Liam takes a Big Test

Because Liam scored so well on his Terra Nova testing he was invited to test for a contained Gifted and Talented classroom for next year. I was hesitant to allow him to take the test as I am not sure that the contained classroom is where he needs to be. However we asked him about it and he excitedly replied he would like to take the test so I we allowed him. Tuesday was the big day. Jason got up and made him scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese so he had a good breakfast in him. He headed off to school excited about the idea of possibly getting in to the GT class. I was/am still nervous. I worried he would be overwhelmed by the test and worried he would be disappointed if he doesn't make it and also worried that he will make it. At the end of the day he came home not worried about the test but upset that the fire alarm went off in the middle of his math part of the test. That seemed to bother him the most however he did say he was very tired. In fact so tired that he didn't want to participate in his gymnastics class that afternoon and chose to sit and watch with me and DaDee.

Now we wait until May to see how he did on the test and if he was selected to participate in the GT classroom. While he is very excited about the possibilty of being the class I worry about it as I am sure there will be more writing required and while he has been improving he still struggles to start on writing assignments. I wonder if it wouldn't be better for him to do better in a regular classroom and then to struggle in the GT class.

Also on Tuesday night I attended a PTO meeting where they discussed ISTEP testing. While this doesn't effect Liam until next school year it was still informative to learn about. I did notice that there was lots of writing on the samples they showed to us and this did raise concern for me in regards to Liam. I spoke to the principal about my concerns after the meeting and I feel a little better. He also told me that they have had kids in the GT class that struggle with writing and have interventions in place to help them. I guess I hadn't thought of this possibilty so I have a little less worry while we wait to see how he did. Luckily I have plenty to take my mind off the results while we wait.