Meet the Teacher Night

My 14 year old son started high school at Norman North last week and tonight was "Meet the Teacher Night." For most parents this is a fairly laid back and informal event, but for myself this is the first of many meetings I will likely have throughout the year. My son is on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) due to a long time struggle with behavioral issues and this has kept him from the high level of scholastic achievement that he is very capable of. My goal tonight was to make it known that I want to be as involved as possible with his progress and that, unlike many parents, I want to be contacted as regularly as possibly to ensure that I am fully informed. The most interesting visit of the night was with his Biology teacher who is apparently the former head coach of the football team. At one point or another we all had a coach as a teacher and from my experience they were pretty uninterested about actually teaching. My initial impression as I walked into the classroom was that he was the typical coach; big, brawny and quite brash. However, after speaking with him I got the feeling that he actually might be the perfect fit for my son. He does care about the students learning, does not accept a lack of effort and most striking was that he does not like to correspond with parents through e-mail. He is one of the few who feels that e-mail is too impersonal and would rather talk by phone or simply set up a face to face meeting. From my experiences over the past few years it seems that most teachers are too overwhelmed with the number of students that they have and simply have a lack of interest in building relationships with the parents, so I was thrilled to see this from someone who I initially perceived in a more negative way. I was also excited about the classroom setup, as the lab equipment is all present in the actual classroom (very different from when I was in high school). Now, if I could only get my son as interested in science as I am I think this could be a very good year for him!