home

Curriculum Nights

We just had Tad’s curriculum night for his new class last night, but we had Ane’s last week.

So I’ll just combine everything into one post, starting with Ane the third grader.

Her teacher this year, Mrs. C, is young (this is her first year teaching – we have drawn the “new” teacher the last couple of years) and she graduated from the same college that Ressis and Oddball went to (Northwest University).  She seems very smart and capable.

The class is large-ish – I think there’s 24 kids in there – and about 8 more girls than boys.  In fact, there is a shortage of boys in the third grade right across the board.  Conversely, there’s a shortage of girls in the kindergarten age group.  These things happen.

Ane’s class is going to be working hard this year, and one of the things that I’m most pleased about is that they are going to be learning cursive handwriting this year.  I have always thought that good handwriting is an important and under-taught skill, so I’m very happy that they will be learning that.  They have already done some learning assessments, and naturally, Ane scored well in math, and off the charts in reading.  She loves school, and after 3 years in the school building, she feels very comfortable and happy there.

Now, on to Tad.

Tad’s teacher, Ms. W, is also young, and she took over teaching the mid-level CLC class last October, stepping in for the teacher who had to go on medical leave.  She was hired on as the permanent teacher last spring, so I saw her teaching when I first had Mrs. McN (Tad’s teacher last year) take me to observe the class.

The class now has 12 students in it, 9 boys and 3 girls, but evenly divided between the grades (1st, 2nd and 3rd).  Ms. W teaches the class with the assistance of her paraeducator, Ms. J, who has been at the school for years.

Ms. W gave us all an overview of what their daily schedule looks like, even giving us copies of our own child’s schedule so we would know what days they did what – for example, we learned that Tad has speech therapy on Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning.  She told us that Tad prefers to spend his free choice time reading books, and they are working on not having him “bolt” out of his chair and simply head back to the class library space when he’s bored.  He’s doing well in his first grade “buddy” class – the general ed class that he eats lunch with every day – and he’s had a very smooth start to the school year.

Ms. J shared a story about Tad – apparently, one of their worksheets yesterday asked the children to draw two animals whose names started with the letter L.  For one of them, Tad drew a shark.  When Ms. J said, “Tad, that’s a shark,”  he replied, “It’s a lemon shark!”

“Is there really such a thing as a lemon shark?” she asked me.

“Yes, there is,” I said, as the Webmaster laughed.  “He knows about 50 varieties of shark right off the top of his head.  That’s something that you can be certain he’s not making up.”

“Well, tomorrow is the letter H,” she said.

“Be prepared for a hammerhead shark, then,” I told her.

After curriculum night was over, we had a chance to meet the other parents and talk some more with Ms. W and Ms. J.  Ms. W said to me, “I just want you to know, I love having Tad in the class.  He just has a special place in my heart.  He’s a wonderful boy.”

YAY!  His teacher loves him!

Tad has been telling her (and me) that this is his “most favorite new school ever,” and clearly, his easy transition and general good nature in class has won her over.  He’s going to have Ms. W for the next two years after this one, God and the school district willing.  I am so pleased, relieved, and happy over how well this transition has gone for him, and how easily he is settling in to his new routine.

This is promising to be a successful school year for both of them!

3 Responses to “Curriculum Nights”

  1. Nana
    September 26th, 2012 05:20
    1

    Talk about answers to prayers….

  2. Aunt Lynda
    September 26th, 2012 06:48
    2

    So happy! Sometimes things don’t work out, and there’s not much you can do except monitor the situation. Things are well under control and ready for the new addition!

  3. Aunt Mary
    October 1st, 2012 12:07
    3

    I loved the story about the lemon shark! Looks like his new teacher will be learning things from this student! 🙂 That is so sweet what the teacher said about him. Teachers don’t say things like that often!