Thankful on Friday

Did anyone else feel like today was MONDAY? I did. Yuck. Isaiah had yesterday off of school, but he had school today. Just for one day and then of course he's off for the weekend. Strange. I think it threw everyone's schedule off. For whatever reason, I assumed that since he didn't have school on Thursday he wouldn't have homework on Wednesday. And then assumed that since he didn't have school Thursday, there wouldn't be homework. Actually I didn't think about homework at all yesterday. It's been such an off week. So imagine my surprise this morning when I opened up his backpack to make sure everything was in there only to discover two days of homework incomplete. Unacceptable. Bad mommy. So he did the two days of homework this morning and I drove him to school instead of him hopping on the bus. Like I said, it's been a really off week.

Today I am thankful for teachers. Yes, I said it- teachers. I came to appreciate teachers while I was in high school. Elementary school, I just thought of them as teachers. Middle school, I thought of them as the bane of my existence. But in high school, I really got to appreciate what a teacher does for a child and a parent. I looked at the punk kids surrounding me and saw what the teachers were putting up with. I promise you I would probably smack the shit of at least three kids a day if I were a high school teacher. At least.

Last week I met up with Isaiah's teacher for his parent-teacher conference. Unfortunately, it was just as I expected. The high points: Isaiah is very intelligent and driven. He is engaged in class and likes participating in discussions. She showed us his testing scores for his writing, spelling, and math and he was off the charts in all three areas. Then she got to the low points: Isaiah is very easily distracted. She thinks he is bored during carpet time when they are working on blending letter sounds. The reason she thinks this? He tells her that he is bored. (haha, that's his dad, all the way.) The mixed points: She wants to send him to a second grade class for reading. BUT she hesitates because she doesn't know if his misbehavior and inattention is solely due to his boredom or if he will continue to be a distraction in the second grade classroom.

As I watched Isaiah interacting with her during the p-t conference, it was pretty neat. I don't get to see him interact with non-family adults very often. She must get very frustrated with him. I certainly know that I do. And compared to some of the other kids in his class, he is mild. How does a teacher go throughout the day and not completely pull all of his/her hair out? It takes a certain type of person to handle that. I am not one of them, but I certainly give props to those that can. Thank you to all teachers, for shaping the future of the world!