Meet the parents

I must say that the report card conferences have been a very "interesting" experience. I met a huge range of parents. There were ones that were so pleasant and you could see that they truly cared about their children and were helping them out at home. While there were ones who could care less about their children's studies. The conferences were supposed to only last about 15 minutes top. I had one that went for around 45 minutes. Let's just say that it was quite an uncomfortable conference...the parents were very defensive and you could cut the tension between them and my co-op with a butter knife. But I did get to experience a lot and learn a lot as well, so the long week was worth it in the end.

One of my students will be going into a special ed class starting on Monday. It was really sad actually, I wanted to cry when I was talking to him. While we were getting all of his materials ready for the move, he said to me, "I don't want to go to the other classroom. I want to stay here. Are you moving me because I'm bad?" My heart just dropped when he asked me this and I had to keep my cool. I explained to him that it had nothing to do with his behavior, it was simply that he needed extra help and this new classroom would be an even better experience for him. I did tell him that everyone would miss him greatly but that he still could eat lunch and play with his old classmates. Granted that he has been one of my more difficult students, but in all honesty, he's a sweet kid. He's actually quite a funny kid, so many times I want to crack up at what he says and does but I don't because that would just egg him on more. I feel that moving him into the new classroom now isn't going to help because it's too late into the school year. Plus, the other classroom already has too many students in there and I don't think he's going to get much more individualized help. I'm just hoping that by having a male figure as a role model, as well as the new environment and dynamics, maybe it'll help him out in someway.

On a different note, how do you know when you're overworking yourself? How about when the principal comes into your class and tells you to leave, to go home already, and pretend that the school doesn't exist in your life? Yep, I had a ton of work to do today and everyone was leaving early because of the end of conferences and the beautiful weather. So she walks in, telling me to go home and enjoy the weather! I did end up taking her advice and I just packed up their notebooks and the work I needed to do for the weekend.