Last Week
It was the start of a new school year. I took the obligatory first day of school shot and noticed that this year they didn't get close and hug each other but stood as two separate entities. I don't know whether to be happy or sad.
Luke is starting second grade and it is quite a process to get him to school each day. He looks happy here but on that very day, he refused to sit down and do what the class was doing and the assistant principal had to be called to get him back on track. The rest of the week went fairly well, but already today he is telling me he doesn't want to go back to school tomorrow. Here's the dilemma...he's very bright and feels school offers him nothing but 6 hours of tedious torture. While he is probably right as far as academics go... he really needs to practice all those developmental skills- the ones that make you a successful member of society. We are working with his teacher to keep him interested. He is reading above level books and goes to a third grade classroom for math. Say a prayer and wish us luck.
Lydia has started eighth grade. She is happy about school and is excited to be back for the most part. She is apprehansive about the honors math class she's been placed in but I am confident that she will be fine. She just needs to get over her math anxiety. She's quite able but hits a wall when it comes to math. She's playing club soccer with a new team and is feeling the pressure of being the oldest on the team. The coaches are expecting a lot from her and rightly so. She is a great soccer player and even played on the varsity team for middle school last year.
I begam my 19th year of teaching! This is my 11th as a teacher of the gifted but that part of my job is quickly slipping away as I am tasked with more and more remedial work. My gifted population is dwindling. It's very disheartening. I want to go back to the days when I had 6-10 students at each grade level. Now I barely have 3 at a level. We are using the same tests but we have a changing population. And with that population my job has changed :(
Oh well.. here's to a great school year for everyone involved.
Comments