How do you communicate with the teacher?

Avatar for nutmegspice
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Registered: 03-27-2003
How do you communicate with the teacher?
5
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 4:01pm

I'm trying to come up with a sample, easy to check or circle kind of form for Sam's teacher to fill out daily and send home at the end of the week so I have some more ideas of what is going on. I'd also like to have a spot to write in any notes or special concerns.

Sam has been very truthful about what's been going on at school until these past few weeks. I've just found out that he's been lying to me daily about how his afernoons have been going. He's apparently been having a hard time *every* afternoon at free time with his "best" friend - the one he loves to play with but gets on his nerves sometimes to the point that he hits him. Today was a good afternoon, which I am happy about but it's tempered by the fact that Sam's been lying which he has never done so well and to this extent before. He's normally very bad at lying.

Our IEP meeting is next week so I want something to bring with me to show everyone there. I don't want to know every time he couldn't sit still...etc. But something obvious like his afternoons are difficult could clue me into something that needs to be tweaked.

Do any of you use this method for communicating with your child's teachers? What behaviors or skills do you focus on? Anything you don't like about it?

I'm thinking of having some yes or no answers like :

handled frustration, anger or annoyance appropriately
something about stimming or his behaviors associated with stimulation (noises, hand spinning, scripting)
something about how he attended to his work, how frustrating was it for him, did he finish and answer mostly correctly (he is struggling with reading phonetically and writing)

Do any of you use a notebook that you send back and forth to school to have a conversation with the teacher? How do you like that?

Thanks!

Chrystee

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Avatar for kittikatkate
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2004
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 4:25pm

Everyday the teacher sends home a form that she's commented on. It has a place about how he ate and the things he did (followed routine, played outside, quiet reading, etc.) There is a comment section that she will write if needed. The bottom of the form has a part for us to cut and send back the next morning. It has boxes for us to check like if he had a rough night, isn't feeling well, etc.

Other than his take home folder I do most of my communicating via email. We do talk on the phone frequently too though.

kate

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-22-2003
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 5:07pm

Our youngest is, for all practical purposes, unable to communicate with meaningful speak. Her echolalic response to "How was school today?" is always, "Fun day at school today." Claire's class gets a daily sheet that shows either a green, yellow, or red light. If the light is anything other than green, the teacher will write a comment. "Tough time following directions", "Lots of self-stimming today", etc. We also use these as a means of corresponding about how homework went, or didn't!

Along with that, it seems we are in almost constant contact with her teacher, her aid, the spec. ed. instructor, principal.

Oh...and it doesn't hurt that her siblings are always checking in on her. If anything happens during the day, one of them ususally knows about it.

Good Luck!

Amy W.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 7:45pm

We use a notebook to communicate with Sylvia's preschool teacher, but I really like the idea of a y/n sheet that wouldn't be time consuming for the teacher but would give you a better idea of what's been going on during the day. I found that, with the notebook, at the beginning of the school year the teacher wrote a little note almost every day, but now she only writes a note if I've written a specific question. And even then, her answers are pretty brief. You can't blame her, because she doesn't have a heck of a lot of time during the morning to write long notes to each parent, but obviously I'd like to have a better sense of how Sylvie is doing on a day-to-day basis. (Like someone else mentioned, Sylvia also has "stock" responses to questions about her day: "I had fun at school. I sang songs at school. I played at school." -- etc., so I have no idea what *really* happened.) So developing a simple sheet with a few y/n questions sounds like a great idea -- it won't take the teacher too much time to fill out, but it will give you an idea of when you need to give the teacher a call or e-mail and find out some more detailed information.

Jennifer

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Registered: 02-02-2004
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 8:26pm

this year ds(gr2) has a school planner, its great..homework is written down, upcoming events are noted, plus there is space for comments. At the beginning of the year, I had a meeting with his teacher, we use a stamp..happy face/sad face. 2 sad stamps means a really dificult day... and she usually email with the details( I usually get this by 4pm) so the first thing I check is homework, and happy/sad. If he has sad faces, I won't bug ds about it, I'll let him unwind afterschool, have a snack ect... by this time his teacher has email me with the details....

I do the same for his teacher, I'll make notes if he was up late, slept in, or just plain crabby...lol..lol

last year his teacher use stickers on a Bookmark style card. It was divided into sections, If he didn't receive a sticker in a sections, then I knew somthing was up, and usually there was a note in his "home and back" folder.

communication is very important,but keep it simple
good luck...

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-13-2004
Sat, 10-15-2005 - 6:05pm

Wow, there's some great ideas posted here. I'm currently looking for work as a teacher's aide and I just may take some of the suggestions with me.

For us? I get to speak to his aide most mornings....not that there's a lot to say. I'd probably like to get more feedback than I do, but I just rest with the knowledge that 'no news is good news'.

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