Concerns about 5th grade teacher

[Anonymous]

You’re doing the right thing by being proactive. Someone once told me that no one will care as much about your kid as you do, so it’s up to you to advocate for him appropriately.

If I was in your shoes, I’d look to get my son a private tutor ASAP along with involving the principal/AP. It sounds like the school isn’t meeting your son’s needs, and I wouldn’t be willing to let it go on for too long while I waited for the school to step up.

[Anonymous]

I agree with others about telling the principal before the year is over. If just one other parent has made identical complaints, it's easy for admin to dismiss it. If two or more parents have very similar complaints, they look into it. You never know who else might have been dealing with the exact same kind of non-responsive responses.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks all for the responses.

Our main concern for reaching out to the principal has been to avoid any kind of retaliation from the teacher. Given the school year is ending anyways, we have reached out to the principal.
Also, this was a lesson learnt for us and we plan on staying on top of this from beginning of the next year.

[Anonymous]

I can’t speak for this teacher, but in our school I can tell you that teachers are very overwhelmed right now. Your focus is naturally on your own child, but it is possible that the student problems she has in her class right now are so much larger than your child’s slight decline that it doesn’t even register with her. We have 5th graders getting in fights, threatening teachers, eloping, and talking about suicide.

[Anonymous]

IME 5th grade is a real transition year. My 5th grader's reading skills skyrocketed this year, but at the expense of her math skills. We pushed the school to get her math pull outs (she gets them twice a week), and we hired a private tutor that we will keep over the summer to make sure that she gets up to grade level for 6th. As many others have said, you are your child's best advocate, and this summer is the right time to get a tutor and/or enrichment to get your child up to where they need to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:its 5th grade no one will care what grade they got in 5th grade..

I don't think the problem is the grade, it's the fact that the child is not learning.

By 5th grade, if they child has no identified issues, he/she is expected to learn the material and complete the assignments without any additional intervention from the teacher. If OP's child isn't staying on task, the teacher isn't going to sit next to him and remind him to stay focused (barring an IEP or something.)

OP, does your child stay in his seat and get his work done? Or is he a chatty procrastinator. Lots of 5th grade boys don't like to do work.