Curriculum night

lite-bright

We had curriculum night last night at DD1's school, and when I went in to hear what the first grade teachers had to say, DD1's teacher told me this story. 

They were doing a writing exercise where they got undecorated cupcakes and had to write a "boring" sentence, then write a sentence with adjectives describing the cupcake, then they could decorate and eat it. She said most of the kids did some of the writing then were all about the cupcake, while DD1 wrote two beautiful sentences and didn't decorate her cupcake because she was so focused on the writing. Her teacher gave her some extra time before she had to put the frosting and decorations away. It was just funny, because her teacher is relating this and ends it with, "she's like, the perfect first grader!" and I'm thinking, "yeah, but it would've been more typical if she'd focused on the cupcake like all the other kids." 

I was really encouraged, though, by their approach in the classroom and I think some things will be really good for supporting DD1. They do some buddy reading time and have a big sign up with pointers that include sitting knee-to-knee and looking at each other eye-to-eye -- this is guidance for all the kids. They also have a class app that has both a teacher and student version and her teachers give feedback on it throughout the day -- so she sees it in-class, but I also get to see it so I know what she's doing well with and when she's having a hard time staying on task or whatever in a given day. 

And her teachers were very optimistic and positive about common core, too, which I found reassuring. Now if only our board would get their heads out of their asses, right @d.f.? 

d.f

I can't even with the board right now. We should make a mom date and go to dinner and the next BOE meeting together. It's like hitting an unresponsive brick wall with them but we still have to try until we can recall or vote them out. Ahhhh. We had our curic night last night too so I didn't go to the meeting. Many expletives come to mind from what I've read about it though.

Our curriculum night was good too. No surprises since it's the same teacher and classroom. He'll be getting more homework (last year the only he was read 20 min a day) under the new common core math curriculum (has your school started it yet) but his teacher seems pretty excited about it. I'm glad they're starting now so that I can learn the new ways along with DS.