Report Cards and School Stuff

Moving to a new school has been an adjustment for all of us.  I had a lot of concerns at the beginning of the year.  I wasn't sure about the teachers or class sizes or curriculum.  I started volunteering in September.  I'm at school two days a week and work in each childs' classroom for a couple of hours.  It's given me a chance to get to know the administration, the teachers, the students and I must admit, I'm really happy with our school.  It's tiny.  There are only 14 classrooms total. 

Jaelyn's teacher has given me a book club reading group.  We'll finish our first book next week and then the kids and I will pick our next book.  It's exciting for me.  I'm finally using my education, but on my terms.  I never want to teach in a classroom setting again, but I love the one on one and small group time.  It reminds me of my tutoring days when I was in college. 

Allie's teacher has me come in during center time.  I do something different with the kids every time I'm there.  I also get to work with all the kids in her class.  Allie has struggled the most with making friends.  I feel like I have more insight into helping her navigate the social issues of school. 

To begin with, Caden didn't want me working in his class because he gets too sad when I have to leave.  I talked to his teacher and we decided I'd come in the afternoon and help till he goes to free play at the end of the day.  He's having no trouble when I leave which makes me happy.  The tears have always been so hard for me to handle.  Caden's teacher usually has me helping one on one with her kids.  I understand why Caden used to come home unhappy, telling me how mean his teacher is, but his class is so bad, if I were his teacher, I'd be yelling everyday too.  That said, his class is really cool.  His teacher has gestures and sayings for everything she teachers them.  I really like some of the things she does.  Her students may not follow the rules, but they sure can tell them to you :).  About six of the kids (Caden included) have gold bars on their desks.  They are the "good kids."  Thankfully, when the bad ones are in the trouble, she rewards the good ones for their behavior.  The goal is for everyone to have earned a gold bar by the end of the year, but I truthfully don't see that happening with a few of the kids.

I really like the curriculum at our school.  I hated the math curriculum at Emmorton.  English was non-existent.  They took a more whole language approach.  My kids could write sentences, but they didn't know the difference between a noun or a verb.  It's so nice to finally see them learning those things.

Report cards and parent conferences were Thursday night.  They have the students lead the conferences here.  I liked that the kids explained what they've learned and showed us how well they had learned it.  The teachers were there to answer questions, but they did a good job of standing back and letting the kids be responsible. I'm thrilled with the report cards.  Jaelyn made As and 1 B in Language Arts (did a mention all this "English" stuff is new to her).  Allie had As and Bs in reading and Math.  Caden had Ms for mastered with a S for satisfactory in Spelling.  This is the first year Caden has had spelling tests.  He also started out the year hardly able to write.  His writing has improved drastically.  Not only is he writing more and writing quickly, he's making his letters correctly so you can read what he's written.  Anyway, I said all that to explain his B (when he could verbally spell the words).  I expect to see all Ms from him next quarter.

Yesterday was a vacation day so I took the kids to Springfield to Chick-Fil-A to celebrate their good reports.  I'm not sure I believe in paying kids for good grades, but they've worked so hard.  I wanted to reward them and more importantly, have them motivated for the hundred and sixty mile drive, so I paid them $1 for every A or M on their report card.  We had a really fun day shopping and eating (can you say CFA, Krispy Creme and Chipotle???) with a minimal amount of whining about the car ride.