This week Suzanne and I attended the parent/teacher conferences for all of the boys.
Kevin: Kevin’s conferences were first; on Tuesday. Talked with every teacher but math (did not make the special journey over to the high school for that…..Kevin’s had his lowest grade of the year and the highest grades of the year in the last week…still a struggle). Doing well; no grade lower than an A (at Chippewa…the high school’s a different matter). A common refrain was that he was too ‘goofy’ and one teacher mentioned he was prone to ‘blurting’ out answers.
Matthew: Matthew and Christopher’s conferences were back to back on Thursday; at the school the youngest is always first when they organize that type of thing, so Matthew started us off.
The kids use a folded 11x17 piece of construction paper to act as a folder for the papers that the teacher is going to give us; this was the front of Matthew’s folder.
Matthew’s doing well in everything; no real concerns to discuss EXCEPT that he needs to work on ‘blurting’. Sigh. Got a bit of a mixed message here; apparently when Matthew is doing work he’s really ‘intense’ and focused, but, during the transitions, he’s not as focused as he needs to be. Don’t have the sheet he wrote on, but, listed his strengths as “kickball, soccer, and gym”….the teacher pointed out that Matthew and his friends are very organized at getting games like that going at lunch and not every group of second graders she’s had has been successful at this.
Matthew apparently wants to be everyone’s friend, and, in the no-surprise-moment of the night, the teacher pointed out that he’s quite a ham sometimes; twice last week on the way to the bathroom as he was going out the door he’s turned around and posed for the class and caused a chorus of giggles. He’s received several warnings in the class for behavior, etc, but, has escaped the dreaded red card home (that we’ve been very clear would result in parental sanctions….). Apparently he’s good at getting right up the very edge of the rules but not sliding over…..
The scroll is some program where they track counting to 1,000. Apparently Matthew was really motivated to be the first one to do that (he was) and to be the first one to get to 2,000. Doing good on spelling tests should probably read doing great…
Christopher: Didn’t go over much of the reading here as we’ve been over that before. Went 3/3 on this round of the conferences with the presentation of a sheet marked “Christopher’s Goals”
Goal: Blurting
How will this goal help you?: I’m blurting too much
How can you parents help you achieve this goal? My parents can’t help me; I have to do it on my own.
How can your teacher help you achieve this goal? Give me a signal.
Apparently, it’s such a problem with Christopher that his teacher has worked out a signal with him; when he blurts, she makes a signal, and he goes ‘oops’. Sigh. More on blurting as a hereditary defect later.
Received some papers that Christopher had completed at the beginning of the year….of interest (to me at least) is the continued mutli-national nature of Christopher’s friends.
Blurting: After some discussion Thursday night we’ve determined that the ‘blurting’ issue must be a dominant Hutsell gene; Suzanne swears up and down that she wasn’t a blurter. Scott can’t say the same; recent evidence indicates other Hutsell children recall similar instances of having this behavior discussed with them. Have a hard time picturing a young John Wesley talking out of turn in 4th grade….oh well. Suzanne and I had an illuminating discussion about trips to the principal’s office; she can’t ever remember going and Scott remembers more than a few occasions of discipline from on high.
Obviously, we’ve failed as parents (sat all of the boys down on the couch to discuss it and they kept interrupting us as we pointed out the blurting issue….amazing how that works!).
Seriously, I’ve made more of a deal about this issue here than we’ll ever make about it with the boys. Wonder if it was a point of emphasis pre-conference with the teachers (“and make sure you root out that ‘blurting’!). Think in some cases you bring it up when you have nothing else to say (Kevin’s grade in the class where the teacher brought it up? 100%….there’s a corrective action we’re supposed to take here?) Find the whole ‘coincidence’ of ‘blurting’ amusing….
