RE: R: Brag!

[Guest guest]

Thanks Eunice! I'm so excited that Faith's story is going to Italy! I can't wait to tell her math teacher. He is a great cheerleader for her. He has been both an ESE and general ed teacher. He also taught her last year and was skeptical about how she would suceed. He has since been so surprised at her sucess and is completely sold on teaching her whatever she can learn. By saying this is front of all her teachers they all started thinking of possibilities instead of impossibilities.

ette

To: DownSyndromeInfoExchange From: zuliani@...Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:27:44 +0100Subject: R: [DownSyndromeInfoExchange] Brag!

Way to go, Faith!! Thank you so much for posting this, ette! I really needed this! If you don’t mind, I am going to translate this and pass it on to Zacky’s math teacher. Our son is 12 and is in first year middle school here in our little town of Rescaldina (province of Milan, Italy). While the teachers are great with him, I really feel that they can’t get away from the standard approach to teaching which is that he has to get the math facts down by heart before he can go on to other things. We have used Numicon which really opened up the world of numbers for Zacky, and some of the math facts have stayed in his head, but he still often gets stuck on the very simplest things, and of course I think this is used to justify not pushing him on to other things.

Eunice

Mamma to Zacky 12 y/o with DS and 14

Da: DownSyndromeInfoExchange [mailto:DownSyndromeInfoExchange ] Per conto di ette BeurrierInviato: venerdì 17 febbraio 2012 22:43A: DS List; DSTNI listOggetto: [DownSyndromeInfoExchange] Brag!

At Faith's 7th grade teacher conference there was all the usual "she doesn't follow directions" and "she is resistant to authority". So when her math teacher said two things happened in math class that he was at a total loss to explain, I feared the worst. She is in all 7th grade gen ed classes, so 7th grade math teaches percentages. He gave her the 12 question test on percentages after the lesson was taught and she got 11 correct!! Converted the percents to decimals, used a calculator, and drew a picture to explain!! He told her she had one wrong, and she corrected it! He was floored. The other teacher asked if he worked with her one on one, but he didn't, it was all by herself! The other thing that happened was she took the FCAT benchmark test with the class and scored higher than the median! He said either the test is flawed or she is getting a lot more than we thought. This has encouraged him to push her on and stop repeating 6+4=10, etc. No matter how many times she learns simple math facts she forgets them. But she is a whiz with a calculator. Since he told this story in front of all her other teachers they were encouraged too to push on and forget the little things she can't do! It was a wonderful meeting! BTW her math teacher is the school's teacher of the year and I can see why!ettemom to Faith (13)