Perent Teacher Conferences

Yesterday I was able to go meet with Devin and Caroline's teachers at school.  It was really nice to go in and talk with the teachers, especially Devin's.  I had never met Devin's teacher and I've had questions about his reading abilities, and Devin is a little terrified of her so I went in not really knowing what to expect.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Yes she is loud and really tall and with Devin being so quiet he gets nervous around her but she seems to know what going on with him.  She is concerned with his reading level.  He can read for his age group but he's not the greatest at the comprehension part, at least when he's reading.  When he listens to his teacher he can answer the comprehension question's so she thinks the trouble is with his eyes.  I'm not sure I agree with that but I'm glad she is doing everything she can for him so he doesn't fall behind.  So Devin is getting extra reading help in school to make sure he stays up with the rest of the class.  I have tried lots of things with him and he is not getting reading down like I feel like he should.  He's doing great in math.  So great he's getting extra math time to push him to excel even more.  This boy stresses me out.  He's such a sweetie though, his teacher asked if he ever gets in trouble at home.  Oh yes he does.

I have met Caroline's teacher a few times just because I was able to go to back to school night before George was born.  And I was in no way concerned about her but I figured if I'm already at school I may as well see her teacher.  Caroline is a star student apparently.  She sets a good example to others, is organized, and loves learning.  She does need help with spelling though.  It almost made me a little happy to see that her enrichment spelling wasn't going so well.  They are harder words than some other kids get but she relies so much on memory to do well and it hasn't worked with spelling. It'll be good for her to have to put more effort into her work.  She knows it too.  When I read over her student reflection worksheet that she filled out I started laughing.  Here are a few examples of what she wrote.  The underlined ones are what she chose.

When I think about the quality of my work, I can honestly say:
I did my very best
sometimes I could have added more effort
I rushed through it for the most part

If I know a test is coming I:
study for several days or more
just look it over the night before
rely on my memory from being in class
(she actually circled the middle one first then thought she better be honest)

One thing I need to work on is to: take my time more on things but not be too slow.

She is so funny and very aware of her abilities and what she needs to work on. She knows she's smart and can get by mostly from memory so hopefully we can help her understand that not everything will be easy for her and she needs to put more effort into things that she may not like and that's fine.  It was a good day and I'm so glad I went!