We had SEP (parent/teacher/student) conferences at the kids' school this week. Both kids are getting along just fine in terms of grades and making progress in their education. At the same time, both kids had a couple of things to work on when it comes to behavior.
Now, neither of my kids misbehaves at school. We seriously scored in that department with our kids...no child is perfect but ours are pretty dang good. That being said, Hudson needs to work on focusing on and retaining what the teacher says, remembering to buckle down and complete tasks, etc. These are things that don't come as a surprise to us. Having a very active mind, he and his thoughts are often off someplace else while the world (and therefore his class and teacher) continues to go on around him. We'll keep him, though...
Then there's Claire. The kids in her class each did a self-evaluation about how they're doing in different areas of behavior. Her paper was marked with "always" as the answer on just about everything. This included things like:
I keep my desk clean so I can find things.
I start my work right away and I use my time to get my work done.
I try hard to get along with others in class and at recess.
There were a few others but you get the gist of it. Claire's little self-evaluation looked marvelous with all of the word "always" circled. We were discussing this when Mrs. W asked her to think about this one:
I try not to visit too much during work time.
Pause...flashback 30 years.
I may or may not have had a slight problem with being a chatterbox as a child (and as a teenager...and now). In kindergarten, my buddies Scott, Brian, and I would talk too much. Mrs. Murphy would punish us by sending us to different corners of the room. I can very clearly remember sitting up in my corner and smiling at, waving to, and whispering (read: audibly saying) a "hello" to Scott and Brian in their respective corners. Corners were not an effective tool. What my teacher should have done is adorned me with earplugs in my ears, a blindfold over my eyes, and duct tape over my mouth. Once properly stripped of my ability to see, hear, and talk, she could have spun me around several times in order to disorient me and then seated me in an empty room or closet far from our classroom. That might have solved the problem.
After kindergarten, I totally shaped up. I no longer got sent to the corner for talking. Instead, moving desks pretty much became a hobby of mine and it lasted all throughout my schooling years. I didn't necessarily have a lot of friends in any given class but everyone that I sat next to in school had EARS and I wanted to be sure that they were put to good use. My teachers were very smart individuals and would always move me next to someone who they knew either a) wasn't a friend of mine or b) wasn't a talker. I'm sure you can guess how much good those moves did. If someone wasn't my friend, I did my darndest to make them one, even if it was just for that period of time each day when we were seated next to each other. When I was parked next to a non-talker, I made up for their lack of communication and did enough talking for the both of us.
As an adult, I'm not too much better but lucky for me, there aren't teachers following me around and chastising me for my verbal prowess.
Okay, now....back to Claire.
Claire was very quick to admit that this isn't her strong point. She picked up a pen, changed her answer to "most of the time", and promised to work on keeping quiet during work time. I couldn't help but smile.
Poor girl is in for a lifetime of this.
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