On the walk back from the bus stop today, Munchkin was telling me that she forgot to switch her Home Reading book for a new one so she would have to read it again.  We talked about that practice helps to learn things.

When we arrived home, we waited at the front door while BigDaddy and Peanut got ready. We were heading out to Home Depot to get down spout extenders to keep the water away from the house. Munchkin told me that there was a note in her agenda and it was long.  Being a bit worried, I wanted to read it right away.  Opened the back pack and found nothing.

No agenda. No Home Reading.

Lately, getting answers out of her when she thinks she’s in trouble is difficult as she tries to give us the answer she thinks we want.  After many probing questions, we learned that what was supposed to be in her backpack was her wish list of the books that she would like to buy at the book fair.

BigDaddy and I were immediately on the same page with this one! She wasn’t going to get any books without our permission. Therefore, without a wish list there wouldn’t be any new books.

She didn’t seem to phased about this. Usually she’d get pretty upset, but she seemed accepted the consequences.  I don’t know if she’s starting to understand that she needs to be more responsible, or that she really doesn’t care about the book fair.

I do wonder what she’s going to tell her friends tomorrow when she arrives at school without any money.  We got the truth, but will they?

But she’s getting a Progress Report Card? Followed by a student-led conference with the parents and teacher?

What in the world are they talking about?

I feel like I’m learning a new language.   I understand what A, B, C, and F mean. Now they tell me that the first report back from the school will be a “progress report” using the phrases “progressing with difficulty, progressing well, or progressing very well”.

In our school newsletter, the prinicipal must of had me in mind when presenting this info. They included a translation:

“Progressing with difficulty” indicates that your child is not progressing towards a Level 3 or higher (ie. B, A, or 70%, 80%) for the January Report Card.”

This might not be too bad to interpret after all.

The Ministry of Education posted some information on their site and we received this brochure from school today:

Click to see 4-page brochure

After reading the information, I think that it’s good that the ministry has realized that September to November is a very short period of time to come up with traditional grades.  By January, the teachers will have had an adequate period of time to do some testing and have that be reflected in a number or letter grade.

It does sound like an awful amount of work for the teachers.  Only a few years ago the schools started using the computer-aided report cards that they have now where comments are selected from a list of pre-programmed options.  These new reports will have more comments about the student and less “edu-speak.”

We will receive this new report on Monday and on Friday will be visiting with the teacher for the “student-led conference”.   I try to have a student-led conference everyday after school with very little success.

Me: How was school?
Her: Fine.
Me: What did you do today?
Her: I dunno.
Me: Did you stare at the wall for 8 hours?  (ya, I’m teaching her sarcasm)

The purpose of the progress report card conference is to:

examine student work that relates to the child’s learning goals and demonstrates his/her application of the learning skills. You are invited to the conference to provide an opportunity for you, your child and the teacher to discuss his/her learning to date. Through collaborative discussions your child will set learning goals and next steps and develop an action plan. A copy of the goals and action plan will be sent home after the conference.

This “edu-speak” is really heavy…. and I really can’t imagine a “collaborative discussion with [my 5 year old] child.”

But after Friday, I’ll be grading this whole process “old school”… and giving it a letter grade.

Last Friday, Munchkin came home from school and proudly showed me a perfect Words of the Week test.  We celebrated her accomplishment because she did practice and she did her best which is all we ever ask of her.

Yesterday we got an updated schedule of how the BBQ is going to work.  The BBQ part is still at 5pm and then the open house part starts at 7pm.  But the format of the in-classroom part is different from last year: the teacher will give a presentation about the daily actives in the class.  This will happen twice, once at 7:05 and again at 7:30.  I guess they want to limit the amount of one-on-one conversations with the teacher. Part of me understands, and the other part of me has to come up with a different plan.  If the teacher doesn’t discuss these words, then hopefully there will be a time when parents can ask questions. One way or another I will find out where this word-thing is going.

My aggressiveness has softened a little after talking with Munchkin over dinner  I hadn’t looked at the list yet so I asked Munchkin about her new word list and if it was any harder (she did say last week that she hoped they’d be harder so I’m not pushing her).  She said “yes, a little bit” but the grade 2s were much harder.”  I asked if she wanted those words in her list instead and she said that she’d like to stick with the easier words. 

This week’s Words of the Week make me think that there is some sort of theme.  I don’t have the list with me right now, but the ones I could remember are go and going.

A few comments on last week’s post got me thinking.  Maybe having the Words of the Week be easier for her might be a bonus.  This would allow her to focus her attention more on other things.  Maybe it’s nice to have something not be a challenge is a good thing; a bit of a break for her little brain.

Guess we’ll see what the teacher has to say tonight.  I can always schedule a meeting if we need to.

As my faithful readers know, I had been fretting about Munchkin going into a grade 1-2 split class. I had hoped that this would allow for her to be challenged a bit.

I think that I now need to figure out how to express this to the teacher. I would like her to be challenged, but at the same time, I want there to be the option to take a step back if we’ve pushed too hard.

Last night’s events will help you understand where I’m coming from.

After picking up the girls from my in-laws, I read the note from the teacher advising us about the “Words of the Week” that Munchkin should practice at home for her spelling test on Friday. I was very excited as I knew that these would be good exercises for Munchkin.

I was working on dinner and excitedly ask Munchkin to grab her agenda and we’d check out the word list.

Ready, folks….

I
see
me
by
my
me
we
and
the

Yep. Seriously.

But after reading them, I tried not to show my disappointment because I had started this exercise with much enthusiasm and I didn’t want to let Munchkin down. So I read out each work and she spelled them without hesitation.

I gave her a big high five and told her what a great job she did. She was smiling because she was proud.

Then there was a slight pause, and she said “I hope next week’s words are harder.”

She said exactly what I was thinking. So now I have to figure out if we approach the teacher about this or if we wait to see what next week brings.

To cheer her up a bit, the rest of our making-dinner time was spent spelling other words.

My word list included:

chicken
rainbow
witch
itch
knife
sister

She tried spelling sister with an “ir” at the end but we sounded it out again and she got it right. So then Munchkin wanted to know how to spell “stir”.

She definitely needs to be challenged.

Any suggestions on what to say to the teacher without sounding like a pushy-know-it-all parent?