August 20, 2008

I'm really tired right now and it's only 7:40 pm. But, I'm in a much better place tonight than I was last night. Today was a lot better day than yesterday.

I left the house earlier this morning so I could talk to Michaela's principal and teacher. Michaela was mistaken, she does not have computer lab on Mondays, so that's not a problem. Yes, they are getting letter grades in Art this year and the principal is going to look into maybe changing the schedule so that Michaela's class goes to Art on a different day or hopefully, if she has to go with another class she'll miss music instead of gym this year.

Michaela's teacher did not respond to my note because they had a very chaotic day yesterday and she ran out of time by the end of the day to write out a response. They had their visiting Japanese students in the building all day yesterday (they do this every year and Michaela loves it) which made the whole day a bit busier than usual.

The talk that I had with both of them went well and I felt much better about it all when I left to go to work. It's why I wanted to talk to them face to face. I knew that it would be a lot easier to resolve things and to figure out where things really stand with the teacher.

Also, at work my grade level had our grade level meeting today. We were going to make out one of the math tests on the computer. We did not get far when we realized there is A LOT of reading on the math test, which is not a problem come the end of the year, but at the beginning of the year first graders usually have their tests read to them.

Our principal, math specialist and reading coach showed up a little while into our meeting. It turned out to be a really great meeting. We got a lot of our questions answered and our concerns were given proper consideration. It was a very good discussion with all parties. We didn't get a test made, but at least we have a better idea of the direction we need to go.

So, in all it was a pretty good day. I did get two more students which makes me happy. I want to get up to at least 15 to feel safe from being moved around to some place else. Ever since the year that I was forced to move to another school and grade level 6 weeks into the school year I get a little panicky about low numbers of students showing up. I don't want to end up with 30 students, but I do want to make sure I have enough to keep me where I am.