Saturday, August 21, 2010

Update to My Angry Post

I had a brief meeting with Teacher L (I should have packed my angry eyes!) on the Friday and then a longer one last Tuesday, which also included the classroom SSO, who has known Miss R since Reception.

I gave Teacher L several handouts on Asperger's that I've found particularly useful (and had highlighted the behaviours that applied), some reference material and discussed what I thought would be issues. It seems that neither Teacher nor SSO really saw these behaviours, which means that
  • they really don't know my daughter at all,
  • Miss R is very, very, very good at masking her difficulties (which I already knew) or
  • She has made so much progress over the past few years that she is now able to cope in the classroom
I suspect that it's a combination of the above. Teacher L had nothing but positive things to say about Miss R and I'm sure she was completely baffled as to why I was so upset. (I could just about hear her thinking "Sheesh, all this over one bad evaluation!!) I don't think she's ready to concede that she let Miss R down by not giving her enough support & direction, but hopefully she will be more aware of the need to give specific instructions and guidance in the future. If nothing else, hopefully I have heightened her awareness. So I'm happy again......for now.

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I've been busy over the past week making window coverings. We have 7 high windows down the north side of our house that are designed to catch the heat in winter and let it escape in summer. Problem being that if we don't cover them at night, then all the heat escapes and naturally it's been one of those things we hadn't gotten around to. Mr DIY knew he wanted canvas frames, he just couldn't find anything off the shelf that was the right size(or price) so was going to make frames himself .....so waiting, waiting, waiting. And this winter has been COLD. Anyway, last week we were at the Art shop at Harbourtown and discovered that you can buy wooden frames that lock together...perfect! And cheaper than buying the frame with the canvas. I'd bought curtain material from Spotlight over 12 months ago but it wasn't quite wide enough, so I've added a strip of material and voila!!


To help with insulation, it has a layer of calico - that faces outside so fading won't be obvious - then a layer of Sisalation - the foil stuff builders use in the roof - and then the lined material. They sit on the wooden window frame.

So in winter, they'll go over the window around 5pm when it starts to cool and come down in the morning to catch the heat during the day. And in summer, they'll go up during the day to keep the heat out, then removed at night to let any heat escape. So one step closer to a house that won't need heating or cooling!

Now if only I can get the pelmet boards up so I can start making the curtains......


ETA: Theresa, unfortunately we couldn't find more canvasses the same size as the ones you offered us and Mr G has a thing for symmetry, so no hurry to get the others out from behind the wardrobe.  :-)
Why don't you see if the school can use them??

3 comments:

  1. I hope that things improve a hundred percent at school from now on. Sometimes it takes a parent with 'angry eyes' for a teacher (usually busy and a bit overwhelmed) to realise that some children really do need a bit more than a vague hand every now and then.

    LOVE the window frames! So stylish!

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  2. ... or I'll just leave them behind the wardrobe for another two years! The covered one looks great!

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  3. And they look amazing and the house is SO WARM it is lovele and good for teh envirnment adn evrything well done both of you

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