Our smart little cookie

Thursday night we had Hannah's parent/teacher conference at school. I never know what to expect with these things because you go in thinking you'll hear one thing and you hear the complete opposite. It's not that Hannah has ever had a bad parent/teacher conference, just that Lincoln and I walk out of there sometimes asking ourselves "Was she talking about our kid?"

This year we got a lot of great feedback from the teacher. I was really glad when Hannah was assigned her teacher for this year because Mrs. W is the teacher that helped us out when Hannah was in kindergarten and her actual teacher did absolutely nothing for her. Kindergarten was a bad year in the fact that Hannah had a horrible teacher. She did nothing to challenge Hannah or keep her interested in school when the rest of the class was doing stuff Hannah could have done in her sleep. After months and months of trying we finally managed to get Hannah tested to prove to the teacher that Hannah needed more challenging work. At the kindergarten parent/teacher conference the teacher told us Hannah was "average" but when we finally managed to get her tested months later she was reading at a high 2nd grade / early 3rd grade level. Considering some of the kids could barely spell their names in kindergarten she was decidedly NOT average. Mrs. W was the teacher that administered the reading test to Hannah and when we met with the principal, the school psychologist, and Hannah's kindergarten teacher Mrs. W was the only person in the room - other than us - that was fighting for Hannah and pointing out how smart she is and how much potential she has. I have tremendous respect for Mrs. W and am so glad that Hannah is in her class this year.

Back to this year's parent/teacher conference.

Thursday night we met with Mrs. W and she said that she was surprised at how hard it was to pull work out of Hannah at the beginning of the year. She knew what Hannah was capable of but wasn't seeing it during the first few weeks but that between the beginning of the year and now Hannah has really matured with her level of writing and is banging out work that is very impressive. This is also the first year the kids have to take the MCAS which are the standardized tests that every kid has to take. I had the Iowa Basic Skills test as a kid, Hannah has the MCAS. Anyway, the big test is in May but the teachers are already prepping the students for what to expect. Mrs. W proudly showed us one of Hannah's practice tests where Hannah was the only student in the class to get the right answer now and not months from now. In other words, she could probably take the MCAS now and do just fine.

We also talked with Mrs. W about Hannah's tendency to be fairly scatterbrained and to make silly mistakes in her work because she doesn't go back and check things. School comes so easily to Hannah and 9 times out of 10 her work is probably right the first time so she just assumes it's right and doesn't double check herself. It's stupid mistakes like that that drive me crazy. The other thing we discussed with the teacher is the fact that we think there should be consequences if students don't do their homework. The other day I discovered that Hannah hadn't finished some of her homework and since she was running out the door to catch the bus it was too late to do anything about it and she'd have to live with the consequences of her actions. Of course after thinking about it I realized that these days there really are no consequences for things like that at school. Some parents get so up in arms about you disciplining their child - even something as basic as keeping them in at recess - that they threaten to call the school board and have the teacher fired. It's ridiculous. Those are the kids whose parents will be following them to college and demanding the professor give their little pumpkin a good grade. It makes me sick.

But I digress....

We told the teacher that Hannah absolutely should have consequences to deal with if she forgets her homework and the teacher did say that it has become a huge problem because more and more students are not doing their homework so now the kids will actually have to stay in from recess. I was happy to hear that but doubtful it will last long. Like I said, parents are a bunch of whack jobs these days and one idiot parent ruining their child through lack of discipline will try to ruin all of our children so their child looks less stupid.

Anyway, overall it was a great parent/teacher conference and I'm glad that Hannah has Mrs. W although I would like to see her doing a little more to challenge Hannah. She has assigned Hannah and another student a 5th/6th grade level book to read but other than that Hannah has no special homework or anything more challenging then what the other kids are doing. That is something that makes me a little nervous but we just try to keep a close eye on Hannah and make sure she's happy and working to the best of her ability. We don't want to push Hannah too hard but we also don't want to let her slack off just because things come easily to her. It's a delicate balance and definitely one we struggle with as parents.

Ahhh....parenting. Never a dull moment.