We finally received a note from Forest Park regarding Sebastian's teacher and placement for this upcoming school year. It was a bit of a surprise - he's been placed into a blended classroom, half first graders and half 2nd graders. FP doesn't have a history of such mixed classes, but the enrollment numbers for this school year were right at an awkward level for both grades. There would have been two first grade classrooms with 30-32 students each, and the same for second grade; we were not excited at the prospect of Sebastian getting lost in the mix. And yet, and yet... he was worried the big kids would be mean to him, we were worried that he wouldn't have lunch and recess with the rest of his class cohort, and we had a lot of questions.
Yesterday we got to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Fink, check out the classroom, and ask some questions. We were relieved to learn that it seems like a really well thought out plan, with a lot of support - eleven kids from each grade, a veteran teacher, a teacher's aide for two hours a day and a student teacher three days a week, and his lunch break with the rest of the first graders instead of the second graders. One of his best friends from last year is in the class, along with two girls who live in our neighborhood, so Sebastian feels like he'll have a built-in network already. All in all, we're now feeling really excited about next week and his 1st grade experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment