Well it's definitely the start of the school year - I got that great phone call from daycare today. "Michael is sick."
I show up and he is sitting, crying; on a couch, alone. There is one girl who doesn't like me because I came and had a fit one morning about the guys being soaked to the bone because they were allowed to play in a puddle, in the rain. She thought I was speaking about her behavior - I wasn't - I was speaking about the owners. In any case she continues her role as a non-talker and the other employee comes over and says "he doesn't usually sit with me or talk to me but today he did so I knew something was up... (not a good start - I need to be a stay at home/work from home mom...)" She goes on to say his temp was 100.3 and then says - I mean 103... great - there is a difference in shifting the decimal point... so we go home and he looks terrible. We do the song and dance about taking medicine - he cries - its even worse on me but he finally takes most of it. Fast forward three hours and he is hungry and sitting here watching a movie. So I don't know what the heck is wrong with him. He has a slight runny nose and is complaining - a little - about a tummy ache... the joys of parenting.
On the parenting front, because Michael came home at lunch I decided we'd go and get Kyle after school. I arrive and another parent is waiting and we chat a little bit and then I ask - hey have you heard anything from the teacher. Well then I got an ear full about the same stuff I'm concerned about. Do parents not get involved with their students work anymore? I'm shocked that a month into the school year we've received nothing formal from the teacher - no introduction - no welcome - NOTHING! Very - super - extremely frustrating... or is this normal? Am I to expect this low level of communication home? (Jen - what say you?)
1 comment:
Well, I don't know about elementary school, but I'd assume it's similar...high schools are preparing mid-term reports right now. Some schools have had parent-teacher nights, some are waiting until after the reports go home. My experience is generally that a) parents assume everything is the same as usual with their children unless they hear different b) teachers believe that how their students are behaving/meeting or not meeting expectations is status quo unless they hear otherwise c) teachers are just starting to feel out how the students are grasping the material and what they know from before while dealing with admin and Bill 33 stuffs and mostly realize just how students are doing by preparing the midterms and seeing what it all adds up to.
To get down to it: if you feel that you want to talk to a teacher about how your child is doing, or you want some feedback from them, ask to see them (but give them a day or two's notice so they can actually pull their stuff together for you).
Quentin's kindergarten teacher just sent home a calendar for the month of September with a general note of what they did each day written into it. (We opened the sand center. We worked in our journals. We had our first day of music. etc.)
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