Tap, tap, tap… testing? Is this thing on? You guys still out there? Oy, life. Sometimes I think mine is a little too full for my own good. As Martha says, though, it’s a good thing.
We had parent-teacher interviews last week. The boys’ progress reports were stellar and I wasn’t particularly worried about anything, but I always like to touch base face-to-face. This time last year, I was visiting one boy’s classroom to discuss with his teacher the ‘not satisfactory’ and ‘satisfactory’ he was getting in some of the behaviour areas — apparently he was of the opinion that if he didn’t feel like doing what was asked of him, he could disengage from the activity completely. He would also put in just barely the amount of work required to complete a task, instead of doing it to the best of his ability. He’d been having a rough time since changing schools the year before, but knowing how easily the academic part of school was coming to him (his grades have always been strong), I was rather alarmed (to say the least) to see these behavioural issues crop up and escalate through the year.
This time last year, his teacher and I worked together to explain to Boy in Question that his job is school, and he pretty much has to suck it up and do his job. (I love a teacher who takes no crap, I really do. She is awesome!) Through the year we noted steady improvement, but I was still elated to see on this year’s progress report nothing but ‘excellent’ in all categories. There’s a boy who has found his groove!
Anyway, happy as I was with ‘excellent’ across the board (and his brother not far off that mark), I still thought it prudent to touch base with the teachers. The boys’ teachers seem to genuinely like them and offered positive and constructive feedback that generally amounted to “great kids, no worries.” Phew!
My favourite comment was this. Obviously struggling for something more meaningful and perhaps more critical, the teacher paused for a moment before shrugging and saying, “Sometimes he eats his snack a little too early.”
I blog this not to brag, but to file away for future reference. The road is not always this smooth, and I am grateful with my whole heart for days like these, for boys like these, for this life of ours. Sometimes it’s good to celebrate when we get it right.
And we’ll work on his early snacking issues, too. Because a person needs goals, right?
