i'm not a personal note taker!

[toria]

i have a class of 20 kids... sounds great doesnt it! however i have 13 boys and of those 13.. 7 are ADsomething or other.. and have issues just sitting still.. forget the work! everyday thus far has been a battle.. i have one student, CN who if he's not up and walking around he's sitting and zoning out in his chair. i'm in contact with his mother on a daily basis.. but honestly i'm sick of it. everyday i have to come home and type up his notes for his mother to re-teach them. i'm sorry but after awhile it becomes more of a chore! does anyone have any suggestions as to how this can come to an end? i mean honestly how is he going to learn to do this on his own?

help me

 

[WatchinWaves]

There is no way I would be typing up notes for him. Where are you getting the info you are teaching? If it is from a book then photocopy the book or tell his mom the pages to read from. Have you talked to your principal about this. I doubt they would want you doing this everyday. Have a confernce with the parent, principal, and yourself and talk about the situation. There has got to be other way to go about this. Good luck!

 

[toria]

the notes come from the book, yet daily nothing gets thrown into his notebook. he's one of those boys that the desk is more like the trashcan.

mom and i have spoken about this. he has a copy of all the books at home, yet i still have to email her and tell her what pages we covered on a given day... yes it has grown very old.. i'm sick of it... last week i was out all week with the flu and his mother still wanted to know what was covered..... sorry can't help you but yes they will have a quiz on it this week

we'll see what happens!

 

[SoCalTeach]

I agree

with the above poster. This shouldn't be going on, and it sets a dangerous precedent. If the boy's mother wants to homeschool him, that's fine, but you are the teacher and he needs to listen to you the first time. He doesn't get a free pass for "zoning out"!

Something similar happened with a 3rd grade child at my school - the teacher had to call the father every day on her lunch hour - NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Your principal definitely needs to be aware of this, and s/he should put his/her foot down and tell the mother the boy has to deal with the consequences of not listening or paying attention, just like the other kids do!

 

[jagteach]

Note taker help

You say that several of the other "little darlings" are ADsomething or other! Maybe you can encourage one of them to be a helper for CN. If they get their work done (to whatever degree you expect), they can help the other child. It may make them feel useful and keep them occupied, and it will free up your note taking time to help the others.

 

[Emily4th]

note taking

Is hard copy of notes a modification on a 504 plan? If it is, I would make a copy of a studious child's notes for him, or a note of my own teaching material. If it is not a modification which you are legally responsible for, I don't think it is necessary. This child needs to be held accountable for his own actions. I would assign him a study budy to help him pack up, or nudge him when he should be copying something down, etc.

Good luck!

 

[lizmom]

I understand.

I have a student in my class who randomly does work. I met with the mother and we decided he would be on a daily behavior plan, and give her an extra copy of the homework sheet. Well he never returned the papers and/or his homework. Then I gave him a journal and wrote his homework in it, and explained it to him, had him sign it, and he never brought it back. I am at the point where I am going to give up, because he seems to have.

As for you situation, I think that is rediculous for the mother to expect you to do that. If you do lesson plans I would email her a copy of that, at least you are not doing anything really extra, but to type all the notes, is unacceptable. What is she going to do when this child gets to middle school, or high school. Good Luck.

 

[Christine]

Behavior Plan

I used a behavior plan like the above responder and it has worked great! At first, I filled out the behavior sheet. I picked three behaviors the student needed to work on, and gave him a check, check plus, or a minus. It is much quicker than going home and typing up a bunch of things. If the child needs help making sure it enters his bag, then have another student actually PUT it in the child's bag. Then it is not your fault if the child loses it. I think the student needs to be more responsible, not YOU or the MOM.

 

[toria]

ok, so today i went to the dean and spoke to her about this situtation... she understood that he was a problem child and has been since he started *lucky me* and basically she said that we have to meet with the mother and put a stop to this. so tomorrow after school i have a meeting with the mother and the dean... because honestly i'm not brave enough to battle with the mother alone on this topic. so wish me luck!! i'll update more tomorrow!

 

[Lori2006]

I taught for six years at a private school for learning disabled students and EVERYONE was ADsomething or another, and we had them up until 10th grade. I have to totally agree with the other posts about it NOT being your responsibility to make sure that mom has the information. If she is that concerned, and already has the books, then she needs to help him help himself. After six years of working with these *unique* students, the best thing that I learned about helping them was that they need, more than anything, to learn how to be their own advocate and how to help themselves. Hope your meeting was successful.