptops in school was not a point in the public schools favor. 

Dh was concerned about the big S (socialization) if we do go the online route so I asked him how it was different than him taking college courses online in 2 years. 

So now, before the calendar year is done, I might have my older ds attending school online. Will have to wait and see yet since we don't want to rush the decision without getting all the information from the online school.

PipSqueak0313

Right now I am considering it a stepping stone to getting dh comfortable with homeschooling my younger ds. I have one sil that retired as a ps principal and one sil that has a PhD in education and dh is working on his own PhD. It was a major concession for dh to acknowledge that the school district we were in while ds was in middle school was very disfunctional. I am hoping that dh can see that the big S is not an issue once you make plans for incorporating it into the child's education and eliminate that arguement now.

calimama2007

There are some online options that are through the state, where they provide you with all the materials, and have field trips and other events with students from the program. That may be worth looking in to! 

If your son is bored with school though, I might look into creating your own path for him. E.g. check out khanacademy.org or other similar sights, you may have an active homeschool community in your area with plenty of opportunities for socialization. Taking classes through local community colleges may be an option as well!

PipSqueak0313

Auntie, powerpoint is technology when compared to chalk on a chalkboard and it was given as an example of technology. Using power point in a lecture is NOT a mark of a lazy teacher.  If used as the only means of teaching and the presentation is used for every class, every year then yes it can be.  However, it can also be used as a tool to assist students with notes and as a reference to supplement a traditional lecture as it was at the private school ds attended.

FWIW, the private school did not attempt to block students from accessing facebook and youtube -- in fact, the teachers would include youtube videos in their lectures because some videos are relevant to the material being presented.  By not blocking access to sites such as mentioned, the school didn't turn them into forbidden fruits that challenged students to find ways to gain access.  The school chose instead to hold the teachers responsible for creating challenging and engaging classes and the students responsible for participating and learning in class.

I did find it interesting that many (but far from all students) at the private school would fit a description of ADD/ADHD or some other special need diagnosis (my ds1 was diagnosed with aspergers in 2009 and he was doing great in this environment as compared to when he had been in the public schools) and they were thriving in the private school environment simply because they were not required to sit still and take notes by pen and paper.   Because the teacher could provide the lecture in powerpoint form for the students to review as necessary, the teacher didn't have to keep repeating what was said so the slower writers could take notes.  This freed up time for the teachers to engage the students in learning activities using other methods.

The reason I can't keep ds at the private school is that it came with a $10,000+ price tag and that is per year.  Even if we were able to obtain financial aid again this year, it would be too great of a burden for our family.

Here is a reason you can understand as to why I am not looking forward to ds1 attending the local public high school this coming year.  Because ds1 was doing so well in the private school that he didn't need services provided by the public school district on his IEP, the public school district closed his IEP/special ed eligibility and we have been told that to get him a new IEP so he can have the modifications and accommodations that he had previously, we would have to start the entire process from step one -- even though I told them at the last IEP meeting that I did not want it closed in the event that he was transferred back to a public school where he would need it again. (taking notes on his laptop was effectively assistive technology for him because of his struggles with pen and paper note taking)

PipSqueak0313

I'm not going to argue the points regarding the use of technology in my ds's previous school vs your ds's school -- it's besides the point - though you are making a good argument against the many schools that do use PowerPoint as you describe which makes it a valid argument for homeschooling.  The question of the technology usage in this public school was one of my ds's . My ds is not an auditory learner and does not have the memory you describe for your son.

The points I listed in my original post regarding why I'm not thrilled with the local public school are the ones I could articulate.  There are others that remain merely a gut feeling and others that haven't even made it that far.  I still have my doubts that placing my son in the public school is the right decision and I will still be looking into alternatives for educating him.  Considering alternatives means only that an educated decision can be made if/when it becomes apparent that the public school is the wrong environment for my son. I have my concerns regarding ds's IEP and I don't like how the school district has handled it so far.  Even if his IEP has been handled correctly, I can still not like how it is handled.  A few of the items on ds's IEP pertain to his safety in school....items that were added as a result of experiences in public schools.

I am thinking of homeschooling my younger ds.  He is 4.5 months and has down syndrome. That is why I frequent this board.  Up until last week, the thought of homeschooling or other alternative education for my older ds was not even on the mind.

As to your question regarding the cost of living in my area (correct me if I understood the question wrong), I am in eastern Nebraska and I do think we have a lower cost of living than many areas of the country.

calimama2007

I'm just going to add this, in my experiences representing Special Ed parents in a legal clinic, school districts rarely if EVER do everything they are supposed to re IEPs without getting attorneys heavily involved.

I can definitely understand not wanting to fight that battle, on top of everything else!

PipSqueak0313

What I found out from talking to the special ed person at the public school today is that they had only carried over the pragmatic language disorder diagnosis from the previous school.  The Asperger's/autism one was dropped somehow in the transfer from school district to school district. I was told IF the teachers notice a problem then they will initiate the process of addressing it again. FWIW, the public school he'd be attending is nearing max capacity.

At my son's request, we are going to move forward with enrolling in the online high school program from UNL.

Regarding the attorney comments, I have to agree with Auntie.  Ds1 is my second child to go through school with an IEP.  As a former military wife, I have dealt with multiple school districts and have been successful at working with the schools the majority of the time.  Only once did I have to file a complaint with a state and have the issue resolved through mediation (and that was at the school district ds1 attended prior to his current school district.) 

 

calimama2007

Glad to hear your states have better districts than California!

Littlejen22

They so not forbid Facebook as in the kids would not get in trouble if they were on FB during class? Man if I were paying over 10k and found out kids could be hanging out on social media instead of paying attention I would be raising hell. And I think using YouTube to teach can be fine but is no different than usin a TV if you are calling it technology and all things a kid can learn easily at home so there is no benefit and not really learning technology versus watching a video. And yeah, my friend teaches public high school and thinks the use of Power Point is a joke but they have to use it to say they are using technology in the classroom. I used Power Point in business 15 years ago, it has been around for 23 years and is hardly new technology.

PipSqueak0313

Littlejen22, FB and similar sites are not blocked but that does not mean that there are no consequences for the students that access them during class.  The kids often access them before/after school and during lunch/free periods.  During class though was a different story.  Teachers who caught students goofing off using their computers were free to discipline the students just as much as teachers with students goofing off without the computer.

I suppose I should clarify something here... PowerPoint, Word, Excel, email, the internet, and such are tools the teachers/students had available to use in the private school -- just as we can if we homeschool.  It does not mean they spent the entire class period teaching from PP presentations or that students were on their laptops the whole time. One of the best things for my son was the ability to receive, complete, and submit an assignment electronically because he has a tendency to lose papers or otherwise miss turning in written assignments especially when there is a delay between completion of the assignment and when it is to be turned in. My son was not happy with the idea of no longer having the ability to use the programs and functions of a computer/laptop for completing classwork and homework if he attended the public school.

The whole point of my original post was that since keeping ds at the private school was not an option for us and that as we learned more about the public school the more we doubted that the public school was the correct answer for ds; therefore, we were unexpectedly having to consider alternatives to both schools.