Frustrated over son's school projects

[shortbun]

This year focuses on group collaboration. His first group assignment was made for him as he was absent the entire first week there was group work and he could not participate in the group process. A boy in his group is well known for his jealousy of DS, has assaulted him physically and verbally in my presence. We told DS to suck it up and co-operate; he feels he has. DS is an A student, loves school and normally is considered a leader. Another child in this group had stepped up as the leader when DS arrived late so DS took a less important role. The 1st leader resigned because one female and the problem boy were too hard to work with. The problem boy assumed the role of leader and has been jerking DS around. Again, we said, 'suck it up, do your best work and ignore him.' Ds missed a 2nd week due to absence as well. I received an evaluation from DS's teacher today saying he wasn't as 'engaged' as he could be and she was considering giving him a C as a grade. DS says the teacher has NOT ONCE been with their group when they were researching, writing, planning. She has no idea how things are going except that the children are giving each other grades and evaluations. DS has missed two of five weeks, one child has actually lobbyed against him in the grading process and yeah, he probably isn't as engaged as he should be - duh! Her other comment was 'I hope X steps up and leads as he should in the next project.' Well, DS has already told me that he and another girl are going to have to pretty much do the whole next project because the other 4 members of their group fought the whole first day of work. I guess they will co-chair. Geesh!!! I'm tempted to complain but I think I'll let him take the C and chalk it up to life experience. Group projects are usually pretty bad. I'm not sure why the complete focus is on groups this year but I've always trusted the process in the past. The one comment I WILL make to the teacher is that DS seriously wished for more observation in their group and ask her to do that more in this next one. The children go elsewhere in the bldg to work-computer lab, library, auditorium so it's hard for the teacher to follow them around and leaves them completely unsupervised. Rant over!

 

[marsha123]

wow, sounds like bullying, but how can your son miss that many days

 

[shortbun]

wow, sounds like bullying, but how can your son miss that many days

yeah, the absences were unprecented but he was very sick both times. There are some very nasty viruses out there. He's a very healthy kid, eats really well and gets plenty of sleep. Just a bad virus season. The second one they tested for influenza but it came back negative.

 

[java]

yeah, the absences were unprecented but he was very sick both times. There are some very nasty viruses out there. He's a very healthy kid, eats really well and gets plenty of sleep. Just a bad virus season. The second one they tested for influenza but it came back negative.

How old is he? And I hate the group projects too.