Meet The Teacher

Tonight was Meet the Teacher night at the school. I dropped the kids off at Tae Kwon Do and headed over. Daniel's teacher is a riot. She wears a microphone and has speakers set up around the room so that she can diminish the "I didn't hear you" complaint. Early on, she had mentioned that a student, earlier in the day, had talked about his imaginary friend. I spoke up and said, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that must have been Daniel." She started laughing and said that she was glad that I was aware of the friend. She had given us each an apple because we are their teachers too and she had us write a letter to our kids. I thought that was nice. She is so full of energy and clearly loves what she does. She's all about making learning fun and making each child "shine." (The parent booklet that she gave us was called a "travel guide." LOL!) I like that a lot. No wonder Daniel loves her. He's also been a great kid for her. They have a green...yellow...red behavior chart and Daniel's never been off of green. Today, he brought home a certificate for good behavior. This is the Daniel from preschool and kindergarten in Virginia. I really think that it was the move and the new school that made him act out the way he did last year.

Jacob's teacher is nice, but she's much more hard core than Daniel's teacher. She will not give more than 30 minutes of homework a night, but they are also expected to read for 20 minutes each night (30 is preferable...not really a problem for Jacob) and practice their math facts for an additional 30 minutes each night, even though it may not be listed as homework...it's just expected. Ummm...I think that's actually 1:20-1:30 minutes a night for a third grader. I'm not complaining about the reading because I think that's important but I'm going to come right out and say that I doubt we're going to be doing 30 minutes of first grade addition and subtraction each night. I think he's pretty much got that down. She did laugh at the homework that's due on Monday...find an artifact that an economist (geographer, political scientist, historian) would study. She said that it was 30 minutes just describing what a political scientist was. I do get why she has to be a little more academic...testing begins in earnest in third grade. Don't even get me started on standardized testing. There is one test that I agree with...the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) test. They take this one in the fall and again in the spring. It's a what do you know/what growth have you had test. I don't mind those because there doesn't seem to be as much pressure for these. It's mostly a test to see where everyone stands. However, they also have the big state assessments that are in the spring. I hate those because you get teachers who are only teaching for the test (Jacob's included...and she admitted to it). Thankfully, Jacob tests well. No testing for Daniel until next year.

Oh...and I signed up for more stuff. LOL! I volunteered to help Daniel's teacher with various clerical/organizational stuff in the afternoons when Hannah's at school and for a couple of other things in Daniel's class. I might go in and help with workshops (centers) in the mornings, if I can get Paige (the one next door...not our regular sitter...lol! I didn't put that together until just now) to babysit Hannah for an hour for me. I also volunteered to be on the continent study committee for Jacob's class. Volunteering...it's a habit I really need to stop. LOL!