Friday, January 16, 2009

Big Deal!

Late last year (2008) Miss 10's teacher was missing a lot of school, her father was dying and she and her siblings took took turns staying with him. Because of that, Miss 10 had a substitute teacher. I've written before about Miss 10's learning struggles, so I won't bore you with the background. The papers Miss 10 brought home while having this sub were less than stellar, and these were papers I helped her with, with things marked wrong that in no way were wrong. Hey, I'm not saying I don't make mistakes, I do, but these are 5th grade papers that I have taught and corrected before, the things this sub marked off for were ridiculous. Miss 10 was becoming quite disheartened and convinced that she was "dumb."

Fast forward to this week, Miss 10's regular teacher is back, and has been back since after Christmas break. Report cards came home, papers are coming home and in general the school attitude has been considerably better. We still have lots of homework most nights, but it's not unmanageable. We work hard, and Miss 10 is much more willing to try a little harder.

This week alone we have had milestones that I am so grateful for.
- Social Studies Test on Tuesday 100%
- Spelling Test on Wednesday 100%
- Science Test on Thursday 100%
- Book report due this week, 100% PLUS she is 4 book reports ahead of where she needs to be!
- Math papers that came home this week: 100%, 90%, 100%, 100% and she is a full assignment ahead of the class, which allows us time to really work on things.
- Report Card came home on Tuesday with percentage grades increased in all but one subject, and S and S+'s in everything else.

I talk about the struggles a lot, and I felt that these accomplishments were as worthy of being talked about as the struggles. Miss 10 has worked hard to get these grades, we study for tests at night and again in the morning before school, and that is by her asking, not because I make her. We preview math assignments and pre-read reading assignments, we have the spelling words in advance and start on those early, this week we saw our hard work pay off. Nice work Miss 10!

3 comments:

Ronica said...

This is AWESOME! Tell Miss 10 that it is proof that she is NOT DUMB, she is brilliant and hard working and I am proud of her.

And don't tell her, but it's proof that the sub is way out of touch, and I hope he/she is not hired permanently. Sad.

jo said...

CONGRATULATIONS TO MISS 10 AND TO MOM!! We knew together you and she would do it!! (With the help of a good teacher).

Anonymous said...

That's terrific news! Kudos to you both. I wish all parents were as willing to work with their kids and take education seriously as you are. It is clearly evident to teachers in which students' homes education is valued - not by how smart the kids are, but by how hard they work.