Sunday, June 26, 2011

Logan - Kindergarten

Logan started Kindergarten at his 3rd School.  By this time, I felt pretty ready for the teachers, the meetings and the school work to follow.  I felt confident in the IEP that they had set up for Logan through Wagner Elementary. 

Per his IEP Logan would have 40% of his week in a Resource Classroom and 60% in a typical Kindergarten classroom.  This was to aide in keeping him in a quieter environment for the harder subjects like Reading and Math.  It would also give him time to take tests etc.


We had a re-evaluation of his IEP in October around his birthday.  At this time, his K teacher and Resource teacher and Speech Therapist met with me to discuss how well Logan was doing.  I was thrilled to hear that he was doing well, but I also was aware that he had just completed 3 years of PK plus a summer of VPK in which he reviewed all the skills for Early kindergarten.  They discussed with me that they didn't think that Logan needed the pull out resource time to complete his schoolwork and also mentioned that it was difficult for the K teacher to see how he was doing since he was gone so often.  They worked very hard to convince me to remove the resource model from his IEP and place him in a regular class.  They assured me that it could be put back into place if needed. I was very adament about it and told them that I would try it, but to please keep me informed.  (I would later, of course, regret the decision and later found out that it was more of a political move as they were trying to get rid of the resource teacher or the need for her class) 

As Logan's Kindergarten year continued he struggled a lot with homework.  His teacher assured me that it was ok if he didn't complete all of it etc.  However, I was worried b/c he refused to write for me at home.  As the year progressed I would ask questions about how he was doing in class and his teacher would assure me that he was doing well.  However, one email his teacher said she saw him struggling a little bit, but she felt he was just being a "little lazy".  Actually, here's her email:

"Logan is keeping pace with the class but since Christmas it has gotten a little harder to keep him focused. He is able to keep up when we are at the carpet and he can answer verbally but in writing especially he is lagging. He can verbally make a complete sentence that addresses a specific topic but when it comes to writing it he wants to either write one word or draw a picture. I feel this is because it stretches him a little and he is a little lazy"
Later in the email she said that he had a para working with him and another student to finish work.  I responded and requested an OT evalatuion to see if that would help with writing.  After several months, the OT did an evalatuion, but felt that he didn't need the extra help with writing.  Around this time, I started working full time so my attention to things at school was divided.  I didn't follow up as much as I should have, but ultimately Logan passed Kindergarten just fine. 

He had a fun summer on his own with me and Mikayla while Cole was in VPK.  He really enjoyed VBS at Cornerstone and interacted well with the church leaders and other children.

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