New Teacher with a New Attitude!

Once she was settled into her new classroom, her new homeroom teacher, Mr. Allagood started emailing me after school every day letting me know how things went in class that day. I was thrilled that not only did he email letting me know what the class lesson was about, but he let me know how he accommodated the lessons so she "got a piece of the pie." I have always said that inclusion is about allowing for lots of flexibility in lessons and how the presentation is provided in certain ways to particular students. For example, if a delicious apple pie was set out on the table for everyone, do they all have to eat the whole pie to know that they like and want more of that pie? If they were given a slice of the pie and or even ate just a piece of the pie, they would know that they liked it and maybe wanted more....even if someone was given just a smaller bite of the pie, they too would know they liked it and wanted more as well. 

Inclusion is much like that, a student should be given the opportunity to have at least a small bite of the apple pie. Being provided just a small bite of that delicious pie is enough to know you like it, you know it's good and you want more! Classrooms today are not a one-size-fits-all or at least I hope not. It's not about getting all students to eat the whole pie. It's about being given a piece of the pie and trying it! It's about doing the best you can with what you can handle. It is about being offered an opportunity to show that you can do your best, if you are provided the support and positive encouragement. It's about sharing so everyone gets a piece of that wonderful delicious apple pie! Everyone deserves a taste of the pie of knowledge!

Because of Mariah's articulation errors and language delays, she isn't always able to come home and tell me what she did at school. The first couple of emails that Mr. Allagood sent to me was a clear indication that things were now moving in a more positive direction with better collaboration and communication between school & home. He was willing to work with me and accept me as a parent that needed better school-to-home communication. He was able to accept me as an equal partner in educating my daughter. Together we were partners in helping Mariah learn as much as she could this school year.

When your Child has a teacher that refuses to have a simple conversation with you and keeps putting off a parent/teacher conference and you have tried all you can to make things work, when weeks have gone by and it's becoming more and more strained....it is so overdue time to put in for a request for another teacher that will! That was WHY I had put in for an immediate teacher change request. Mariah had originally started the school year out with a teacher that refused to talk to me and wasn't willing to be even a little bit collaborative. If some teachers are not going to even try to have any form of communication or any type of collaboration or provide the simplest back and forth collaboration, then it is obvious that something has to change. Requesting for a different teacher is not something a parent expects to have to do, it's not expected that a teacher will ignore you or put you off, but when it does...don't wait more than a month!  It's not fair to you as a parent of a student and it certainly isn't good for your Child, especially when they may be the only student in that teachers classroom that has a significant learning challenge! NO PARENT should be put off by a teacher when a parent wants to be involved in their Child's education. Parent Involvement is the big buzz word today....so what happens when a teacher doesn't do their part in nurturing a good 'involved parent' partnership? Put in for a request for a new teacher!

Mariah was thrilled to be in a NEW classroom with more of her classmates she had been going to school with since Kindergarten. Some of the students in her new classroom attend the same Girl Scout Troop she does. It was all good once we switched to a new teacher that was willing to include me in my daughters education, by keeping me informed about how and what went on in the classroom. I am an involved parent ~ I want to be able to help my child be successful in school ~ I want to be able to have a good working relationship with my Child's teacher or teachers. The classwork and the homework assignments that started coming home now were more in-tuned with my daughter's abilities and what I had been hoping to see! I was now able to begin to focus on a good school year, instead of being disappointed at how things had been turning out for the first 2 months of her 5th grade school year!

Mr. Allagood was willing to provide a quick written email everyday, he gave me little snippets of her school day and what the lessons were about and how he included Mariah into the lessons and what or how he had her work on things, what student helped her that day. Now that I was getting FEEDBACK coming home from school thru Mr. Allagood's emails everyday, there was absolutely better communication about what she did while in school each day. I was now able to see the big picture of what she was learning at school. The words she would try to say and the conversations we would have while riding in the car to her after-school daily activities & appointments now made better sense to me! Mariah was excited about the things she was learning, she wanted to share with me all the new things that were being talked about in school! She wanted to tell me about the friend that helped her in class that day. She loves school and wants to do well and learn new things and do her best! My daughter has dreams and goals of working in a Vet's office as a Vet Assistant or a Vet Tech. She knows she needs to do good in school....she's motivated to do well in school!

I asked for a set of classroom books to stay at home. To finally have a school text book to follow along with the daily lessons at home certainly made her homework much easier for us figure out and to do. Mariah is a visual learner and was able to take me to the exact pages and show me the pictures of what she worked on that day at school. The homework assignments made much better sense once we had a copy of the textbook at home! Mariah was now able to actually SHOW ME what she did at school. The excited look on her face when she would share with me during our homework session what the class talked about and what she learned that day in school are moments in time I will not forget! Her trying to explain things to me became easier because now we had the schoolbook! Now...we were all on the same page!!

With a quick little email coming into my INBOX everyday with a little snippet of Mariah's school day and how she was included or how the lesson of the day was accommodated for her to get a piece of the pie....made Mariah's 5th grade school year an absolute delight! It was such a simple thing for a teacher to do....to communicate and share with me how my girl did at school. Of course I looked forward to getting my daily email from Mariah's teacher everyday! 


I knew Mr. Allagood was going to be a wonderful teacher match for both Mariah and myself because in the 10 years with both my Children attending this same school, he would always say hello to me, even though neither of my two Children were ever one of his students. Mr. Allagood is a natural and does a fantastic job of being friendly to ALL students and to ALL parents he sees on campus. Mr. Allagood loves being a teacher ~ and it shows!

Thank you Mr. Allagood for all you provided to me as an 'involved parent that wants and needs to be involved' in my daughters education. Your daily "little snippet" emails helped keep me in the loop of what was going on in school everyday. Mariah has told me several times over the summer...."Mr. Allagood taught me that!"

.....THAT IS A SIGN OF A GREAT TEACHER!!