You know how I wrote that post the other day about listening?  Well, it works.

Archie, as you know, has been having piano lessons for about a term and a half now.  She’s doing really well.  There’s a few challenges – she reads the music once and plays it by memory from that point on.  Her teacher is happy for her to do this, as long as the initial piece is correct!  Otherwise she tends to get herself stuck in a loop

Her fingers are quite small, not the long, lanky ones that a good piano player probably needs but she’s makes up for it in effort.  She’s like I was when I was learning guitar – scales – phooey!  But she does them for me albeit begrudgingly.

Last night, she and I were playing a few pieces together and I got up to help BoyWonder cook dinner. The piano we have is capable of recording what you’re playing and Archie worked this out within 10 minutes of us receiving the piano so we know she mucks around with it.

Anyway, I get up, wander over to the kitchen and she says “Mum, listen to this.”

So I took a dose of my own advice and stopped what I was doing and listened.

She hit the play button and out came this short piece of classical music.  There are some pre-recorded songs on the piano but this is NOT one of them. 

“Who played that?” I asked.

“Me!” Archie exclaimed excitedly.

“What is it?  I think I know it but I can’t place it Archie.”

“I don’t know Mum.  I heard it on Little Einstein’s last year.”

We’d noticed she had a good ear when she was playing.  If she plays a note incorrectly she immediately fixes it up.  But she’d not displayed an ability to play by ear up until this point. 

We’ve narrowed the episode down and it says that it’s a part of Vivaldi’s Springtime (one of her favourite pieces) but we can’t find the exact part in the music.  We’re going to ask her teacher on Monday and see if she can pinpoint it for us because it’s driving me nuts!

So listening is good for us parents too.  Sometimes we get so caught up in what they’re meant to be doing (practice your scales, do your homework, read that book) that we forget that there’s still room for us to be amazed by hidden talents.

Archie’s doing a lot of telling me what she knows I want to hear.  Sadly, it appears that very little of it is the true state of affairs.

She’s being pulled out for a maths group with a handful of other kids.  She was telling me about this the other day and said she’d been working with square numbers which she enjoys even if she has known about them for quite some time.  She proudly told me that she got all of the them right and that the teacher they worked with told her how good she was at math.

Nope.  Didn’t happen.  She did get them all right but the teacher didn’t compliment her.

She’s been finishing her work and has been the first one finished.  This is a HUGE step for Archie who is constantly being told off at school for not producing.  Anyway, I thought that things were going well.

The other day after a school, a number of Archie’s friends came out with her with stickers on their chests.  I asked Archie what they were for and she said for finishing their work.  Why didn’t you get one?  Because I never do mum.

Archie’s folder hasn’t moved from the place where it was on the teacher’s desk 2 weeks ago.  Archie’s substitute teacher has told me that she’s struggling with basic concepts that I know she isn’t. 

Archie and I were discussing all of this (especially the stretching of the truth bit) yesterday and she said she was invisible to the teachers.

She’s not a teacher pleaser.  She doesn’t get her work done quickly and then race up for a sticker or a pat on the head.  She doesn’t get acknowledged for trying.  She doesn’t get acknowledged for knowing ‘stuff’.  Thankfully we don’t have behavioural issues as she’s more likely to vague out than act up – so instead of being recognised in any way she gets mostly ignored.  Coupled this with a curriculum that’s inappropriate and a teacher who can’t control the kids in her class, fragile social groups, an understanding of human nature well beyond her years and it makes for a pretty sad little person.

This is what happened to me.  You try…you get ignored…you stop trying.  Either way the outcome is the same.  She’s not learning.  I’m trying to juggle my life, my school, the needs of the other family members, and teaching Archie new information before and after school.

I know that last years teacher, God love her, was confused because Archie didn’t fit the ‘gifted child’ category that Mrs T had learnt about.  This is what amazes me.  You are gifted therefore you’re all the same. 

Here’s news.  We’re not.  There are a vast range of differences between people on the gifted spectrum.  Just like there’s a vast range of differences between people on the less abled spectrum.  Just because 10 people are 6ft tall doesn’t mean they’re all the same in every aspect.  They just happen to have commonalities.  And the problem for kid’s like Archie is that most teachers will never have seen one before.  They’ll have seen lots of bright children.  Lots of kids that want to get their work done and love stickers and A’s and all the rest.  But they wont’ come across many (if any) kids who are light years ahead of their peers and learn for the love of learning – not for any extrinsic award.

I’m over it.  I’m over the whole education system.  I’m over fighting.  I don’t want another 8 years of this.  I’m tired of it already.

Archie’s Mum

Well I’m back!  My hard disk decided to teach me to back up my data on Saturday morning – the hard way…by dying.

So hubby and I have spent the past 5 days recovering the data and then rebuilding my laptop with a new hard drive.  It’s been a fairly stressful time as I’d been stupid and not kept regular backups.

Anyway, that’s all over.

I was thinking the other day about a question that a teacher friend of mine asked me.  The question was:

“What one word sums up what you think teachers should do with kids like Archie?”

One word???  That’s a tall ask.

But the other day as we were driving along it struck me.  The word is:

LISTEN

That’s it.  Why you ask?  Simple.  It’s when these kids speak that you really ‘get’ how different they are.

Example from Archie that helped me to find the answer.  Their substitute teacher is reading them George’s Marvellous Medicine.  Archie recalls reading it ‘a long time ago’ (Kindergarten – just 3 short years!)…but she’s enjoying it as she doesn’t remember much of the detail.  She’s listing the ingredients that are in the medicine and she gets to the end, takes a breath, and says “you know what mum, it should be called George’s LETHAL medicine!”

That was the moment.  She’s 8.  Most kids that age wouldn’t know the word lethal existed let alone use it in such a precise way.  She then went on to tell me “Or murderous, or…or….or…”  She came up with about half a dozen equally fitting words.

That’s when it hit me.  Teacher’s new to the journey of working with PG kids need to learn to LISTEN. Shut your mouth.  Shut your eyes.  Park your prejudices at the door.  And listen.  Get these kids to talk about something they’re passionate about.  And then listen with an open heart and an open mind.

That’s what these kids need from teachers.  They need to be heard.

Hope that you’re all doing well.

Archie’s Mum

Archie’s school bell goes at 14:55 and she normally comes straight out.  Yesterday I sat and waited patiently for her.  And waited.  And waited some more.  By 10 past she still wasn’t out and the playground was almost empty.  Seeing as we were now going to be late to get TeenQueen I figured I’d better go and find out what the hold up was.

Archie and one of her ‘friends’ were chatting with the new teacher, Ms W.  Her friend B waved at me and gave me a hug and Ms. W.   immediately assumed that I was B’s mother.  A shake of the head and a smile and I say nope, that one’s mine and point to Archie.

“OH, YOU’RE Archie’s Mum!”.  Hmmm….I’m not sure if it was said in surprise (as in you’re not what I expected) or if she felt sorry for me :-) 

She’s being good to Archie so far.  Archie collects bit of paper in her desk and it appears that the old teacher let her do it without clearing out her desk for the whole year.  Not good.  Yesterday she couldn’t find a book she needed.  Instead of getting angry Mrs. W. suggested that she and Archie clean it out together.  And they did.  She also mentioned that Archie’s desk looked like a stick-nest rat’s nest!  Looking at images of one this morning I can only imagine.

Archie said that she’s got ‘the folder’ on her desk so hopefully she’s had a flick through it.  She’s also trying to get Archie to look up when she talks – I told her that if she can work out how to do that she’d be the first in 8 years!  Oh, and Archie pulled her copy of Eragon/Eldest to read in reading time yesterday.  Apparently the teacher was a little shocked but didn’t stop her from reading it (lucky for her!).

Anyway, so far so good.  It’ll be a real shame if she’s great with Archie as she’s only there until a permanent replacement is found.

Archie’s Mum

Archie’s new teacher started yesterday.  The jury is still out as to whether Archie is going to like her or not but she seemed relatively pleased with the start yesterday.  She apparently doesn’t take any rubbish from the kids so it will be nice to see some discipline put back into the class.  She’s also organising a class time table so structure should rear her head again too.

The only thing that Archie was confused about was whether she liked the teacher’s attitude towards reading.

Her classroom has a small bookshelf.  The children are free to grab a book during free time or when their work is finished and take it back to their desk.  New Teacher has said she’ll be bringing cushions in for the kids to lounge around on (inviting trouble if you ask me!) and she’s going to obtain more books.  The children are encouraged to bring their own book in though so Archie has taken Eldest in to finish off.

What confused her though is the teacher has said they’ll get 5 minutes first thing after lunch to read.  A bit short according to Archie but better than nothing.  New Teacher then went on to say that if they didn’t behave, they would get another 5 minutes of reading time.

WTF?  Archie and I don’t understand why reading is being used a form of punishment?  Am I so out of touch with the ‘normal’ world that I fail to see that as completely backward?  Don’t we (as a planet) have issues with literacy and a reluctance by a lot of children, especially boys, to read? 

So – should reading be used as a behaviour modification tool?  Archie and I vote no although she is now secretly hoping that the boys are true to form and muck up so that she gets extra reading time

Archie’s Mum