What to tell a teacher?

Hey,

Where do you draw the line between how much you tell a teacher? What details are appropriate to explain?

My teacher is more then happy to help me, but I'm not exactly sure what is okay to tell her or not. I also have no idea how to ask her to help me...

I can't exactly come into school and say "Hey I had a melt down last night and couldn't do my homework, sorry!"

Thanks so much!

Lillyleaf

You can go to your counseling center and ask their advice and they can even be a mediator between you and your teachers. I have told a professor not to call on me today because I was having severe anxiety and he was very kind. I've found that they're very nice and accommodating but you have to have the courage to reach out. Most schools also have a center for student disability and accommodations!

Diagnosed: Generalized Anxiety Disorder & Obsessive Compulsive Disoder. Previous: Borderline Personality Disorder.

I've been working passionately as a therapist since December 2016

yes, I can be difficult if people don understand depression cos they'll never be too sure whether youre being honest and of curse it will depend on what mood theyre in at the time. you'll just have to say "im so sorry but" before saying you cudnt finish your homework. I often thing how you say it is more important than what u say.

Another part of the problem is I can't think of any accommodations that could help me..

Are there any that help you guys? Idea's?

I am a teacher and try to be open to issues my students have, but without actual documentation of accommodations, how far I can go with just accepting a student's reasons is fairly limited. The fact is that I have objectives for my class, and in order to be able to evaluate your progress in my course, you do have to do the work within a reasonable time.

As far as how much detail to tell a teacher, you really don't have to provide a great deal of detail. In fact, less is probably better. Things happen. Most of us understand that and we don't need great detail. Privately speaking to the teacher and requesting one extra day is usually reasonable if it doesn't happen often. It is the student who repeatedly asks for that kind of extension that creates a problem. Without accommodations documented by the school, our response after making that exception once or twice will be that we are being taken advantage of. You may not like to hear that, and that may seem unreasonable of us. But teachers do get taken advantage of if they don't set boundaries around their assignments and due dates.

I would strongly recommend you go to your counseling office and discuss getting accommodations on file. Since it sounds like there are times when you may need an extra day for an assignment if a crisis occurs the night before an assignment is due, extended time (usually only one day) seems to be a reasonable accommodation. If concentration during class, particularly during testing situations is a problem due to depression, having extra time on tests (usually time and a half) is fairly common as an accommodation. The fact is, your current teacher may be willing to work with you, but future teachers may not be even mildly accommodating without some documentation that they must do so, and without those accommodations, technically, they don't have to be.

You probably know the teacher. What is your feeling about him/her? If you feel its a person you can trust tell them - but more into detail - mentioning mental illness definition you know can match your situation, etc. If the teacher is not that kind of a person, if you don`t feel like trusting them and they can not understand - then don`t. Try to come up with something else...

If your school has an ADA office, go there and explain your situation. Often they will suggest accomodations for you. However, be prepared to gather any medical documents to show the ADA office.

I have a plan with the counseling office in multiple ways. (I'm in high school)

With the dean, I have the legal right to have accommodations,
I have contracts and things with the district. I'm legally assigned to the school psychologist, I'm on district record.

However:

None of these contracts were ever followed or kept up with. I have talked to the school councilor but nothing really has come from it. I don't want to go back and deal with all the contracts again, and getting an IEP, or a 504 this late in my high school career would be embarrassing--I need to cope with that.

The teacher I have right now is advocating for me through the counseling office to get me the accommodations I need because they are horrible about doing it themselves. She edited a college essay that mentioned bipolar in it

What do I tell her, or how to ask for her help? In honesty I'm struggling in school and unable to function, but I don't know how to go about explaining or asking for help with that. I trust her, more then the school counselors and I HATE the school psychologist.

My question remains, What do I tell her?

I feel like I need to elaborate on what bipolar means, and so on. She already knows some things about medication and how foggy things get...

I guess maybe, I'm just hoping she'll understand... even if I do end up failing.

Love always,

Lillyleaf

IEP's and 504 accommodations are legally binding. Schools that don't enforce them are open to lawsuits. You need to continue with your accommodations because when you head to college those same accommodations can be followed through on the college level. You can receive accommodations on standardized tests such as ACT and SAT. No need to be embarrassed about these accommodations. They are what you need to help you have success in school. Insist that your current accommodations are followed. You have a legal right to them.