by Lisa B on July 15, 2009
Wow. I think this day may have been harder on me emotionally than Kindergarten. The other years in between were ok, but this one was a little rough on me. It’s hard for me to believe Doodle is in 5th grade now. This break was unusually short for me — most of the time I can’t wait for the breaks to end, but this time I wanted her to have a little more of a break. Now, she’ll get a little over 3 weeks towards the end of September and we’ll go do something fun, but this break just seemed short.
We met her teachers on Monday. I’m excited for her Language Arts and Math teacher. I really like her and I hope that Doodle does well in there because she’s struggling with Math right now. She’s got some of her friends in that class — including her “boyfriend” JP.
I was pleasantly surprised at the small class size. I guess I had built up the horrors of 5th grade in my mind a little too much. Where I thought her class was going up to 31 kids, it’s at 22 — 2 smaller than last year — at least for now. She’s still going to tutoring and we’re getting an update today on how she’s doing with that.
I don’t even want to think about next year — middle school — yuck.
by Lisa B on June 3, 2009
{Ironically most of my friends seem to be beach lovers. Please don’t take offense to what I’m about to share – I hate the beach, not you.}
I hate the beach. Ever since Oceanology class in 10th grade, I’ve despised going in the ocean. My daughter has gotten her love for the beach and the ocean from her Grandma (my mother-in-law). My mil has a trailer down at the beach that she constantly visits and takes Doodle with her. I love that they go and I love that they go without me.
Friday, the 4th grade went on a beach trip. We had to get up and be at the school at 4:30 am. Ya’ll, I don’t usually get up until 8:00 am most days, so this was a stretch. I had planned on keeping Doodle down at my mil’s trailer for the night so we wouldn’t have to go down and back in a day. I tried to pack the night before and then get stuff together that morning.
We got a checklist from the teacher. Evidently I thought I could remember everything. I did not. I forgot some key things despite Duck picking on me for loading down the bag with “stuff.” The kids rode a boat over to an island and did a lot of walking on the sand trails. We even saw some wild horses. It was neat, but tiring. At the end, they get to go into the water (the sound side – not the ocean) and take nets to see what they could catch.
I knew she needed old tennis shoes to wear in the water. I brought those. What I neglected to pack was her new tennis shoes. I had flip flops for her since we were only going for a day to the beach. I thought that was good enough. However, when we decided to grab dinner and go to a movie, her feet got cold wearing her pants and flops. I was also supposed to pack a change of clothes for her, which I had — but I couldn’t find the second pair of shorts. She got her shorts soaked by the way. So she got to lay around in wet shorts for quite awhile.
Once we finished with the field trip, we “felt” our way out of the city and headed for the trailer. Along the way I was thinking what else I’d need to get from the store. I remembered I forgot sunscreen as well. Oh, and I didn’t bring any water for the trip over the island — though I finally got some from the boat’s snack bar.
As I was unpacking our stuff at the trailer, I also realized I forgot to grab her pajamas and I had brought a white tshirt for me to wear without the proper a undergarment (I leave it at that). We went out to the ocean for a little bit after I had a nap. Have I mentioned I hate going in the ocean? Well, Doodle loves going to go boogie boarding. So I braved the ickies and went out to about my knees — or so I thought. The waves started hitting me in the back. Oh and also the water was cccoold — at least to start with.
I was fighting to keep my balance when something black kicked up a bunch of sand and bounced between my legs. My trainer would be proud the way I high-kneed myself out of the water. All in all I think she had fun. Not that we’ll ever do this again. Any beach trips come up again for Doodle and I’m shipping her Grandma with her. I’m headed for the mountains!
by Lisa B on August 21, 2008
Duck and I met with both of Doodle’s teachers yesterday. Just to keep it simple, I’ll tell you that Ms. Teacher has her for Science/Social Studies and Mr. Teacher has her for Language Arts/Math. We stayed and talked for about an hour. When we left we kind of just looked at each other and asked “what did you get out of that?” Unfortunately the things we both got out of the meeting were not all that great. Well, some of it was great — some not so great.
Ms. Teacher, we’ve both decided, is a twit. Duck asked her where she primarily teaches from because we were concerned with the orientation of Doodle’s desk. Her response? “I’m all over the room.” Well, no wonder my child can’t pay attention to you if you’re all over the place. I’m sure she didn’t mean constantly walking around all over. Perhaps she teaches a little from one area then moves to another. Anyway, we requested that she be moved so she’s at least looking into the room and not out the window (if she’s sitting properly at her desk).
I inquired as to why they sit the kids in those groupings. They both said it was to share materials. Evidently they have limited magnets and such, so they sit the kids in groups so everyone can share the materials. Oh, and it’s easier for them to be in groups all the time than to have them move into groups every time they are learning about the materials they need to share. Ms. Teacher didn’t seem to think that the seating arrangement had anything to do with the lack of focus. She insisted that she’s made it clear to all the kids that they can in fact get up and move to one of the tables if they need to see better or if someone is distracting them. But seriously, how many 4th graders are going to draw attention to themselves and move themselves to a table? Not my 4th grader.
Mr. Teacher expressed similar opinions to us. He’s noticed some changes in behavior (not just Doodle) and lack of focus with the kids seated in groups. He said after his class finishes with these materials they need to share, he’s probably going to move them back into a U-shaped layout so they can all be focused on him.
Ms. Teacher was trying to hurry us through this meeting and understandably so — there was another mother waiting outside the door. We had requested that a Student Education Plan be developed for Doodle at the beginning of the year. Last year was so bad, that we wanted to try and do everything would could to make sure she’s learning what she needs to be throughout the year. Ms. Teacher rambled through some lame checkpoints on this SEP (we didn’t really know what it was going to be). Afterwards Duck and I discussed how all of those checkpoints were really just things that a teacher needs to be doing anyway — so it’s pretty much a waste of paper, time, and money.
Mr. Teacher on the other hand, wanted to tell us all about how Doodle was doing in his class. He stated several times that he was very surprised at how well she was doing — getting mostly As and high Bs. He was, I think, confused that we had wanted this meeting. He seemed to be more laid back than Ms. Teacher which is a good thing. He said he’d noticed some distraction from Callie but not that much.
Doodle got in trouble the other day during a Science project. She was evidently chasing this boy around the room. This does not surprise me as she doesn’t take any junk from boys 
What does surprise me is what I found out about Ms. Teacher. She explained to us that a student had to alert her to the fact that Doodle was chasing this boy around the room. What? Why does a student have to tell you that? Should you not be aware of what’s going on in your room? And the discipline — or so she thinks — for Doodle and the boy were to give them a zero on the project (she told us it was a pass/fail kind of thing — if you tried it, you passed). Oh, then they had to sit at different tables and do textbook work. Why, I don’t know. But I do know that Doodle has no concept of grades yet. We’re working with her on that. But that zero did absolutely nothing to her. The thing that did was probably having to write a note to Duck and me.
Mr. Teacher on the other hand wanted to show us a story Doodle had written in class that day. He said that he noticed her and a few other students had really messy writing. He gave them a mechanical pencil to try and that’s what he was showing us. Her writing was awesome with the mechanical pencil vs what she had been trying to write with a normal pencil. A world of difference. Yes, we went to Staples last night and bought a bunch of mechanical pencils
So basically, Mr. Teacher is extremely happy with her progress and the work she’s doing. Ms. Teacher would like to see some focus — which none of us know how to “fix” or help really other than staying on her to focus — which we can’t do because we aren’t with her all day long. Evidently I got a little too worked up over all the negativity on Doodle’s progress report from Ms. Teacher. Everything seems to be hunky-dory.
Oh, and she’s #10 on a waitlist to get into a local charter school. She’s moved up 21 spots!
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