so many different ways to fail

Anonymous — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:28:58 GMT

I suppose I could have titled this post everyone has different strengths (and weaknesses), or maybe nobody can do it all (but we should die trying).

But right now I just feel like a failure. I went through our portfolios to see how the kids are doing with colors, shapes, recognizing numbers, counting to ten with one-to-one correspondence, counting to 30 (or higher), and understanding concepts like up/down, same/different, over/under, and first/last.

Sure, plenty of kids were doing fine. But a surprisingly large number still do not know all four basic shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle), cannot name all the numbers 0-10, or count to 30 (which is our district’s expectation). The child with the sort of spectrum-like behavior still does not know the number thirteen, so when counting, I have to say this kid can only count to twelve accurately (you mark the number before their first mistake as the number they can count to). In the fall it was twelve, and in the winter it was twelve, and now in the spring — still twelve!

Pumpkin can count to ten (yay!) and knows all his colors, but he still doesn’t know the shapes or numbers. Apple can’t do anything — no shapes, numbers, colors, concepts, patterning, anything. Of course, I am going to refer her to the evaluation team to see if she’s special ed (ya think?!).

We have another assessment coming up for vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration, and I shudder to think how they will do on those. So now I feel like the rest of the year is going to be a scramble to catch up. Yes, we can write stories and sound out words. Several of my kids can read and write independently. But for so many to be lost on the basic skills makes me feel frustrated and sad. And like a failure.

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so many different ways to fail