Relief

I met with the substitute teacher, and she seems wonderful.  She is very willing to work with us, and  has been very helpful this week keeping me up to date at what H is not doing at school.  Most of it seems to be not filling in the work required.  I have to wonder how much of this is distraction and how much of this is laziness, since H hates to write.  I think we need to start up the writing therapy again.

Roadbump

We have had a month of 5th grade at this point.  Things started out rocky.  H was missing assignments, wasn't studying, and in general was failing everything but math by week 2.  However then I met with the teacher and explained how H does not understand verbal instructions well.  We talked about what was expected, and I was able to pass that along to H after we got home.  Things improved significantly after that, with Bs on tests and mostly passing homework (she forgot to turn in a few assignments and got a zero).  But now the worst thing possible has happened.  Due to tragic circumstances, her teacher is out for a while and H has a substitute.  We ran into this back in 2nd grade.  No matter how hard they try (and I think substitutes are saints to attempt what they do) substitutes cannot run the class the same way as the regular teacher.  And H only does well when she knows what is coming up and what is expected.  Again, she does not take verbal instructions well and therefore doesn't handle a change in the schedule very well.  This past week has been a disaster.  According to H she hasn't had any written assignments, reading was skipped twice, and math skipped once.  And I cannot contact the sub by email or phone to double check any of this.  I sincerely wish we had gone ahead with the integrated listening program during the summer.  We will definately  do it next summer, if not sooner!!!
My plan as of this point is to meet with the sub tomorrow after school to find out what is happening.  And then I think I need to start calling some of the parents to check on some of H's claims about not needing to do some types of assignments.