I Think The Phrase Is, 'I TOLD You So'

Parent-Teacher conferences were the other day, and I was right - Josie is going to get her come-uppance very soon. She talks too much in class, doesn't listen to directions enough, and goes too quickly, thus her grades have slipped. I'm not talking Bad, bad grades, just slipped ones, like from straight-A's to mostly B's with a few A's. I'm not mad, obviously, because those are still fine grades, and actually, I'm a little GLAD. AS you all know, I've been talking to her regularly about working on those things, and have been getting the Big Pfft from her. Well, you should've seen the look on her face when I told her that her teacher said the Exact Same Thing!!!! AND that her grades have gone down!!!!!! She stared at me like I was Swamp Thing coming out of the sewer! 'Wha-wha-whaaaaaa?' I didn't even talk much about it to her that night; she asked what Ms. Miller had said, and I told her casually, and left her to stew in her own juices.

The next morning, though, after breakfast, we did talk to her about it a little, and I told her that I understand why she does those things, because I used to do them, too. You think something is easy, so you do it quickly, and only later find out that those words you skimmed included the word IMPROPER fraction for a change, so you screwed the whole section on the test, which is exactly what she just did. I told her that it would be a good idea to take a breath after she reads directions, and then read them again. She was looking kind of peevish, of course, but I could also see that she was genuinely disturbed, so I told her to cheer up, that it's better to be told, 'You're too smart - go slower!' than 'Hey! Stupid! Go faster!', so that in the grand scheme of things, her problem isn't a terrible one to have. I also reminded her that those enrichment classes that she likes so much at school are there for kids who already understand all the material in class and are ready for more, so if she does poorly on the classroom work she may find herself pulled out of enrichment, regardless of whether she got things wrong out of carelessness or not. That sobered her up, too. I know she would HATE to watch other kids go ahead of her. She's very competitive (dunno where THAT came from).

Patrick did fine on his conference, of course. He's in K, so there really isn't much to say, since he's not a hitter or a biter or a rampant nose-picker. His reading and math are the top of the class, and he's getting the hang of not being so hard on himself / embarrassed when he does something wrong and gets called on it.

Volunteering is going much the same, except get THIS. The weekend before Halloween, when my mother was here, Josie's teacher emailed me to ask if I could 'do the class party' for her, ie bring in the cupcakes, juices, etc. Oh, sure. So, on Thursday, I brought in the juices when I went in to volunteer, since I knew I wouldn't be able to carry three boxes of juices AND the cupcakes as well the next day. I noticed that the principal was in the teacher's seat, and that the kids had some papers on their desks, but things didn't seem *too* out of the ordinary, especially since I know the P has been in and out of there recently in an effort to prevent total class mutiny. I put down the boxes and my purse, and looked around. Finally, one of the *kids* said, 'Um, we're doing testing today.' Had Ms. Miller said anything? NO. Had she even acknowledged me? NO. The principal was staring at me, though. I finally had to call over to the teacher and ASK if she didn't need me, then? All I got was, 'Oh, no, not today, thanks. Sorry.' before she turned her back to me again! I stared at her, and then called over again to tell her that I had put juice in the room, to which she said, 'Oh, OK, that's fine.' That was it. Patrick's teacher was walking past at the same time, and she was Shocked. I ended up going back to her room to do a few things instead.

The next day, Halloween, I went in with my costume, Josie's AND Patricks on my arm, two big platters of cupcakes, my purse, and a bag of apples for Patrick's class. Josie's class is first in the hallway, so I stopped there, and while Ms. Miller watched, struggled to unload the cupcakes. I had to ask where to put them, and she actually tried to STACK them on top of each other!!! Seriously!!! I had made the cutest things, little mummies and spiders and webs, too. She finally threw one set on top of some inboxes and another one on the counter in front of it and walked away. No thank you, nothing. As I left, I called out, 'you're welcome!' in a cheery voice, but I wanted to smack her. I heard one of the girls asking her what her costume was going to be, and she said, 'No, I don't DO Halloween.' I wanted to turn around and tell the girl that this IS her costume - she's a witch dressed as a teacher!