DDA Chapter 27

[PNO4TE]

Good morning, DDA!

Our area has apparently p$%#*d off Mother Nature again. In the past 24 hours we have had a 3.0 aftershock, tornadoes and floods!

 

[PNO4TE]

Glynis - for a new washer!! Can't help you with the front-loading stuff though. I got another reliable (but not yet loved) top loading Maytag the last time. It is just not as good as the other one I had and I really wish I could have gotten a GE exactly like the one I had for 25 years!

Deb - Glad things have calmed down and you could get some sleep. I have been so tired that I actually sleep till 7:00 these days. I asked Bob last night when he remembers me "sleeping in" like that and he said, "Never!"

Tia - for AirTran credit!! Every little bit helps on our trips, doesn't it? Between Visa Gift Cards from MyPoints, PayPal deposits from MySurvey and Swagbucks and my Disney Rewards I had enough money to cover all my "eating around the world" expenses for our trip of 6 days! Our total out of pocket expenses (other than for point rentals, tickets, airfare and parking) came to a whopping $65 for the 4 of us!

 

[mommykds]

Good morning, DDA!

Our area has apparently p$%#*d off Mother Nature again. In the past 24 hours we have had a 3.0 aftershock, tornadoes and floods!

 

[PNO4TE]

Good morning, DDA!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Good morning, DDA!

Our area has apparently p$%#*d off Mother Nature again. In the past 24 hours we have had a 3.0 aftershock, tornadoes and floods!

Wow!

 

[tmfranlk]

Good morning, DDA!

I'm headed out for a Girl Scout Leader event at least through lunch, maybe longer. Deva and Phil are going to hand together for the first extended amount of time. Needless to say a certain Daddy is a little nervous. Oh well, wish us luck!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

 

[PNO4TE]

Good morning, DDA!

What a GORGEOUS day we had yesterday. And today promises to be just as beautiful. Enjoy your Sundays!!

 

[tmfranlk]

Good morning, DDA! Beautiful weekend here too.

Deva and Phil survived yesterday morning though it was a little rough with her still feeling a little off with teething, etc. I had a great time though. Later we happened upon a fall festival so got to enjoy a hayride along with our playing at the park. Today I think we're making Terra's costume - an alien warewolf.

 

[my3princes]

Life just doesn't improve in our house. I'm not sure what we did to p@ss off God, but it must have been horrific as the last 3 years have been riddled with challenges.

I'm sure I posted that we're struggling with Nick's depression issues. We think that we may have found a therapist to start working with him, we meet her tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Friday on the way to school Hunter totally came unglued and told me that he was being bullied at school. 2 classmates were continually interupting him everytime the tried to talk with "shut up" and telling him that he doesn't have any friends. We wound up in the Dean of Students office with the guidance counselor and they were going to talk to the boys on Friday. Hunter did say that one of them apologized later in the day and said that they were just trying to be funny. Of course I also talked to his Mom that morning as she works at the school. He also said that a boy had been hitting him in the head on the bus on Tuesday. The school will be getting the video tapes and going from there. I know the family and if the school doesn't do something I WILL.

This morning Chris got his thumb crushed in the wood splitter. We didn't call 911, but rushed him to the hospital ourselves. The closest ambulance is 15 minutes away. It looked really bad here, flat like you see in cartoons with the bone and muscle sticking out the end (sorry about that imagery). The tip is broken, but miraculously the tendons and nerves seem intact. They were able to reconstruct it and sew it up in the ER, but he needs to see a hand surgeon later in the week. He was concerned that he would never be able to use that thumb again and therefore would have to find a new career. We're hopeful that he will get 100% use back, but it may need a pin put in. Infection is the worst fear and if it gets infected all bets are off. I've known him for close to 25 years, I've seen him in pain, but nothing came close to this. The percocet seems to be controlling the pain tonight.

Please tell me that we've had our 3rd bad luck thing for this go round because honestly I'm not sure how much more I can handle. My back is hurting from stess and I was physically shaking most of the day.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Deb-I'm so sorry for all you're going through.Hope the therapist will work out well for Nick. It makes me angry to hear that Hunter is being bullied. Hope the school takes it seriously. So sorry to hear about Chris's thumb. Hope you find a way to keep yourself healthy-physically & mentally with all that is hitting you at once.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Beth-Sorry for the transition you're going through.

Tia-congrats on the air tran credits and disney gift card.

Glynis-congrats on the new front loader-I love mine. Be sure to use HE detergent in it.

Theresa-congrats to Abi!

Anne Marie-how's Minnie doing? My SIL is going to get a dog.


Things are still crazy busy here. Work is insane. Not sure how I'll get through the next month.

Lizzy is adjusting better to school. We just found out she needs glasses. She is NOT happy about that but it might really help. And she's having issues with her algebra teacher. The best way to describe it is that she is bullying the kids. The teacher is mad that of the 140 or so kids in Lizzy grade there are 70 taking Algebra. She is the only grade 7 math teacher so she would have these kids in pre Algebra if she didn't have them in Algebra. She is trying to torture the Algebra kids to get them to quit. Lizzy took her first big test in the class and got a 68 which I guess isn't too bad compared to her classmates. The teacher offered all the kids to do this extra credit puzzle thing for 5 points last weekend-which they all did with the poor test grades. They had to do 20 algebra problems that had a letter and then match the answer up to a string of numbers and put the letter of the problem in that box. Then you spelled out the answer to the question "why did Peter Wrench sleep under the car?" The answer was "he wanted to wake up oily". She told the kids they had to do it perfectly or they would get no credit. There were explicit typed directions-name & period on the sheet, each question written on separate paper-show all work-done vertically-all calcuations underlined-worked stapled to the puzzle....Then she had written on the board for the kids to write down-"write answer on puzzle". So the kids get them back this week and of the 70 kids we know of 2 kids who got credit. She wanted the kids to write the answers to each of the 20 questions next to the questions. She didn't write "answers". All the kids assumed they had to write out the answer to the puzzle. This thing took Lizzy hours to do. The teacher intentionally tricked the kids. She wants them all to quit and asked to be moved to pre algebra. I have heard 12 kids have quit already.

I know of at least 4 other kids who have been crying about how awful she is to them. She singles out kids to ridcules in class. There is a lot of pressure in our town for the kids to be on the honor roll (As & Bs) or high honor roll (As). They publish it in the paper. Lizzy's best friend's mother insists that her DD be on the high honor roll. She is thinking of switching her DD. I don't care about the honor roll. As long as Lizzy tries her hardest I don't care what grade she gets. Her best friend's mom is an aide in one of the algebra classes-not Lizzy's and her DDs. She called the teacher sadistic-said she was all smiles when she gave back the extra credit sheets with no points.

This teacher called us the day after my MILs funeral-which she knew about-to tell us that Lizzy had only "halved" her homework because she didn't put examples with her vocabulary words-Lizzy had written out the definitions. She called us last Friday to say she caught Lizzy doing French homework in her class-she took it away from Lizzy and gave it to French teacher herself. Lizzy said it was the last minute of class and she was just adding a punctuation mark to the paper. She ends the phone calls with "maybe Lizzy shouldn't be in this class". I wrote to her Monday to let her know I had spoken to Lizzy and to ask her a few questions about how she wanted to see the homework presented. She responded by saying we needed a team meeting with all of Lizzy's teachers. I know she wants to kick Lizzy out of algebra. Now I've got to figure out how to not loose my cool with her.

 

[my3princes]

Bernadette do you have a dean of students? I'd be talking to the administration and I'd have other parents there to boot. That is not okay, not at all. She will cause irreparable harm to these kids. That is just crazy, out of control crazy. If the administration doesn't help, there is always the school board or the state department of education.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Bernadette do you have a dean of students? I'd be talking to the administration and I'd have other parents there to boot. That is not okay, not at all. She will cause irreparable harm to these kids. That is just crazy, out of control crazy. If the administration doesn't help, there is always the school board or the state department of education.

I think we would normally start with the guidance councelor but I've been told by other parents that she is not an advocate for the kids and to be careful with her. The principal is just an acting principal this year as the one from last year (that I liked) left. There is an assistant principal but I don't know anything about her.

I can't complain unless I can get the other 70 parents to complain too. I know I could maybe get 2 others to complain with me but until I could get a bigger group it would do more harm then good to Lizzy. I should say that Lizzy doesn't see her as a bad teacher. She laughed about the extra credit thing. I heard from other parents about her picking on kids in class but when I asked Lizzy if she's ever mean to kids in class she says no. I don't think Lizzy would really get it. I think the fact that Lizzy is not getting the pressure from her parents that she HAS to get all A's is taking some of the pressure off of her.

If moving Lizzy to pre algebra would get her another teacher I would move her but she'll still have this woman. This will impact what she can take in high school. The teacher is tough so Lizzy should learn it. I've been going over her homework with her every night so if she doesn't learn it in the classroom I'll teach it to her at night.

I do have to figure out how I can convince the teacher Lizzy should stay in algebra. She has it out for Lizzy because she scored poorly on the placement exam last year and we pushed her into algebra. But Lizzy has always scored very high on all the standardized math tests and Lizzy said it was really loud the day of the placement exam and she couldn't concentrate. We also sent Lizzy to a math tutor 2 days a week all summer. If you look at the test Lizzy just got a 68 on she made a few stupid mistakes like 27.9 + 6 = 32.9 instead of 33.9. Then she had two complicated algebra questions where she got it all correct but didn't simplify say 175/7 to 25 so she got no credit. And one was "12 is 6 less 3 times a number". Lizzy wrote it out as 12=3X - 6 but you have to read it VERY carefully to get 12=6-3X.

Lizzy has NOT once asked to be moved even though she KNOWS pre algebra is so much easier. Lizzy hasn't complained about the amount of homework every night - even weekends. I don't see how moving Lizzy to an easier class would help those careless type problems at all. Just make her bored in the class and more likely to make careless mistakes.

We talked to the pediatrician about Lizzy's troubles remembering homework and staying organized and the pediatrician said we should have her tested for ADD. She said it is often missed in girls. We have to ask Lizzy's teachers to fill out evaluations on her. I'm sure the algebra teacher will use this as an excuse to say she doesn't belong in the algebra class.

The team meeting is Wednesday morning. I do plan on asking the algebra teacher about the extra credit thing. Let her explain it in front of the team.

 

[tmfranlk]

Deb - I'm so sorry for everything youre going through. I hope Hunter can get some help with these issues. Poor kid. Prayers for Chris' finger. I'm glad it's not as bad as it seemed. I hope the surgeon has more good news as well.

Bernadette - What a mess that teacher is. Good luck with your team meeting this week. I hope you get some resolution for her.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Look what is on her class website:

I believe that every child will succeed in the classroom. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to provide each child with the opportunity to be a success. It is my responsibility to create a safe and trusting classroom environment for meaningful learning. A classroom where each child perceives his or her opinions, ideas, and questions as respected and value.

 

[Tinkaroo]

Life just doesn't improve in our house. I'm not sure what we did to p@ss off God, but it must have been horrific as the last 3 years have been riddled with challenges.

I'm sure I posted that we're struggling with Nick's depression issues. We think that we may have found a therapist to start working with him, we meet her tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Friday on the way to school Hunter totally came unglued and told me that he was being bullied at school. 2 classmates were continually interupting him everytime the tried to talk with "shut up" and telling him that he doesn't have any friends. We wound up in the Dean of Students office with the guidance counselor and they were going to talk to the boys on Friday. Hunter did say that one of them apologized later in the day and said that they were just trying to be funny. Of course I also talked to his Mom that morning as she works at the school. He also said that a boy had been hitting him in the head on the bus on Tuesday. The school will be getting the video tapes and going from there. I know the family and if the school doesn't do something I WILL.

This morning Chris got his thumb crushed in the wood splitter. We didn't call 911, but rushed him to the hospital ourselves. The closest ambulance is 15 minutes away. It looked really bad here, flat like you see in cartoons with the bone and muscle sticking out the end (sorry about that imagery). The tip is broken, but miraculously the tendons and nerves seem intact. They were able to reconstruct it and sew it up in the ER, but he needs to see a hand surgeon later in the week. He was concerned that he would never be able to use that thumb again and therefore would have to find a new career. We're hopeful that he will get 100% use back, but it may need a pin put in. Infection is the worst fear and if it gets infected all bets are off. I've known him for close to 25 years, I've seen him in pain, but nothing came close to this. The percocet seems to be controlling the pain tonight.

Please tell me that we've had our 3rd bad luck thing for this go round because honestly I'm not sure how much more I can handle. My back is hurting from stess and I was physically shaking most of the day.

Deb, I've just been catching up on the thread, and you have all the prayers and pixie dust I can muster winging their way to you from down here in Dallas. I can only imagine the stress you're under - and knowing how strong you are, I know you will persevere. Just take some moments for yourself when you need them, and cry/scream to anyone you need to, even if it's just here. Lots and lots of to you and yours.

 

[Tinkaroo]

Bernadette, Lizzy's teacher sounds like the little sister of my algebra teacher in 7th grade. Seriously, they're cut from the same cloth - I guess that's what teaching algebra will do to a person!

My mother could probably still give you a blow-by-blow of all the things that she and all the other parents of kids taking Algebra that year went through. We all stuck it out (heck, I even got A's in the class the whole time), but the teacher did retire at the end of the year - and it was likely a forced one.

Even if your expectations for Lizzy aren't perfection - just being challenged (and bravo for that!), I'd still keep the heat on this teacher in front of the administration, and see if you can get others to do the same. They will have to do something about the situation, even if it's just rethink how (and who) they assign these math classes to for years to come.

There is one thing to be a teacher that challenges her students - it's an entirely different thing to be a challenge OF a teacher.

 

[mommykds]

Deb,
I am so sorry you are dealing with all of this right now.
I will keep you in my prayers.

The bullying makes me angry as well. Kids do this to make themselves feel bigger & better than others. I hope the school does something to correct this so you don't have to jump in. We had this happen with Kate the year we moved here. The school initially took it too lightly for my liking. It took me coming up to school almost every day for 2 weeks & demanding the kid be suspended & taken out of her classes. I hope for the very best outcome for Hunter.

Glad you found someone for Nick. He's such a nice kid & thankfully he has you to help him through these feelings.

Poor Chris!! I hurt just reading your post. Hope he is feeling better this morning.

 

[mommykds]

Bernadette,
I agree, sounds like she is a terrible teacher and this is a difficult situation without the support of the school admin. Good luck with the team meeting Wednesday. Please let us know how it went.

 

[mommykds]

Anne Marie-how's Minnie doing? My SIL is going to get a dog.

Honestly it's been alittle rough. She's nipping/biting alot. She still poops/pees in the house & is pretty much scared of alot of things. Not what we had in mind when we got a dog. I can handle everything except the biting. We had a trainer come in on Friday night with some "solutions" but Minnie (so far) does not respond to them. She just had a bad life at the shelter & was more abused that we thought before & we have to work through that. Would I do this again??? No. Hopefully in 6 months time to a year I will have a more positive answer.