Sunday, November 16, 2008

Parent Teacher Conference

We had our very 1st parent teacher conference this past week.

I hope all of the conferences we go to over the years have as glowing of a report as this 1st one.

Mrs. Wade had all good things to say about David. She said it was hard to watch David realize bit by bit that the world isn’t as kind as he once thought. (This was one of the big reasons we put David in school – for him to learn some of the hard social lessons now before he gets to middle school) David has such a sensitive spirit and Mrs. Wade said he is so kind and polite. David was the very 1st home-schooled kid Mrs. Wade has had so far and I am happy to say she must have a good 1st experience with David. What teacher doesn’t like a rule follower?

His test scores are WAY above the classes (which we knew a long time ago) but now we have documented teacher confirmation of this. David is the youngest kid in the class and he is #1 in all 3 of the catagories.

His Math score is 191.
(Class average is 175, Evansville district 2nd grade is 179 and National 2nd grade average is 180)
His Reading score is 188.
(Class average is 163, Evansville district 2nd grade is 171 and National 2nd grade average is 180)
His Language score is 185.
(Class average is 158, Evansville district 2nd grade is 175 and National 2nd grade average is 181)

I tell you I sure have a lot of respect for Mrs. Wade and the work she does everyday. She has 16 kids (11 boys) who range from beginning 1st grade reading to 3rd grade reading. Her class is low for the district average and the district is below the national average. So who was it that told me WI has such GREAT public schools and that Evansville school district was so grand? I would think that by the 2nd grade you should be able to read – don’t you?

John and I went to David’s class a few weeks ago to hear them read to us their “Spooky Halloween Stories” It was painstaking to listen to them struggle thru reading a one page story that they wrote themselves. Maybe 4 kids in the class could actually read them fluently. (They should know what word comes next because they wrote it! Plus they practiced it all week in preparation for the event)

Now his 1st public school experience has already met the goals we had for him (none of which were educational, they were all social this year) He has already had his first fight at school, he figured out how to deal with the class bully and has learned how to raise his hand, wait his turn and help those who need extra help. He learned how to let others lead and has had a teacher who was not his parent.

So far so good.