Teacher ?????

Is it important to you personally to reach a child who is bored and tuning you out?

How do you grab his attention and keep it?

and finally:\


What do you do with a bright student who is doing poorly because he is completely uninterested?

Re: Teacher ?????

For me it is important. Since I am pretty much a hyper person and a true believer in multiple intelligences I try to hit them all. I sing a lot of songs play games and have my students up and out of their seats as much as possible.

Mo Fm me if you want to talk more privately about it

Re: Teacher ?????

I agree with Swags. I do what I can to reach as many as I can. Gotta vary it up and lots of hands on activities and manipulatives & such.

I also remind myself that unless you truly 'like' a kid that you won't make that effort to get through.

They say to go through your class list in your mind and the kids that you 'forget' are the ones that are 'invisible' to you. That was insightful to me.

What grade do you teach?

Re: Teacher ?????

Swags~~~You have FM!

Cindy~~~Thanks for responding! I am not a teacher. I was talking about my 7 year old who is having a hard time. We moved to LI from Glendale 1.5 years ago and he has been miserable ever since. The school is very stuck up about my kids being from Queens..........meanwhile half the teachers taught in the 5 boros at one time or another!

Re: Teacher ?????

Mo back to you!

Re: Teacher ?????

it would be different for me...since I was HS....but I would hope that since a teacher has the whole day with the same 30 kids...that there would be a little more interaction....


my best advice would be to contact the school...contact the counselor...the counselor should work as a student advocate with the teacher...and you have also made the school somewhat responsible by bringing it to their attention...


don't be too pushy...or you are labeled as a nudge by the school...but let it be known that there is a concern...and never blame it on the teacher...it may put the school in a defensive mode...

Re: Teacher ?????

Mo -
Is he bored because the work isn't challenging enough or is there more to it? How is he doing socially? Does he have friends that he makes playdates with after school?

If your son is bored due to a lack of challenging material on his grade level (I'm assuming 2nd grade), definitely discuss it with his teacher. I'm sure he's not the only student to experience this in his/her classroom and perhaps there are additional materials he/she can provide your son to keep his interests.

Use motivation at home. Sort of like a behavior chart. If you can pinpoint the problems, then when he is successful at overcoming them, he earns a sticker (of course in small increments). After a certain amt. of stickers, reward him with something like 15 min. extra before bedtime. This helps to reinforce what he's doing at school in the home, so his behaviors don't change instantly when he walks out one door and into the other.

In my experience, children of that age who are bored for other reasons sometimes NEED to feel NEEDED. Perhaps the teacher can assign him as a permanant helper in some capacity so that he feels his presence there is not only necassary because all kids have to go to school, but moreso cause the teacher and students depend on him to be there.

I hope this helped you somewhat. It's hard to tell because I'm not sure exactly what is causing him to be uninterested or bored...

Also, I agree with Yabbobay...be gentle in the way you approach the school - even if you are frustrated. You'd be amazed how quickly a parent can be labeled high maintenance, even if they are far from it...Of course this is easier said than done, being that he is YOUR child.