"Dear Parents and Guardians,
Your child has one or more missing assignments this week. It is strongly recommended that children with missing assignments remain after school for Catch-up Club. This will give them an opportunity to catch up and receive any assistance necessary to allow them to be successful in their classroom work in the future...."
This is followed by a basic permission slip form for the child to stay after school the next day for an extra 40 minutes.
Today was the second time Eric has come home from school with this note pinned to his back. As a parent, this is a frustrating note to receive. For my child, this does not mean that he doesn't understand the work. It just means that he occupied his mind with things that he felt were more interesting during the hour and a half of centers (a time when the children are given a packet of worksheets and expected to do them independently).
It appears that for most children the centers are good practice, and it is reasonable to have them finish the work by themselves. For my child however, this does not work. He is not an independent worker. He is smart enough to do the work. However, being his father's child, he does not want to. That is when he just decides that he will do things like spend a lot of time in the bathroom and pretend his pencil is a rocket (knowing full well that he is the only one paying attention to what he is doing).
His teacher says that she is going to try another method to motivate him. I have told him that if he can go a week with out having to go to Catch-up Club, I will make him cookies. I wish that there was a way to motivate this child and get him to understand.
7 comments:
I'd be motivated with cookies!
I would be too. Especially homemade chocolate chip cookies!
Yum! My favorite!
What does he think of having to stay after 40 minutes to do the work? What grade is he in? We did this in sixth grade, but if you have to pin the note to their back, aren't they too young to be doing this after school. There's got to be another way! Obviously the teacher isn't getting him interested!
He is in 1st grade. Last year Eric was the first kid in the 6 year history of his school to have to go to "Catch-up Club" in kindergarten. The teacher got special permission from the principal. He did his work faster after that.
Wait! That's not my picture!
Hehe...
John here, signing on for a brief (hopefully) comment. The Warden (Teacher) over at the Prison Yard (School) doesn't know a darn thing about my brilliant son (NOT an overstatement) and his desperation for creative outlet. If there's one thing I remember from gradeschool, it was always 'John, stop drawing', or 'John, this is a very interesting story, but you didn't follow the instructions'. Well, maybe if you people who supposedly understand children enough to be their instructors in the ways of intellectualism could listen to what the kid is saying, or telling you through his actions, you might just realize that this unfortunately somewhat different individual knows exactly what it is you're trying in an obviously poor manner to teach already!!! He knows how to add and subtract very well, but you continually berate him and tell us that he is 'developing'. Bull. I've seen him do his homework, and he knows EXACTLY how to do the BORING work you force him to trudge miserably through so that he can be rewarded with the harder work! You count him wrong when he doesn't put the words in alphabetical order, but the stupid packet NEVER SAID HE HAD TO!!! So, as you can probably guess, I think the Warden has issues with understanding children at all, which isn't really surprising since the hag doesn't have any of her own anyway. I get the feeling she thinks she's too god for them. DINK rules.
When i was a kid, i was a total day dreamer. There's no way in you know what I'd motivate myself through a packet of something I'd deemed boring.
now if during that time I was given one page at a time and could sign it off and get rewarded when i got home each day? Well, I might have at least made an effort.
with the amount of ADD and ADHD kids they have out there, I'm surprised the school would expect all the kids (let alone 1st graders) to motivate themselves for 40 min.
I teach 7 yr olds in primary where there's no math or spelling and I lose them after simply looking at a book. Do the other first grade classes do this?
Every first grader in each class is expected to do the same thing. I am just at the end of my rope when it comes to this. His teacher just does not seem to do much in the way of positive motivation, and she sabatoges (I have no idea how to spell that) my efforts. I can't wait for first grade to be done!
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