Reply to Serious AAP Question about academic expectations

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Serious AAP Question about academic expectations"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]You mention the key factor yourself -- it's only week four. You also mention that your expectations were extremely high. Please take a deep breath and step back. Your child has  had less than one month of AAP center classes and is in third grade, so she will have four whole years of AAP center at elementary level. In the first month many teachers are still working on pulling together a classroom of kids who did not all go to the same school together since kindergarten and who are adjusting to a totally new school as well as to losing friends they'd had for what the kids think is forever. Remember that AAP centers are full of young grade schoolers, and they are still learning the ropes.

Math is "compacted." They do not skip third grade math but will move through it more quickly. The teacher likely is dealing with some students who are very advanced in math and others who haven't fully learned their multiplication tables yet (yes, even AAP students). Be aware that placement in AAP is about the ABILITY to learn, not what the student has already learned. So not all kids are coming into third grade AAP ready to skip the entire third grade math curriculum. Don't expect it. But DO be involved in your child's homework, especially math, because the teacher will not know what your child's individual weaknesses are -- there are too many kids for that, and I've found that if we do not stay on top of math with our child, she does not always catch things fast enough and the teacher does not intimately know her issues in math. Been like that all three years so far and it's just a function of large classes and a very fast pace on math, I think.

In general, don't go just by amounts of homework. Smart teachers don't give tons of it just for its own sake. If you see thoughtful project assignments coming home, that is a good sign, but you should not see projects too frequently. I found that AAP classes do a lot of teamwork and individually the kids often do a lot of work in the school day so there is sometimes less homework than you would think.

Don't just e-mail the teacher, talk to her or him. If you have not had back to school night, that is the best time to ask about expectations and homework. I hope you can relax a bit and let your child focus on th social side of a new school and new classmates for a while.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics