Ahhh. I got the best call this morning. NO SCHOOL! SNOW DAY! That's the only reason I have time to sit and write this. When Zach went out to scrape off his truck this morning he had to come back in and get a broom because the snow is so deep! At least 8-10 inches fell last night! Well, I plan on being productive today - cleaning, grocery shopping, christmas shopping, paper writing... we'll see how much gets done.
Most of my (Sarah's) posts have been about school. Not surprising since that is where I spend nearly all my time. My students say hilarious things on a daily basis. Two of which happened on Wednesday. The first comment happened while I was on recess duty. A girl in kindergarten likes to follow me around and hug me and talk to me because her older bother is in my class. At one point, she stopped talking and looked up at me and said, "You look like Goldilocks." It made me smile. The second comment of the day which was funnier by far came from a little boy in math class. I wore a long sweater with a belt over the top in an attempt to look trendy. The students were lining up to switch back to their own classroom and I standing at the front of the line. A little girl in the front of the line took my hand and said, "I like your anillo (ring)." The boy behind her looked at me and said, "I like your seatbelt." Seatbelt? Well, I guess I can see that. :)
Yesterday, my coordinating teacher (CT) and I had 3 initial child study meetings. Child Study meetings are used for creating intervention strategies for specific students who are struggling academically or behaviorally or both. The student's teacher, parents, principal, special education teacher, school psychologist, and the school/community relations chair. I went to 2 out of the 3 because I had to teach during one of the meetings. For the first meeting, the mom is a native English speaker and her son looks just like her. They have the same eyes, freckles, and way of speaking. Her son is REALLY struggling academically, has speech problems, among some possible mental things going on. The kid is so sweet and tries hard but his home life isn't helping. Aside from the time she laughed a few times, mom just sat there and stared at the floor. Her son missed over a month of school in kindergarten. That's too much to miss in the early years of school because they learn so much about letters and letter sounds, exactly what he struggles with. When asked why he missed so much school, mom said she overslept then just didn't bring him in to school. A teacher from his preschool also recommended that he be placed in a program for preschool impaired children to give him extra help to catch him up and give him extra attention. She didn't enroll him there. They don't really do anything at home to help him, no reading together or practicing numbers. The little books we send home each month for kids to read with their parents stay in his folder and never get read. Mom said she doesn't work so it's not a time issue. I think she's just lazy and her son is suffering from it. This kid needs support at home and school and he's not getting it at home. Maybe mom stared at the floor because she realized the impact her choices had on her son... I don't really know.
Well, of the two meetings that I sat in, there could not be different parents - well, different moms I should say because the dads didn't come. The mother of this child spoke Spanish very well. *Sidenote: I love that I can understand what the mom was saying without the need of the translator. Of course we have a translator in each meeting because not all the staff at my school speaks Spanish, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can speak another language. It makes me feel more useful. My heart is dying to go to live in a Spanish speaking country so I can become verbally fluent... my comprehension is good, my speaking is bad.* Her and her husband are so involved in their son's academic life even though they speak no English. He brings home. He brings home his little books and reads to them even though they can't understand. At parent teacher conferences, they asked us to grade his homework and send it home again so he could fix his mistakes and keep improving. The topic that kept coming up at conferences and during this meeting was that this little boy is so so very timid. He rarely raises his hand and keeps all speaking to a minimum. Over Thanksgiving break, mom said they had a conversation with their son about his timidity. She asked why he doesn't raise his hand. He said he was afraid that the teacher was going to punish him and scold him if he got the wrong answer! Mom and dad then told him no! that's not the case! Teachers are there to help you learn and they will not punish you if you get the answer wrong. They told him to try raising his hand more. And what do you know? This week he raised his hand more than I had ever seen!!! I tried to call on him whenever he did because he usually never does! His mom and dad are trying their best to have him practice his numbers and letters and words at home. His mom told us that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. I wouldn't be surprised. He is so caring and hardworking. We encouraged mom to keep this goal in mind - the world needs more bilingual doctors!
