Thank god freshman year of HS is done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

There's no greater enemy to special needs parents than other special needs parents whos kids don't have problems learning things because they get out infront of an ignorant crowd and chant how it's not really a disability and no one should really help them.

Congratulations that your kid can do The Thing.
My kid had poor coordination but we worked on balance so now they do better.
That doesn't mean that ANOTHER, totally DIFFERENT child with coordination disability is able to learn to do better. The cause of their disability may be different.

My neighbor sat around chastising (behind their back) another parent who's autistic child cursed.
"Well *my* larlo is autistic and *he* never curses! What terrible parents they must be tsk tsk"
A few years later I found out that the larlo in question also had tuerrets syndrome in addition to the autism. "

If YOU don't understand how self advocacy is a huge IEP goal exactly because it makes an enormous impact on a child's education and a child with a disability may not be able to translate what is spoken about at home to be put I to practice in the classroom - that's your problem.

If you can parent YOUR child oit of their "disability " I would have to guess YOUR child probably doesn't really have any special needs. You just paid for a doctor to recommend extra time.

Some of our children actually have true disabilities that parenting doesn't fix.
"MY larlo

I want to apologize as the previous poster because I think my post came off wrong. There are kids that have more serious deficits in this area that require more assistance. MCPS, like many schools is not great at meeting those needs for a whole host of reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We thought MCPS was wonderful. My freshman got all As in every class! He also is a fine trombone player and won many awards for his trombone playing.

Lucky you. We aren't impressed with the music program and spend a lot of money on private music.

Well, you probably have a second-rate trombone player. PP sounds like she has an elite trombone player in her household.

I hate when lesser trombone players try to steal the thunder of ELITE trombone players who have won MANY awards.

*Sad Trombone Sound*

AHAHA, the trombone thread is hilarious. Thanks for the laughs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

This is true…and…kids see teachers face to face almost every day which gives them a natural opportunity to ask in person if email isn’t working.

I acknowledge email is easier to track and it would be better if teachers were more consistently responsive, but my boss doesn’t always respond to emails and sometimes self-advocacy includes managing up. This may be the first opportunity to start to learn those skills.

You're an adult. An adult who doesn't seem to have any knowledge of disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

My child is the one who emails — but often the teachers don’t respond to him, even after two emails. At that point I follow up to get a response. I completely agree that a Usenet’s should email when they are able to do so in secondary school — but some teachers don’t respond to them, only parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

My child is the one who emails — but often the teachers don’t respond to him, even after two emails. At that point I follow up to get a response. I completely agree that a Usenet’s should email when they are able to do so in secondary school — but some teachers don’t respond to them, only parents.

+1 Student voice is not heard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

Emailed teachers 4 times in two years for issues with my ADHD kid with 504. Responses received = zero

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

Emailed teachers 4 times in two years for issues with my ADHD kid with 504. Responses received = zero

That is disgraceful. Next time, CC the counselor and the AP or the P themself. I find that is what makes a difference. The teacher / administrator realizes you need their help and there's an eye above them watching. OR the P or AP will be the person to help. Really, they actually do that sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

Emailed teachers 4 times in two years for issues with my ADHD kid with 504. Responses received = zero

That is disgraceful. Next time, CC the counselor and the AP or the P themself. I find that is what makes a difference. The teacher / administrator realizes you need their help and there's an eye above them watching. OR the P or AP will be the person to help. Really, they actually do that sometimes.

Counselor says my kid needs to self advocate. Which is true but a work in progress. I know teachers are overwhelmed with emails from parents but sucks for those of us whose kid’s occasionally have real issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

I respectfully disagree as the parent of a SN child. Unless they are acutely disabled every child can learn to advocate for themselves.

I’m not sure why anything a child can’t do is automatically the schools issue to fix and should be built into the curriculum. When our child has an issue that requires self-advocacy we rehearse it at home, repeatedly, and give feedback so she can do better. If she is writing an email we help her think through how to identify a specific ask and articulate it respectfully and clearly.

It took practice and work and now she is good at it. You are right it doesn’t come without effort but parents can and should intervene when necessary.

I agree with all this but also think we need to recognize that with the demands on teacher, some subset have now just stopped responding to things like emails. I've had multiple kids have this problem with multiple teachers. It often takes a month for me to get a response from the teacher, or they never respond. The system is starting to crumble around the edges due to the burdens on the teachers. It's a bad combination of overworked teachers, and kids who really didn't have an opportunity to scale up with gradually increasing demands on their executive function due to a combination of COVID during middle school plus the general fact that MCPS middle school isn't great.

Agree with all of this. I had a sophomore who was in MS during Covid.

Agree that the demands on teachers are unreasonable and the system is crumbling.

I think emailing by parents is somewhat out of control. I always ask myself before I send an email, "is this something my child can take of, or if emailing was not an option for parent-teacher communication, would I call the school for this?"

I bet teachers get a lot of unnecessary emails from parents which makes it harder to respond to the ones which would necessitate a response.

Emailed teachers 4 times in two years for issues with my ADHD kid with 504. Responses received = zero

That is disgraceful. Next time, CC the counselor and the AP or the P themself. I find that is what makes a difference. The teacher / administrator realizes you need their help and there's an eye above them watching. OR the P or AP will be the person to help. Really, they actually do that sometimes.

Counselor says my kid needs to self advocate. Which is true but a work in progress. I know teachers are overwhelmed with emails from parents but sucks for those of us whose kid’s occasionally have real issues.

The other problem is that the teachers don’t always remember what they told the kid orally. So they say it’s okay to make up a rest on X date, or they don’t need to make up an assignment from the day they were sick, but then don’t remember telling them that (because they have 100 students). I’m trying to teach my kids the work world trick of emailing to say “Thank you for speaking with me today and agreeing that the lab that I missed when I was out with gastroenteritis need not be made up. I appreciate your understanding.” But that’s not a natural approach for a 14 year old.