Thursday, November 20, 2008

Middle School

This is a WWYD because I seriously don't have to be right here. I'm not going to say who reacted how, but I'll tell you that Daddy and I have very different reactions to Jabber's most recent report card. Keep in mind that he is on ADHD meds which started last year.

In 6th Grade he made the Honor Roll for 3 out of 4 quarters. He consistently got in the mid to high 90's for grades last year with one exception, and it turns out the teacher may have been the problem, but that's another story! His teachers put an emphasis on the use of an agenda that was provided by the school and there was constant communication between teachers and parents using that as well as email.

This is 7th grade now and they got agendas at the beginning of the year and were told to use it for keeping track of their assignments etc. At Open House the teachers told us that they put the assignment for the day on the board and the students are to copy it into the agenda. Nobody reminds the students of this or any other sort of reinforcement. His report card for the first quarter this year has one A- and 5 B's. He is also in a 'booster' section for one of his classes because he borderline failed a comprehension est at the beginning of the year. Not SPED, but not at even speed with "average" kis his age. He had the same thing last year but with the meds changes we challenged that and he excelled. This year he just didn't make an effort and we kept him in to work his way out.

What does the conversation sound like that you have with him about this report card? I'm trying not to say too much here, and want to know what your gut reaction is here. If you don't reply to public comments but would like to ell me what you're thinking anyway then just right-click anywhere on the page and you'll see my email address! Thanks! Oh, and yes... I'll post again and share my thoughts after I give this some time being posted.

4 comments:

Bethany said...

One A and five Bs is pretty good in my book. Can he do better? If not, I would congratulate him. If he can do better, I would go the pep-talk-what-can-we-d-to-help route. Is it the first report card of the year? Maybe he just needs some adjustment time. I don't know that I would get too tough with him this marking period. But if I KNEW he could do better I might be inclined to push in that direction.

Did any of that make sense?

Stephanie said...

The conversation we have in our house is this:

"If you're capable of As, we expect As. If you're capable of Cs, were ok with that. But if you're pulling a C because of lack of effort, then that won't fly."

Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. :)

And we also resort to bribery. We pay a LOT for As, not so much for the rest.

Anonymous said...

Speaking from experience...

Tell him that the seventh grade is much easier the second year he has to do it.

However, he will have to make new friends because ALL of his friends he has been in the same grade with for so long will move on.

That "you are capable" junk is just that... junk. That's more of a challenge to NOT EXCELL in order to show you I (oops) I mean he is right.

Mimi said...

Bethany, he can and doesn't even attempt to. He always avoids work of every type unless someone has put there foot down. Last year's five A's and one B are an exact flip compared to last year.

Stephanie, LOL!!! I've done that too! With Charming and Glory when I was a single Mom. Daddy doesn't believe in it, although he does believe in a loss of privileges when anything goes below a 70% or a C.

mssc54, I've heard that conversation before! Having the staying back conversation is pointless because he knows that doesn't happen if you get all B's. He cared once back in about 4th grade when he had terrible behavior issues (ADHD related) and I told him that maybe if he can't hack it at school that I'd have to home school him. Then I had about 2 minutes of panic! No, he's pretty sure that he can be charming and manipulative when he needs to be!

Thanks for your replies everyone! I posted my follow-up post a few minutes ago if you're interested in seeing it.