Your Relationship with the Teacher

[Cherry33]

As an afterschooler, I am trying to figure out the best way to coordinate with my child's new teacher on my daughter's education. It is most important to me that she learns logic and critical thinking skills, her own cultural history, and explore her own interest in natural science and astronomy (which she loves), all of which are things that are not taught in the public school curriculum. I also want her to practice writing (true writing), research and science (I am a scientist myself). But I foresee homework being a big problem, and I also don't want to overlap with the work I will be giving her along with the teacher.

Have any of you approached the teacher with your afterschooling plans, and have they worked with you in coordinating your curriculum, activities, schedule etc.? I want to ask for the teacher's curriculum plans and schedule for the year (this is not posted on our county education website like other counties), but last year I got a lot of pushback from the teacher, who seemed to be almost secretive about it.

What is your relationship with your child's teacher in your afterschooling journey?

[EKS]

I never once talked to my son's teachers (6th and 8th grade) about what we were doing outside of school.  For any work that went beyond hanging out on the couch, reading aloud, and discussing, I tried to piggyback it on to whatever homework was being assigned by the school.

So, with the things you listed, I'd incorporate logic and critical thinking into your everyday activities, since those things can't be divorced from content (no matter how people seem to try).  Cultural history and science/astronomy I'd do as read alouds.  I don't know what you mean by "true writing," but you might encourage her to keep a journal if she is so inclined.  Also, when she does bring home writing assignments, discuss them with her and make sure she does her best work.  In addition, if you want to do a bit of grammar and thinking about language with her, the Michael Clay Thompson language arts materials are fabulous for afterschooling.

I think that doing actual research/science with an elementary age child is optimistic (I am/was also a scientist), but encouraging observation and modeling curiosity about the world is always a good thing and can be done naturally during the course of day-to-day activities.  In addition, lots of playtime with real objects (so not screens) both indoors (and especially) out is great for building the foundational understanding of the world that is critical for scientific thinking and understanding later on.  

Edited August 22, 2019 by EKS

[Lecka]

Yes I have, but for a struggling reader and speller.  

The teacher was happy to waive the "mandatory" reading and spelling homework because she thought what I was doing was better.  

It's not really the same situation, but it worked out well.  

[SKL]

I can't think of too much cooperation on the teachers' part in our case, other than sometimes providing us advance notice of upcoming homework.

Generally I haven't gotten the impression that they care what you do outside of class, as long as it doesn't affect the teachers' plans.

[SKL]

I should add - my kids have had some teachers who told them point blank that I should not be giving them work when they would otherwise be having free time.  Apparently they know better than I do what my kids need outside of the school day.  😛  This does nothing but cause friction between me and my kids.  I wish they would keep their opinions to themselves.

[lasulliva]

What grade is she going into?

My son is only in first grade, so we don't have too much experience with teachers, but so far we've lucked out with ones who readily admitted most of the provided homework was busywork and were fine with me doing pretty much anything else instead. We've also generally agreed on what his strengths and weaknesses are, so they've given me heads-up on what assignments they think would be helpful for him. I'm assuming you'll have parent-teacher conferences soon, so I think I'd go into that with what you'd like to work on with her and see how that would fit in with what the teacher has planned for the year. I wouldn't necessarily plan on trying to align completely with the teacher. That sounds like too much work and, honestly, probably will mean missing out on a lot of the things you actually want to cover.

[Earthmerlin]

I do a lot of afterschooling. I clarify, reteach, & extend PS material when needed. She got turned off from math in 3rd so I’m still working on turning that around. 

The rest is interest-led and reflective of our family culture. I place an emphasis on heritage language learning (Spanish & French) and music & the arts. History & geography are also important. Since she’s getting older (an incoming 5th grader) she resists too much ‘mom work’ so I catch her quickly when I can. Many topics arise organically & those are some of the best moments!

I am a PS teacher—now Spanish but previously ELL, math, G/T, social studies & elementary. I think it’s absolutely wonderful parents want to extend and supplement their children’s education. It’s pretty rare I get asked about working in tandem with parents/students but I revel in the opportunity to do so! I believe PS does not allow kids too much time to own their learning & I’m currently figuring out how to incorporate a ‘genius hour’ into my Spanish classroom. 

Ultimately, I believe in being proactive & also following my spidey sense as to what she’s missing & needs in order to get a well-rounded education that encourages passion. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Teachers are really busy. So are we. The only time we’ve had “coordinating” conversations has been when I asked for the latest iready math test results. I wanted to target my intervention strategies.

 

[hs03842]

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Edited June 8, 2020 by JoyKM

[kiwik]

Sorry but any teacher would not be happy for you to send stuff in for them to do when they have finished class work.  Many teachers would prefer the parents just accept whatever they are told and do whatever the teacher says.  And many teachers don't like kids even reading in down time.  If you said good teachers .... I would agree though.

[Daniel-J]

Try to find courses with your child that you both like. Monitor the process and ask what your child has learned. Even if you don't know the subject, try to keep the conversation going and show interest. If you do it right, there are many benefits.

[hs03842]

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Edited June 8, 2020 by JoyKM

[kiwik]

14 hours ago, JoyKM said:

I guess I am speaking from the point of view of a former teacher and now parent who does not believe it is the teacher’s job to find stuff for my kids to do when they finish early. The schools I worked at always stressed a strong “customer service” attitude so it constantly surprises me to hear that teachers would rather have kids sit and do nothing than pull out something contained that they enjoy doing. That is a classroom management nightmare. If one encounters such a teacher I recommend discussing this with the principal. 

Most kids become very skilled at not finishing early as they will be asked to help other kids (10 year olds don't want to have things explained to them by the clever kid by the way) or they get told to do more work.  I gave up working fast when I realised as one of the two people in the class not struggling with long division I was being given five times as many problems so I could prove how easy I found it 50 times.  Those who were struggling and needed the practice were only doing 10.