Early in the school year, make it a point to set a meeting to observe in your child's classroom and to talk with his teacher privately after school. Here are some questions to ask yourself at the end of the day:• Does the teacher get involved with the kids, roving around the room, helping individuals? Or, does he stand in front of the classroom, lecturing at everybody much of the time?• Does he use a variety of teaching methods - lecturing, asking questions, demonstrating, telling stories, using humor, engaging children in active learning? Or, does he mostly talk at kids, correct papers, and deal with discipline?• During your private meeting with the teacher, did you find him focusing more on your child's accomplishments and abilities, or dwelling instead on his problems and deficits?• These questions will help you decide whether this teacher is compatible with your child's learning needs. If he's boring, rigid, negative, or punitive in his teaching style, then you may want to shop around for another teacher for your child.

Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is an award-winning author and speaker with twenty-eight years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level, and over one million copies of his books in print on issues related to learning and human development. He is the author of nine books including Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, In Their Own Way, Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius, 7 Kinds of Smart, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom, and Awakening Genius in the Classroom. His books have been translated into sixteen languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Danish, and Russian.