Back to School Night

I just got back from Back to School Night - and it went REALLY well. Out of our class of 21 fourth graders, 15 of them had parents there. Wow!

I should preface this post with telling you that Wednesday was MUCH better than Tuesday. Mrs. C and I were much more on the same page, and I got to mark papers! They had a writing assignment for homework where they had to write six lines of dialogue using exciting speech verbs, proper quotation marks, etc. Some of them did a great job, and I'm not sure that some of them even read the assignment. I got to collect the papers, mark them (with LOTS of positive feedback in addition to my corrections, and in PURPLE instead of red) and gave them back. Then I got to go over them with everyone! Mrs. C let me lead the class in the Daily Edit (correcting two lines of dialogue written on the board) and I got to teach a mini lesson about the strengths and weaknesses I saw in their writing homework. I felt like they were really engaged and listening! I passed back their papers so they could see my comments and I asked them to come see me if they had any questions. Yay!

Everyone was better behaved, and Mrs. C was in a better mood, and Wednesday was an all around better day. Additionally, they did a Unit 1 math review (which I also graded) and even our kids who had big problems w the test did MUCH better... so that made me feel great. It is a wonderful feeling to see kids prove that they understand the material you've taught! I love giving good grades, I feel so proud of them (and particularly proud of our discouraged learners) when they really do well.

Anyways, Back to School night was great. There were so many parents there, and I got a chance to talk to almost everyone. De's dad was really sweet and assured us that he's been working on his handwriting and helping him to take the time to s-l-o-w down and do his work "carefully and completely." I think that De could improve a lot this year, he's really been working hard. Et's mom was there, and I have never seen a woman look so SAD. I don't know what is going on, but I think that maybe I understand a little better why Et has so many emotional problems after meeting her tonight.

I had a great talk with Cam's mom and dad - great people. Apparently they can't ever get him to stop reading. He reads ALL THE TIME, in the morning, at every meal, way past his bedtime, etc. No wonder Cam has such an amazing vocabulary! We're going to have him tested for the Mentally Gifted (MG) program at M School. Kal's mom and dad were there too (the ones who wrote the note about the "Proud to be an American" assignment) and I had a good talk with them - Kal is an amazing artist, and it was great for them to be able to see his work. They were so proud. They said they're working with him on talking less and focusing more. I hope that they do! He's a smart kid and he does great work on the rare occasion that he's on task.

Ra's mom wasn't there.