Inspired Teaching?

[Anonymous]

Have a middle schooler who was generally bullied and ultimately punched during a serious incident by another student. All in the fall. Horrible, terrible start to the school year, and we even kept our kid home a bit. Yet, long story short, we ended the school year feeling like the adults really rallied, attended to our kid, and gave the situation the serious attention it deserved. And then on another note our ADHD kid ended up having his best academic performance ever in the last trimester. So he begged to stay even though I was halfway out the door by like Thanksgiving and applying to privates... So a very, very mixed bag. As another poster said, it really depends on who is in your kid’s class… and whether your kid is the target. Most public schools aren’t going to expel kids so then it’s really really hard… this year was a master class for our son in avoiding/navigating this one toxic kid. But that is just public school I guess… there’s no magic place for the mean/violent/problem kids to disappear to. It took a beat… but I ended up appreciating the school response to some really hard stuff.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There were a lot of unresolved behavior issues with the old administration. This year has been a lot better. The teachers and principal contact families If there are issues. There have been no behavior issues that I have heard of in middle school since the beginning of school.

This 5th grade parent begs to differ.

I'm sorry you've had a different experience. We had similar struggles at a school we attended before Inspired so I have a lot of empathy and I hope you all find healing soon. I hope it's helpful to a prospective family to know these experiences seem to be isolated, even if the affected families have had a difficult time.

I think it's really just the luck of the draw whether your kid's class happens to have a child who struggles with behavior. If you do, the school doesn't deal with it very well. But some people don't think it's a problem because they haven't personally experienced it. A lot of the parents at ITS want to believe it's a really great school because they don't have a better option other than moving.

I'm a PP who shared my kids haven't experienced these issues (we've now been there for all grades, and multiple times). I believe that you've had the experiences you describe, and I also know from talking with many families over many years, that they don't seem to be the norm. Through no special interventions from us, our kids have both been academically accelerated, and meaningfully challenged and engaged throughout their time. They've had positive social experiences including into and through MS with a lot of new students matriculating. I'm not sure why it's been better for some than for others, but I do know that both can be true. While that's lousy if your kid is not having a good experience, it doesn't mean that the good isn't happening too, and not just because we didn't have other options. If you stay on, I hope your child's experience improves.

The cohort that just finished 5th grade is the one that has a lot of trouble with behavior. Also the cohort that just finished 3rd. It's not really a mystery why some people have these experiences and others don't. Probably it has been better for your kids because you just haven't happened to get a classmate with those issues, or your child isn't the one who has been personally targeted. Or your child just doesn't report as much of what happened at home. Though it doesn't happen often, when it does happen, the school handles it poorly. The incidents may be isolated (they aren't really, they're all the same few kids and the same types of incidents) but the pattern of the administration handling it poorly is a running theme. With so many kids leaving and entering for middle school, it's hard to predict how next year will go. But this may be your year to have a difficult classmate and see a very different side of ITS. I hope it is not, I wish you all the best, but the administration handling these incidents and problems poorly absolutely *is* the norm.

Can you give an example of what has occurred and how the administration has handled it?

The one with the throwing of chairs early this past year in 5th, which they totally hushed up and refuse to answer questions about.

The one with the kid getting throttled and they deny it ever happened. Also 5th this year.

How they talk about "restorative justice" and give you an equity scolding if you question its effectiveness at reducing violence.

Concur. I know of at least four children who were assaulted by the chair tosser. As mentioned earlier, third grade was also a mess. My child was punched by another kid after beating him at a game and administration told him that my son should try to be his friend. We left DCPS. ITDS is still a great school for early ed, but I’d bail at 1st or 2nd.

Is that the so-called "restorative justice" in action?

We were in the 5th grade class and are no longer with ITS. I believe in restorative justice but it was not the answer in this situation. You can’t ask a 10 year old to take responsibility for being choked or having a chair thrown at their head (on multiple occasions).

What did the school actually do about it (if anything)?

I don’t think legally they’re allowed to tell you what they are doing to the other kid. So from the other parent’s perspective all you see is restorative Justice approach snd then whatever they are doing not working to solve this other child’s clear emotional issues. But I have no insider info on what the school has tried. I’m assuming whatever the most serious consequences are in the tiers of discipline. Which they did revise this year.

This is the genius of "RJ". In reality they excuse the behavior of the aggressor and make revictimize the original victim. When the victims object the school hides behind "we can't tell you anything about what was or was not done to address the aggressor (read: youthful offender). If you question the school or RJ you are against equity and a closet racist. Problem solved!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a middle schooler who was generally bullied and ultimately punched during a serious incident by another student. All in the fall. Horrible, terrible start to the school year, and we even kept our kid home a bit. Yet, long story short, we ended the school year feeling like the adults really rallied, attended to our kid, and gave the situation the serious attention it deserved. And then on another note our ADHD kid ended up having his best academic performance ever in the last trimester. So he begged to stay even though I was halfway out the door by like Thanksgiving and applying to privates... So a very, very mixed bag. As another poster said, it really depends on who is in your kid’s class… and whether your kid is the target. Most public schools aren’t going to expel kids so then it’s really really hard… this year was a master class for our son in avoiding/navigating this one toxic kid. But that is just public school I guess… there’s no magic place for the mean/violent/problem kids to disappear to. It took a beat… but I ended up appreciating the school response to some really hard stuff.

Thank you, PP. I'm so sorry your kid was mistreated. Can you say more about what the school actually did, though? I'm an upper elementary parent at ITDS and it's maddening how little anyone will tell me about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC has been at Inspired Teaching since K and is heading to middle school next year. The Principal and Assistant Principals are all stellar. According to my DC, the new school principal has been telling kids to brace themselves for next year because it will be more challenging. He has been pushing for more rigor since he came to the school. We’re interested to see how that will look next year.

8th Grade Student here.

I have been at ITDS since pk-3 and here are my main takeaways for anyone wondering about the school. First of all, the Teachers are VERY GOOD. They don't assign too much work, but they teach you very efficiently. There has been a TON of turnover teacher wise, but they always seem to find a teacher as good or even better than the one that left. Work wise they definitely have added more homework this year, last year I had at most 45 minutes of homework a WEEK. now I have 3 hours. It is still not a ton of homework though. Something I have noticed is the culture really depends on the grade and the group of kids. There are a lot of students that come in and do not try to do their work and instead pick fights with people. In fact the other day this kid got in a fight with another kid because she bumped into him. Thankfully he only got suspended because he started it for no reason. This was the same kid that on the MAP test entered random answers to finish it faster. Some kids do not care about their grades at all, but by the middle of 7th grade most kids realize it matters. The school offers lots of extensions on homework and projects. The biggest problem I see is the culture getting worse, but the admins have been working very hard to fix that. There are definitely culture issues in the 7th grade of the school from what I can tell. Lots of drama, arguments and sometimes even fights. BUT that does not mean the 7th grade is bad, most of the 7th graders I have met are very kind but a few of them just piss me off. The extracurriculars are pretty good, it is pretty easy to make the team (heck I'm a WR normally and somehow I'm the QB for the school flag football team) and everyone seems to enjoy their extracurriculars. As long as you try as hard as you can at this school you will get good grades, I have to focus on grades but I never stress out about them. And MOST kids there are very kind and welcoming.

Also if the grammar, spelling paragraphing or whatever was screwed up on this it is because I wrote this in a rush.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a middle schooler who was generally bullied and ultimately punched during a serious incident by another student. All in the fall. Horrible, terrible start to the school year, and we even kept our kid home a bit. Yet, long story short, we ended the school year feeling like the adults really rallied, attended to our kid, and gave the situation the serious attention it deserved. And then on another note our ADHD kid ended up having his best academic performance ever in the last trimester. So he begged to stay even though I was halfway out the door by like Thanksgiving and applying to privates... So a very, very mixed bag. As another poster said, it really depends on who is in your kid’s class… and whether your kid is the target. Most public schools aren’t going to expel kids so then it’s really really hard… this year was a master class for our son in avoiding/navigating this one toxic kid. But that is just public school I guess… there’s no magic place for the mean/violent/problem kids to disappear to. It took a beat… but I ended up appreciating the school response to some really hard stuff.

Thank you, PP. I'm so sorry your kid was mistreated. Can you say more about what the school actually did, though? I'm an upper elementary parent at ITDS and it's maddening how little anyone will tell me about this stuff.

Mom is this you? WAIT IT IS OMG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a middle schooler who was generally bullied and ultimately punched during a serious incident by another student. All in the fall. Horrible, terrible start to the school year, and we even kept our kid home a bit. Yet, long story short, we ended the school year feeling like the adults really rallied, attended to our kid, and gave the situation the serious attention it deserved. And then on another note our ADHD kid ended up having his best academic performance ever in the last trimester. So he begged to stay even though I was halfway out the door by like Thanksgiving and applying to privates... So a very, very mixed bag. As another poster said, it really depends on who is in your kid’s class… and whether your kid is the target. Most public schools aren’t going to expel kids so then it’s really really hard… this year was a master class for our son in avoiding/navigating this one toxic kid. But that is just public school I guess… there’s no magic place for the mean/violent/problem kids to disappear to. It took a beat… but I ended up appreciating the school response to some really hard stuff.

Thank you, PP. I'm so sorry your kid was mistreated. Can you say more about what the school actually did, though? I'm an upper elementary parent at ITDS and it's maddening how little anyone will tell me about this stuff.

also mom that one toxic kid chilled out now. Its thjavascript:void(0);e gap in between 7th and 8th when people mature as Ms Rifkin said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a middle schooler who was generally bullied and ultimately punched during a serious incident by another student. All in the fall. Horrible, terrible start to the school year, and we even kept our kid home a bit. Yet, long story short, we ended the school year feeling like the adults really rallied, attended to our kid, and gave the situation the serious attention it deserved. And then on another note our ADHD kid ended up having his best academic performance ever in the last trimester. So he begged to stay even though I was halfway out the door by like Thanksgiving and applying to privates... So a very, very mixed bag. As another poster said, it really depends on who is in your kid’s class… and whether your kid is the target. Most public schools aren’t going to expel kids so then it’s really really hard… this year was a master class for our son in avoiding/navigating this one toxic kid. But that is just public school I guess… there’s no magic place for the mean/violent/problem kids to disappear to. It took a beat… but I ended up appreciating the school response to some really hard stuff.

Thank you, PP. I'm so sorry your kid was mistreated. Can you say more about what the school actually did, though? I'm an upper elementary parent at ITDS and it's maddening how little anyone will tell me about this stuff.

Mom is this you? WAIT IT IS OMG

sorry I was talking to the original comment about how the kid got bullied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC has been at Inspired Teaching since K and is heading to middle school next year. The Principal and Assistant Principals are all stellar. According to my DC, the new school principal has been telling kids to brace themselves for next year because it will be more challenging. He has been pushing for more rigor since he came to the school. We’re interested to see how that will look next year.

8th Grade Student here.

I have been at ITDS since pk-3 and here are my main takeaways for anyone wondering about the school. First of all, the Teachers are VERY GOOD. They don't assign too much work, but they teach you very efficiently. There has been a TON of turnover teacher wise, but they always seem to find a teacher as good or even better than the one that left. Work wise they definitely have added more homework this year, last year I had at most 45 minutes of homework a WEEK. now I have 3 hours. It is still not a ton of homework though. Something I have noticed is the culture really depends on the grade and the group of kids. There are a lot of students that come in and do not try to do their work and instead pick fights with people. In fact the other day this kid got in a fight with another kid because she bumped into him. Thankfully he only got suspended because he started it for no reason. This was the same kid that on the MAP test entered random answers to finish it faster. Some kids do not care about their grades at all, but by the middle of 7th grade most kids realize it matters. The school offers lots of extensions on homework and projects. The biggest problem I see is the culture getting worse, but the admins have been working very hard to fix that. There are definitely culture issues in the 7th grade of the school from what I can tell. Lots of drama, arguments and sometimes even fights. BUT that does not mean the 7th grade is bad, most of the 7th graders I have met are very kind but a few of them just piss me off. The extracurriculars are pretty good, it is pretty easy to make the team (heck I'm a WR normally and somehow I'm the QB for the school flag football team) and everyone seems to enjoy their extracurriculars. As long as you try as hard as you can at this school you will get good grades, I have to focus on grades but I never stress out about them. And MOST kids there are very kind and welcoming.

Also if the grammar, spelling paragraphing or whatever was screwed up on this it is because I wrote this in a rush.

How is no one hysterically laughing at the adult who tried to post as an 8th grader…because an 8th grader is actually going to log into DCUM and defend their school, and talk about “culture” and “admin” with the disclaimer at the end that their generally perfect grammar and paragraph breaks are likely erred because they’re in…8th grade.

Which admin/booster wrote this?! Please, someone Nancy Drew this based on sentence structure and tone so I can get a huge chuckle.

[Anonymous]

I’m a MS parent at ITS and believe the previous poster is an 8th grader. Not my kid but probably one of his friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a MS parent at ITS and believe the previous poster is an 8th grader. Not my kid but probably one of his friends.

+1. I am a parent but not at ITS and have no dog in this fight but I think that's an 8th grader. Despite the comments about fights and kids who don't care, that comment is a pretty good endorsement of the school because I'm impressed with the writing level.

Hey, ITS kid -- how would you rate the writing instruction at ITS? Would love to hear what kind of writing assignments you get, their length, and how they help you develop as a writer.

Would also love to know what reading has been assigned to you in the last few years. Do you read entire books for school and if so which ones? Do you discuss books in class (themes, character and plot development, use of technique) or do you just write book reports?

Anyway, kudos to you, you seem like you have a good head on your shoulders. Sorry you had to deal with a dysregulated kid in school but sounds like you have a lot of empathy and navigated the situation well. Good work and best of luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC has been at Inspired Teaching since K and is heading to middle school next year. The Principal and Assistant Principals are all stellar. According to my DC, the new school principal has been telling kids to brace themselves for next year because it will be more challenging. He has been pushing for more rigor since he came to the school. We’re interested to see how that will look next year.

8th Grade Student here.

I have been at ITDS since pk-3 and here are my main takeaways for anyone wondering about the school. First of all, the Teachers are VERY GOOD. They don't assign too much work, but they teach you very efficiently. There has been a TON of turnover teacher wise, but they always seem to find a teacher as good or even better than the one that left. Work wise they definitely have added more homework this year, last year I had at most 45 minutes of homework a WEEK. now I have 3 hours. It is still not a ton of homework though. Something I have noticed is the culture really depends on the grade and the group of kids. There are a lot of students that come in and do not try to do their work and instead pick fights with people. In fact the other day this kid got in a fight with another kid because she bumped into him. Thankfully he only got suspended because he started it for no reason. This was the same kid that on the MAP test entered random answers to finish it faster. Some kids do not care about their grades at all, but by the middle of 7th grade most kids realize it matters. The school offers lots of extensions on homework and projects. The biggest problem I see is the culture getting worse, but the admins have been working very hard to fix that. There are definitely culture issues in the 7th grade of the school from what I can tell. Lots of drama, arguments and sometimes even fights. BUT that does not mean the 7th grade is bad, most of the 7th graders I have met are very kind but a few of them just piss me off. The extracurriculars are pretty good, it is pretty easy to make the team (heck I'm a WR normally and somehow I'm the QB for the school flag football team) and everyone seems to enjoy their extracurriculars. As long as you try as hard as you can at this school you will get good grades, I have to focus on grades but I never stress out about them. And MOST kids there are very kind and welcoming.

Also if the grammar, spelling paragraphing or whatever was screwed up on this it is because I wrote this in a rush.

How is no one hysterically laughing at the adult who tried to post as an 8th grader…because an 8th grader is actually going to log into DCUM and defend their school, and talk about “culture” and “admin” with the disclaimer at the end that their generally perfect grammar and paragraph breaks are likely erred because they’re in…8th grade.

Which admin/booster wrote this?! Please, someone Nancy Drew this based on sentence structure and tone so I can get a huge chuckle.

Has to be a parent/admin - what 8th grader says "heck"?! AND outs himself as the QB of the school flag football team AND apologizes for bad grammar/spelling in a social media forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a MS parent at ITS and believe the previous poster is an 8th grader. Not my kid but probably one of his friends.

+1. I am a parent but not at ITS and have no dog in this fight but I think that's an 8th grader. Despite the comments about fights and kids who don't care, that comment is a pretty good endorsement of the school because I'm impressed with the writing level.

Hey, ITS kid -- how would you rate the writing instruction at ITS? Would love to hear what kind of writing assignments you get, their length, and how they help you develop as a writer.

Would also love to know what reading has been assigned to you in the last few years. Do you read entire books for school and if so which ones? Do you discuss books in class (themes, character and plot development, use of technique) or do you just write book reports?

Anyway, kudos to you, you seem like you have a good head on your shoulders. Sorry you had to deal with a dysregulated kid in school but sounds like you have a lot of empathy and navigated the situation well. Good work and best of luck to you.

I have a middle schooler at ITDS, from the 7th grade ELA syllabus:
We will move between novel studies and writing units, but each unit will include instruction and opportunities for practice in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The progression of units will go as follows:

Reading for Characterization (Independent reading)
Realistic Fiction (Writing)
The Skin I’m In
Chains (interdisciplinary unit co-taught with social studies)
The House on Mango Street
Informational Texts (Reading and Writing)
Argumentative Essays (Writing)
Romeo and Juliet
Literary Essays (Writing)
The Hunger Games
The class will focus on developing students’ self-efficacy and self-sufficiency in order to work towards greater autonomy in learning. Students will work on improving their reading and writing stamina, academic discourse skills, and critical thinking in order to prepare them for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ITDS’s way of handling kids with ADHD is to force them to leave.

Yep. And if you are okay with some pretty shocking treatment of such kids in your classroom, then I suppose it will be fine for your neurotypical child. For me (with one kid who is and one who isn’t), I was highly uncomfortable with the types of incidents that were never reported to parents (only because a teacher shared them on the way out did I ever find out). Any school can have issues with an inexperienced teacher in over her head, but to hide things from parents… let’s just say I would rather take my chances with our dcps now

[Anonymous]

I'm also curious about math in middle school -- is algerba an option for 8th graders (or even very advanced 7th graders) such that they could test out of it in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS’s way of handling kids with ADHD is to force them to leave.

Yep. And if you are okay with some pretty shocking treatment of such kids in your classroom, then I suppose it will be fine for your neurotypical child. For me (with one kid who is and one who isn’t), I was highly uncomfortable with the types of incidents that were never reported to parents (only because a teacher shared them on the way out did I ever find out). Any school can have issues with an inexperienced teacher in over her head, but to hide things from parents… let’s just say I would rather take my chances with our dcps now

What's happening in the classroom? Teachers belting students?