my son's letter to his teachers..

[mzteris]

My son just graduated from 5th grade - here's the letter he wrote to the two teachers he had this year. These two have been his teachers in some combination or another for the past several years.

"I's an honor to have learned from you. I can't believe we've been together for about 5 years. We have become sort of a family and now are going separate ways. I will visit you next year and maybe after that to see what has changed."

He had wonderfully dedicated teachers who went way above and beyond to help their students. I can honestly say that all of them were GOOD teachers. We did have some personality issues with his 2nd grade teacher; although in all fairness my son had just come from a Montessori school environment and she didn't get his "independent" nature and he didn't get waiting to be told what to do! lol


I know a lot of you guys dislike me, but some of you may remember that I have ALWAYS supported more - much more - pay for teachers. More support. More autonomy. More flexibility. Better training and mentoring and internship programs. SMALLER CLASSES!! Less testing. No "teaching to the test". More creativity. Greater control over how and when to teach in the classroom.


And yeah, I guess I would ask you to remember that whether or not you like charters, there are dedicated teachers in them as well who believe strongly in what they are doing and that is teaching and supporting children and enriching their lives.

[stray cat]

1. Kudos to those who go above and beyond for those they teach!

Good teachers are a blessing where ever they work and they can change the course of a life at any age. I might have gone into Psychology in college but was turned off by a course mainly because of the way it was taught.

[lamp_shade]

2. Will he move on to another charter school in 6th grade?

[mzteris]

3. unfortunately, no.

The district isn't particularly fond of charters. They only allowed ours to begin with because they didn't think it would fly. Now they're copying our model for the other elementary schools in the district.

And they're using our kids as their guinea pig for the middle school program (and then again for the highschool program). I'm withholding judgement - though it seems they're bending over backwards to make the middleschool program work - because they want to implement it district wide within the next 5 years.

There's one major sticking point right now, but I have until 7th grade to get that fixed. I've already begun agitating. . . :evilgrin:


People are abandoning this once vibrant school district for the "suburbs" and the charters in the suburbs. . . MMSD needs to do something - fast - before one of the city's main draws becomes a deterrent.


(PS - IF this program doesn't "work" - we would consider moving back to NC and our old immersion school (charter/Montessori) - they've a plan in place through 8th grade now. Or look at other immersion schools/programs on this half of North America . . . )

[lamp_shade]

5. Well best of luck to you. Many years ago (early 80's), my daughter was in one of the very

first charter "type" schools. It was experimental (San Jose, CA) and was also K-5th grade, but it was the best start she could have possibly had. I'll have to check now and see if it survived.

[teacher gal]

4. Kudos to your son!

And I certainly don't dislike you. I find you quite sincere.

[mzteris]

6. thank you.

On both counts.

[Dinger]

7. Cool:)

:)

[donco6]

8. Nice letter.

And good for you in raising him to be appreciative. It doesn't always happen.