Meet the Teacher

The other day I was looking at the website of Joy's future school. Listed on the website was a "School Supply Sale and Meet the Teacher" night. Hmm.....Well, we aren't officially registered.

We did go to our testing on Tuesday. Three hours of speech, IQ, behavioral, you name it, we did it testing. No results yet. No ARD date yet. No official registration yet.

But....I saw this announcement on the school's website and I got to thinking. Hmm....This is my chance. This is my chance to walk through the halls of the school, to observe the teacher, the classroom, everything. Even though I'm not yet registered - they may not like it.

But we did. We went. We walked in and were greeted by a nice lady who offered to help us. No, I explained, we weren't on her list. We hadn't yet registered. We hadn't yet had our ARD meeting. She introduced me to the case manager, the 3 year old teacher and then the 4 year old teacher. Who was the nice lady? The principal.

I am so grateful I went tonight. Her teacher is excited to have her. I was able to tell her a little bit about Joy. There are six kids (including her) in the class. There is an aide. They will attend some of the Pre-K class every day. Joy loved the dramatic play center. She loved the computers. They answered all of my questions. It was the perfect setting. I could ask questions and then step back and observe as other kids and parents came in and out of the room. We stayed a long time. I watched the interactions between returning students and parents and teachers. I watched her teacher hugging her returning students. I watched how at ease the parents were with the teacher. I feel so much calmer now. I am grateful I could meet these people before just handing off my baby girl and outside of a formal ARD or IEP meeting.

I was told by parents and ECI that the old principal did not allow parents to observe the classroom. That was verified by a parent tonight. But they have a new principal and newer teachers. And it felt good. I am glad. I have chosen to send her to the morning session (8 am to 1pm). Then I'm sure she will nap. How I am going to fit her therapies into the week is beyond me at this point, but I'll figure it out.

Happy tonight!