Remember that post about Helaman and his experience with first grade? Here is the update. Well after that post we kept plugging along, but everytime I spoke with the teacher I kept hearing how far behind he was. It was sad. I was sad, and he was frustrated. Helaman was doing everything he could to keep up with the class, but was barely keeping is head above the water. I could tell it was wearing on Helaman because his stuttering was getting worse.
But then something happened. We moved.
When we got to our new town I found out they had Spanish immersion as well. I tried to get both Helaman and Cariña into the immersion program, but I ended up having to settle with just Cariña getting into the program. I was a little disappointed but the situation was what it was, and Helaman went into the all English class.
During this whole 1st grade drama I kept thinking about a comment my cousin made, that each child responds differently to different teachers. I thought well here is a chance to find out.
The results couldn't have been better. This teacher is AMAZING!!!!! and Helaman has done nothing but thrive under her tutelage. When we first arrived into the class we found out that Helaman's first grade class was running a post office for the school with real money. (Remember Helaman's driving force is money. :) When I pick him up that first day I found him running the post office. (He was drowning and overwhelmed but was loving every second!) We found out that all the money raised at this post office was being sent to sponsor a girl in Africa so she could attend school. What a fabulous idea.
Then geology came into the picture. This boy who still struggles to find reason to read and write, wrote an article for his classroom newspaper called Geology Times. This newspaper was a wrap up of the unit about rocks. Not only did he come home with facts and facts about metamorphic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and igneous rocks. He sang rock songs, led the family on rock hunts, dreamed about finding thunderbird eggs, (rocks with crystals inside), and corrected us about geodes and so much more. He wrote this article for the paper and read, and re-read every article about ten times.
Next he started learning about Antarctic and penguins. He has told us about global warming, (finally a teacher after my own heart) and how we can save energy. He informed us that we drive too much and need to walk more and so much more.
Currently, he is teaching us about all the different types of chickens; his class is hatching chickens, He has told us about the hatching butterflies, and ants in his classroom. He is full of facts of all sorts now.
Despite all these great things that are going on in the classroom, the best was when I had a parent teacher conference with his teacher. She did her job and told us where Helaman needed to improve and showed me where is was at in reading and where he needed to be. She then talked to Helaman about it right then and there. The three us us, but mostly Helaman set a goal of where he is going to be in May and how he was going to reach it. She then preceded to tell me how smart he was that this reading thing is no big deal and he will get where he needs to be when he is ready. Then she told me what an asset he was to the class and she was really glad he came.
What a difference from our last teacher. We love, love this teacher and I am so glad we got her. She has made the difference in his first grade. I thanked her for all her time and started crying because I felt so grateful to her for seeing the potential in my son rather than all his short comings! THEN she started crying knowing that all her time and effort was appreciated and was working. Then it got cheesy! :)
We now love first Grade as it is a place of DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION! and not just test scores. I cannot thank this teacher enough for the sparks she has ignited in my son.
