Friday News

Well, the day was not so bad, even after the principal happened by and found the class largely not on task at 9:30 because we hadn't started our lessons for the day. The band teacher had forgotten his stands at his other school and had to go get them, so we were waiting for the first group to leave for band before launching into poetry and alliteration (as if I even know what that is). Anyway, perhaps she was checking up on me, because she came back about 20 minutes later, to tell me I had to give up my prep to meet with the other fifth grade teachers to sort through the science kits in the All Purpose Room. Well, luckily I had the class entranced with my fascinating readings of the poem, "Souvenir"; they were so quiet at that time that you could have heard a pin drop. Come to think of it, maybe they were asleep.

So it really was an OK day, this teacher leaves reasonable lesson plans, but her entire room is a mess! She has stacks of papers on her desk to the point where you are afraid that if you move one, the whole desk might collapse. To some degree, she leaves duplicates on a table at the front of the room, but you must brave the Big Desk first, in order to get your bearings for the day. When she had Megan for fifth grade, I sent in Megan's baby picture for the yearbook, and she gave it back to me at the end of the year, after finding it on her desk. Luckily, I ran the yearbook and substituted another one.

But those days always go quickly. We were scrambling to get things done. One kid would say, we always do it like this; to which half the rest would all respond, "no we DON'T!!" with indignation. I had to put out a lot of those first throughout the day, but it was fine. I'd go back. Not like that first grade class last Friday. Give me this group any day. Even Nick D., who couldn't stop talking. Then I had to remind myself that this might be how Brian behaves in class. With that in mind, I took away five minutes of his recess. While he was on the bench, one of the other teachers told me he sits there often.

Speaking of Brian...today his report card came and it was not good. Of course, there were some positives, so I can start with those: as he has redeemed himself in chorus and been granted amnesty from the Seat at the Head of the Class, he has been given an A in chorus again, as well as in math. When I told his math teacher that since the brain surgery, blah blah blah, she wrote back saying, "I didn't know he had brain surgery! The poor baby! Does he need a computer? I'll send him a book for home, and some ????"(no idea what this was, but she sent it, it had to do with 3D shapes for geometry); and she did. So he got an A.

Which was interesting, because the other day I had a conversation with his fourth grade teacher, which I started by telling her that was the best academic year he ever had, despite having brain surgery, pneumonia, and missing 32 days of school. She insists that this is not because she was strict (she doesn't think she was, but she is mistaken) but rather because she let the students know what was expected of them, and she took an interest in them. Perhaps she is onto something after all. Too bad she''ll be retiring, along with the teacher I subbed for today.

Otherwise, I believe his social studies grade also improved from a C+ to B+ or some such ... which is a start. We haven't heard how he did on the last test, though, the one he didn't study for until we got the chapters copied at 8:00 Sunday night.

Onto the rest: science declined by a + ... meaning it's a B without one now. But that's sort of OK. I think the grade was mainly based on project work done in-class, and for some reason, Brian hasn't mastered independent work yet. But the biggest dismay comes from the languages - both Spanish and our very own, English. In LA, he dropped a full letter grade, from a B+ to a C+, which may be due in large part to the Rip Van Winkle test I uncovered yesterday, with "67D" written on the top. One example of his response to the vocabulary part:

word: pestilence Brian's definition: something from your past

and so it goes. Here's one from the written responses:

Question: Why did RVW prefer younger people? Brian's response: Because they were nice to him, and he liked them.

And this, folks, is my life. Oh, wait, Spanish. Now he has gone from C+ to C. He claims it's a test he took after the trip to Florida. But funny thing about that, he had the Spanish book with him in Florida. He even ... "studied"...

One thing about Spanish 1 in 7th grade. It is a high school level course (reminder: despite these C's, he got an A on the midterm) in which one must maintain an average of C+. So he is in danger of having to repeat it. Which, according to Megan, may be OK. She says Spanish 2 is "much harder." She is now in 3. It isn't a big deal, I guess, because I would never put him into 3 anyway. I'd have him either repeat 2 or change languages. Megan's teacher speaks to them IN Spanish. He would never survive that. I'm sometimes not sure that he understand English.

Megan's report card should come tomorrow. Stay tuned.

In other news, Megan's knee is hurt. She went to the beach practice the other night, and hated it. He made them run six miles. Six. She has not run since October. Now she can barely walk. She had to run the mile in gym today, too. So she did it in 7:12. I believe she normally runs a 6-something (ha!). But she won't complain, she is too stoic. She'd rather run on it and ruin it for life. If it isn't better by next week I'll have it checked, but I'm furious. She's a good runner and if her knee gets wrecked because he made them overdo it their first time out ... expletive ...I know how it is to lose your knees before anything else. I think I'll buy her an embarassing knee brace tomorrow...hahah -- when I bought mine, I traded woes with a senior citizen and her husband. Her xray had just shown arthritis, and she needed to wear this brace over her knee-highs.

Tomorrow: landscaping!!!