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That was Educational
Sep. 7th, 2017 08:33 amI learn all sorts of things as I parent Kosh, but today's lesson seemed particularly important.
Kosh is in a Spanish Immersion program. That means that instruction is primarily in Spanish. This is Kosh's second year, but we didn't do nearly as much as we should have over the summer to maintain the language, and Maestra V has a different approach than Maestra D (Kosh's kindergarten teacher). I think both approaches are great, but Kosh is having trouble behaving because Kosh doesn't understand, and thus can't participate.
First mad props to Kosh. I haven't heard anything from Maestra V about this. Kosh brought it up, so I suspect that Kosh's behavior isn't that bad, and isn't that different from other students. So kudos for bringing up the issue to Kosh. Even if it took a few days for us to dig out why the behavior was happening. Kosh's first suggestion seemed more like a symptom than the problem.
So this morning had me emailing Maestra V to see if there were a few words or phrases we could work with Kosh on so that Kosh could more fully participate, and be more likely to behave.
While writing this I realized that this is exactly what non-English speaking students experience when they start school in our schools, except their parents are less likely to feel empowered to ask for help from the teacher, and likely would need help making the teacher understand the problem.
This isn't anything I couldn't have figured out, but it's much more concrete seeing it happen to my kid.
Also it helps understand more in depth. I hadn't thought about how not understanding could involve some physical acting out, because when I remember being bored in class was from older years when I'd read, or doodle, or talk to friends (not often). Kosh is likely flopping on the ground (the problem is coming up most during carpet time). This is likely involving bumping several classmates which could easily escalate.
Kosh is in a Spanish Immersion program. That means that instruction is primarily in Spanish. This is Kosh's second year, but we didn't do nearly as much as we should have over the summer to maintain the language, and Maestra V has a different approach than Maestra D (Kosh's kindergarten teacher). I think both approaches are great, but Kosh is having trouble behaving because Kosh doesn't understand, and thus can't participate.
First mad props to Kosh. I haven't heard anything from Maestra V about this. Kosh brought it up, so I suspect that Kosh's behavior isn't that bad, and isn't that different from other students. So kudos for bringing up the issue to Kosh. Even if it took a few days for us to dig out why the behavior was happening. Kosh's first suggestion seemed more like a symptom than the problem.
So this morning had me emailing Maestra V to see if there were a few words or phrases we could work with Kosh on so that Kosh could more fully participate, and be more likely to behave.
While writing this I realized that this is exactly what non-English speaking students experience when they start school in our schools, except their parents are less likely to feel empowered to ask for help from the teacher, and likely would need help making the teacher understand the problem.
This isn't anything I couldn't have figured out, but it's much more concrete seeing it happen to my kid.
Also it helps understand more in depth. I hadn't thought about how not understanding could involve some physical acting out, because when I remember being bored in class was from older years when I'd read, or doodle, or talk to friends (not often). Kosh is likely flopping on the ground (the problem is coming up most during carpet time). This is likely involving bumping several classmates which could easily escalate.
