Meet the teacher night

Last night was meet the teacher night.

Although Emily is 15, she doesn’t stay home on her own and hubby had a previous engagement for the evening so Emily and I went to school last night to meet her 5 teachers for her first semester of high school.

If you have read my last post A new milestone, you know Emily doesn’t want me to talk to her teachers as it is embarrassing…

I discovered last night that this seems to apply to one teacher which she particularly likes.  I saw why in the 9 minutes we were in his classroom.  He captivated his audience where other teachers didn’t really.  He has this “teaching quality” you liked in your teacher when you were in school.  I think she might find him handsome too but she denies it.  🙂

So, last night we met the teachers and Emily guided me in between her classes which was nice as it showed me that she knows where her classes are.

It did help put my mind at ease (a little)  to see her navigate the school so easily and confidently.

I did something else last night before tackling the class visits.

I submitted my nomination to the PSSC (Parent School Support Committee)

If you’ve read my first day of high school post, you know I want to find a way to get involved at Emily’s new school so I am trying this.

From the PSSC’s website:

“The mission of the PSSC is to work with the principal to enhance student learning and development, and to enrich the educational experience of all children by increasing family and community involvement.”

Emphasis for me being the part about “all children”

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Since way back when she started school to now in high school, she is my priority!

I did some digging and in reading more into it, here is what I found:  http://pssc.weebly.com/about-pssc.html

You can get involved in:

  • Communications – Ensuring we have regular flow of communications to and from our parent community.
  • Educational outcomes – Examining how the school performing in terms of educational outcomes and learning where the challenges and opportunities are.
  • Health and Wellness – Examining where and how we can improve health and wellness of students and staff.
  • Exceptional Students – Looking at doing the best job in accommodating those at our school with exceptional needs.
  • Career Day – A very popular program for students.
  • PSSC Teaching Excellence Award – Approved in the 2011/12 school year, this new initiative will recognize a BMHS teacher who has shown exceptional teaching skills through the year.

I admit, my priority is point 4 – Exceptional students – but I see a need for all the others.

In preparation for last night, I printed a nomination form, filled it, got my seconder (another parent from the school) to approve my nomination and I hand delivered it.

Elections will be this month.

Wish me luck!

If this doesn’t work, I will find another way to positively impact the life of the exceptional students population of Emily’s high school…  I will just need to find another way in!  I am not giving up on this!

On a side note, thank you for clicking on my top mommy blog picture, so far you’ve made me #1 in the special need section of the site and as of this morning, I broke the top 50 for the entire site!  Being on this website brings new traffic to my blog which helps me raise awareness for Emily’s syndrome!  Thanks again for your support and help!

 

You know that one advice that would have made sense if someone else gave it to you?

In the spirit of the back to school season… Let me tell you about Emily’s first ever kindergarten teacher.

The only person who might remember her would be Joelle who was Emily’s specialized educator back then but I don’t remember her name and it’s really not that important!

Emily started kindergarten in the fall of 2002 in a tiny school in the province of Québec.

We had meetings prior to her first day to be sure she was ready.

On her first day, she was the cutest kid out there!

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She had been walking for 5 months and was ready to start school.

On the first day,  Emily’s really pregnant teacher told us the rules for the approved snacks to send to kindergarten with our kids.

She had quite a list of don’ts… No candies, if you send a granola bar, it can’t be the chocolate covered one, no mini cookies, no this.. no that…

We got the list of approved snacks…

We got the full speech about our kid’s health and how it is important to give them good eating habits right from the start.

The talk was patronizing but it made sense and the teacher sounded like she had all the kid’s health in mind.

Before it’s time to leave, we got the “snack” policy reminder and were told that if we sent an inappropriate snack, our child will not be permitted to eat it and the other kids will be asked to share their snacks so everybody gets to eat something…

This whole snack thing was serious!

I imagined that teacher being a health nut considering the lecture we (parents) received.

That night, we bought kindergarten approved snacks for Emily.

The next morning as I dropped Emily off at school, her extremely pregnant teacher was standing by the door having a cigarette…

And out the door went her credibility about children’s health!

I don’t care that she smoked, really, that was her call but she was no longer in position to lecture me about chocolate coating on a granola bar in my 4 year old daughter’s snack.

…..

…..

Have you ever been lectured by someone who really was in no position to do so?

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