Miss Lethargic

I have a confession. 

The entire time we were snowed in I was stressed beyond belief.

Lael got her Report Card that Friday.

It was not very different from the first one.
It stated that Lael is a "joy" to have in class but they are "concerned" about her keeping up in class.

She often doesn't finish her work and the results from her assesment were "below average".

It said that so far this quarter she is doing well but that we need to come up with a plan to keep her on target.

This is about the point were I almost threw up.

Ok, so her teacher left the beginning of Jan to have a baby and won't be returning.  The assistant has taken over for the remainder of the school year.

But if you remember, before she left we had a conference and I was told that Lael had improved significantly.

In addition to that, all her school work that had been sent home was complete and correct. Granted there were a few notes sent saying "Lael had difficulties with the time unit" and I would work with her. But nothing more had been said.

It said that Lael has a hard time focusing during instruction time and that she often seems lethargic. 

That is where I throw in the bullshit card.

How is it that she seems LEGTHARGIC?  I mean really?  The kid gets 11hrs of sleep and gets up without complaint.

I spoke to Lael about this and found out that she tells her teacher she's tired when she's taking a test because she doesn't feel like doing it.

Yeah.

So guess who burnt a hole in her ass while she was home on SNOW STORM VACATION?

What I also did was email her teacher about my concerns.  Here's a snipet of what I sent:

...."After the last parent teacher conference I was under the impression that Lael was improving in many of of troubled areas. But from the looks of it nothing much has changed since the last grading period.

The school work that comes home looks complete and correct so I thought she was doing well. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get her on the right track because she if very capable of doing the work.

I work with her on her spelling words, reading, time, math and money at home and she seems to really get it but for some reason it's not reflecting when in class."

And here is some of her response:

"My comments posted on her report card relates to Lael's 2nd grading period assessment, which dates back to the beginning of January. This test included language arts and math skills that deals with: writing, editing, grammar usage, story elements, even and odd numbers and telling time. At that time, her performance was relatively low in those areas.

I have (and currently) given short, informal remediation assignments to help the students that struggled in those areas. By doing so, I have noticed significant gains in Lael's performance. If it helps, I can formally track Lael's performance by retesting her in these areas; that way we can compare and contrast her skills. Then, we can use the data by implementing remediation or enrichment work. Let me know if you believe this will benefit you as you continue to work with Lael at home with these skills."

I felt good about that.  She asked me to give her a week or so and that she would get back with me with the results.

So I took advantage of the time at home to work with Lael.  She really did have the swing of things but the extra practice made her even more comfortable.

I explained to her that she would be taking the same test and that is was important that she cut the shit (ok I didn't really say that) and do her very best.

I also explained to her that if she didn't do her work correctly and on time that she would not be moving along with her friends to the 2nd grade. 

Yeah, call me parent of the year but I felt it was important to be honest with her about what the consequences could be.

So yesterday I ask her how school was, she says that while everyone else had choice time she had to do some tests.  She said she finished on time and that she knew all the answers.  She said that the only mistakes she made were writing a few "3's" and "7's" backwards. 

I hope she's right.  I guess I'll find out.

In the meantime, I'll hold my breath and, well....wait.