Nerd Grade

Adelaide’s Last Day of 2nd Grade was last week.

This year has really gone way to fast.

Adelaide had a tough last day saying goodbye to her teacher.

Every year she loves her teacher which makes it easy for us, but this year especially,she really loved her teacher.

Adelaide did not know the stress Rich and I shared at the start of the year with Adelaide being placed in a combo class.

***Disclaimer***  I said yes to a combo class at the end of 1st grade thinking it would be a combo with an older grade and split…..really not knowing much and I asked her teacher and she said she would fit well.

Well it seems to be like drawing the short straw, or at least that is how we felt the day before school started when she got her class placement.

We went through the appeals process and tried to meet with the Principal but he would only accept an email so we got nowhere.

I was very pissed off and wrote off the Principal  (there were other incidents from the previous year that I was holding against him so don’t think I am bad from just one event).

We were really concerned with the psychological aspect of her not feeling like a true second grader, not following the same curriculum and feeling alienated.

We met with her teacher to understand the structure of the class and voice our concerns. This was Mrs. Gilbert’s first combo class ever and she is a young teacher so we did not know how this was going to work, especially with 8 2nd graders and 23 1st graders.

The school year had it’s challenges with sitting at a different table at lunch from her friends, having to do school work outside while the 1st graders had a recess the 2nd graders did not participate in, having the other 2nd grades work on subjects and projects that she was not working on and so on.

But what it did provide her was self motivation, excelling her skills to work independently, no classroom behavioral issues, a since of pride knowing she was in a select group, the ability to have class outside when no other class could do that and not be held back by various skill sets a large classroom has with there just being 8!

All in all it was a good experience but Adelaide told Rich one day at the end of the year she would like to be in a normal classroom next year.

So…we wrote the teacher and explained how thankful we were for her but she wanted to go back to a traditional classroom and she replied with the principal on copy (UGH!) complimenting Adelaide on being the “type” of kid that does well with this style of learning but she understood our request.

I told Adelaide that we asked she not be placed in a combo class next year and she said “i like it and would like a combo class again”….seriously kid….[smack forehead].

We will just have to see how it plays out now.

She is onto NERD grade Next Year!

I forgot to take her picture on her last day so here is a picture shopping at Nordstrom the week before 🙂