1) We really had a rough start. In retrospect, we don't think that there was enough understanding and communication about our daughter starting. It's very troubling to us that she had started in Ms. Shanika's classroom without any notification from the director. Also, we were never told that there is a different teacher for aftercare, who, in general, is unable to give a report of how good/bad of a day our child has had.
2) The director is never on-site. There is no overseeing of the teachers and no person at the front desk. Someone can walk in at any time unannounced.
3) Our daughter is coming from a play-based school, which seemed to be a very big deal/issue with Ms Shanika.
4) The parents are not supposed to enter the classroom (to promote independence...which my daughter has no issues with), and although we have talked to Ms Shanika in the morning we get the impression that it is a big imposition and that we are further interrupting the lesson plan - so it has been hard to communicate. At her previous school, we got regular updates about our child and the lesson plans and felt much more connected.
5) Our daughter definitely has issues with listening and focusing. It is a struggle that we deal with daily. We were specifically looking for an environment like this where listening and focusing are stressed, but she seems to be doing worse at school compared to at home. We understand that this is a very different environment, and we were very willing to put in any time and effort needed to help her transition. We have been looking for any improvement in her listening, crying, use of the activities, friendships, etc. but instead she seems to be regressing.
6) She was very excited to start this school at the beginning, but we've noticed her acting more and more uncharacteristically as she has attended. She has started hitting herself in the head. Before the potty accidents at school she hadn't had any during the day or night for 2 months. Her inability/unwillingness to go down for nap time is very unusual as well. It broke our hearts yesterday morning when she actually asked to go in time out instead of going to school. She hates timeout. Last, but not least, she started making comments such as ""I'm not a nice girl"" or ""I'm a bad girl."" We've never said this to her in our lives. We knew it was something new.
7) I recently had a meeting with her teacher. She was very hostile in our meeting. I do realize that aftercare has a totally different structure than the school environment. But I gave praise to Miss Priscilla a few days ago when I saw her interaction with my daughter (firm, but gentle), because she quickly responded and was able to be redirected. I had made the comment to Miss Priscilla (the aftercare teacher) that it seems as she has much more patience with my daughter and all of her behavioral issues compared to Ms Shanika. We are the first people to realize that our daughter is a handful, especially with 19 other children. But with the hostile and, quite frankly, unprofessional behavior that Ms Shanika displayed towards me this morning, we feel very uncomfortable leaving her in the care of this woman. This hostile behavior was due to the comment that I had made to Miss Priscilla which was passed on to Ms Shanika. If this teacher was so unprofessionally hostile towards me, I can't imagine how hostile she is towards my daughter...the one with behavioral issues.
8)My daughter was basically forced to hold hands with a teacher most of the day (which she absolutely hates due to this impeding on her independence). This was their technique for trying to control her behavior, which is pretty unacceptable. there are other ways of redirecting a 3 year old child.
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