Parent Teacher Conference

This kid constantly surprises me. Well not surprise exactly…for I know what hes capable of…but well pleasantly surprised I guess is the best word I can use to describe what I recently found out. A few weeks ago I had an email convo with his teacher. The teacher that Elijiah complains about constantly, says hes always in trouble with etc. Now I haven’t loved her either- I mean a kid that never brings home homework and says hes bored all the time-oh well. Anyway he brought his report card home and everything was great except his citizenship. He went from a 5( perfect) mark to a 3. I was very upset but knew that it had something to do with the trouble he had been getting into that the teacher and I were discussing but I was still disappointed. I decided that parent teacher conference was coming up and I would further discuss the issues at that time. Last week Khory and I went to meet Elijiahs teacher. We met for about 45 minutes. We went over all the work they are doing, goals they are setting, and what they plan on doing next term. Elijiah has often said he is bored and primarily its because he is a 2nd grader but reading on a 6.5 grade level and so much of the topics they are learning seem boring to him. It’s a bit of a struggle the teacher recognizes and is working to find alternative things for him specially. She mentions that his maturity blows everyone else out of the water, he has a comprehension level far above his peers, and he knows adult humor, joking, teasing and when it goes too far( which she says others don’t- they go and go until they are in trouble.) Elijiahs issues in class is that he often is done before anyone else, and tends to talk which distracts other students and so she has to remind him about that. But here is where she told me things about him that I didn’t know.

1. Elijiah is one of the most popular students in 2nd grade. Because Elijiah is so well liked everyone wants to play with him. ALL the time. She notices that he feels a lot of pressure to include everyone even when he doesn’t want to. Sometimes he wants to just play with one or two kids but because he is always asked by lots of kids to play and he feels bad saying no, he is surrounded by kids all the time and she notices he is overwhelmed by the attention at times- which in turn she can see that he can loose his temper and situations occur where he gets in trouble. She talks to him about trying to verbalize his feelings before he explodes. I laughed and said…well he takes after Khory on that one!

2. There is a kid in the class that gets picked on. Often left out. Elijiah is always kind to include him and when he notices him by himself- he will go over and sit with him. ( Now as a mother I have always tried to instill- you don’t have to like everyone and be friends with everyone- but you have to be nice to everyone- And that he should pay special attention to those less fortunate or those that don’t have a lot of friends and be extra kind.) I was shocked to see that this was an observation by his teacher confirming to ME that something I am doing must be sinking in.

3. There is a behavior/physical disabled class that Elijiahs class goes and hangs out with several times a week. She said that Elijiah was unafraid and easily went in and started to play with these kids and he is well liked there as well. Again that made me happy to hear that he can handle situations where people are different and just play and be a kid with them. All in all the feedback was positive and I was sooo proud of Elijiah and all that he is doing to be the best kid he can be.