The good? He enjoys the act of switching classes and having different teachers. He is fond of his art teacher, and also his science teacher who he says is a cool guy!
There is a ton of mountain to get over though. The homework is tough. Even in its amended form it takes him a long time to complete it. And we are not allowed to skip it when he is having a rough day, nor on a day when he has speech. In elementary school the teachers were cool about that. Middle school not so much. We have told them it takes 3+ hours sometimes to complete the work and were told well, he can complete it in advisory or in after school before you pick him up but it must be done.😬 So they tried having him do it in Advisory, that happened for 2 days, and now hes back to bringing it home again.
We explained that we are not "teachers". He comes home with the work and says he doesnt remember learning it in class. We try our best to re-teach but a lot of times we tell him stuff and he looks more confused than before we started.
This year before school started I gave out the whole packet about kiddo and about ACC. Explaining the things he is good at, and the things he struggles with. We explained that he goes to school with ADHD medication and that when he gets home that is all gone. So lots of times its a struggle just to get him to look at the homework. His social studies teacher told me that he would not have any social studies homework because his department decided as a group that they would not give it! woo! YES! Thank you Mr Social Studies! You are the man!
The Math homework is definitely amended. but its still a lot. Since they are working on, multiplying and dividing decimals and fractions, rational numbers, whole numbers, and integers. plotting on graphs, and a whole bunch of other concepts that I am pretty sure he didn't get in elementary. The other thing is that in elementary they handed him a calculator and taught him how to get the answer using it. This year the teachers want him to use the calculator but also show his work... which he didn't learn the basics for. So the struggle there is real.
English Language Arts.... 👀. They are given 18 spelling words and 2 bonus words on Tuesday and a packet of homework. They have to be ready to test on Friday. In the packet there is a list of different activities using said spelling words that you must pick from. Each activity is worth points. The more difficult the activity the more points its worth. I'm thinking the points get added up at the end of the week and it goes toward the homework grade. The easier tasks are like writing your spelling words down and underlining the consonants in one color and the vowels in another color. Or, Writing your spelling words in alphabetical order. The harder ones are like, draw a picture that represents each of your spelling words. Or cut out the letters of your spelling words from a newspaper or magazine and glue them to paper. The list goes on. Past that in the packet there are paragraphs to read and answer for comprehension and sentences to re-write for proper grammar. All of this un-medicated...and Momma needs WINE!
So that's a run down of what we have gotten so far. We did a first 6 weeks science project which was actually kind of fun. We had to use Excel to graph out some data that the teacher specified and make it look nice. Wow factor kinda thing. We decided to add some stingrays for presentation since thats the school mascot. It was fun!
All of that to say, homework keeps us super busy!
On to my current freak out (of course you knew there was one right???)
Kiddo came home with a study sheet for social studies class that said they would have a test. And to use the sheet to study from. We talked through it and then I verbally asked questions which he seemed to have a great understanding of. And he said he felt good about the test going in. So low and behold a few days later I check the grade book and he got a 46. 😠That's an F my friends a big fat f*cking F. I saw that and I asked him how the test was given? was it write out the answers? or multiple choice? or what? he said multiple choice (ABCD.... his description).
Hello to my downward spiral into despair... I failed him. How should I have done it? Created a multiple choice test for him to try and answer the questions to see how he did??? Should I test him both ways? verbally and ABCD. Whatever I should have done, I didn't do. In Elementary the teachers would never have put an F on the grade book, they would have retaught and retested a different way. They may have actually verbally tested him because they knew that sometimes he answers better verbally. I guess middle school didn't pick up on that part of the information I sent them. This isnt the first F on the grade book this year. The teachers here are not invested in if the kids do a good job, or if they have an issue. Its just test and grade and what you get is what you get. And he understands that a 46 is bad. He told me with his head down on the table, "oh God Mom! a 46 is bad, I tried my best on that, I thought I did good." What am I supposed to say?! Do I email the teacher again? and start to question? I feel like I have been a pest this year.
We had an IEE (Independent Education Evaluation) done through the school since they are not taking our Neuro-Psychologists "word for it". We wont have the results on that until November 15th. And well half the year is done again and I feel helpless to help him.
At this point I am not sure they have a grasp on the accommodations laid out in the IEP. And I still after all this time feel like there is some piece of the puzzle we are missing with him that if we could just get that addressed things would fall into place. I had a psychologist yell at me one time that his Corpus Callosum was the missing piece, and that I should stop trying to look for anything else. His processing problems are due to his missing CC. Ok but how can I get teachers to understand that?! Are we doomed to endure mediocre grades and just a lack of understanding on the work in general? is he to just muddle through 6 more years of school??? When he can be so much more? He is so smart!! he is so funny. And he takes my breath away every once in a while when he says something to me off the cuff and its just poignant for the time he said it. He is so much more perceptive than people realize. He catches things that are going on around him. He hears conversations and chimes in when he feels like he has something to contribute. And when he can get out what he wants to say its magical. But I cannot show the school or teachers what he is missing. And I am at a loss as to how to help him. I really want to help him. *Frustrated*
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