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Throwing in the towel on 4th grade
Younger Son has had just a grueling year in 4th grade. 3rd grade was academically challenging but in a good way. This year, nothing is going right. He's been getting mostly "Ns" in work habits and citzenship each marking period.
With about three weeks left to go, I'm just over it. We get a review sheet home every week in his Tuesday folder, showing his "marks" (things not done right). Things like talking out of turn, missed/incomplete homeowrk assignments. I think all year he's had may 2 weeks without an issue.
I'm sort of done trying to figure out what the issue is. And at this point, what's the point?
I sent this e-mail to his teachers and copied the principal:
I took the yellow sheet out of Younger Son's Tuesday folder.
It seems pointless to belabor this effort, since it seems he is destined for N’s in Work Habits and Citizenship. Acknowledged. No reason to keep sending home all the negative feedback. It has been a tough year. I get it – N’s all around.
If there is some glimmer of hope that his grades in these areas will improve, by all means send me any positive feedback. Otherwise, I think the yellow sheet has become sort of obsolete and painfully redundant at this point.
I give up :)
Thank you
Possibly a bit overdramtic, but .... seriously.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kat on -
Update to this -- I signed him out of school at 1:15. On the signout sheet, I wrote "FREEDOM FRIDAY!!! :) " for "reason". Ha!! I told him I'd make sure he got Freedom Friday.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on -
I'm sure he's appreciating the break, AND that you have his back.
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Permalink Reply by G to the G on -
YOU ARE THE BEST! Srsly. The email and this... Kids struggle. Sometimes in grade school, sometimes in high school, etc... He knows you're his advocate and I'm sure he won't forget it.
(side note - my mom went to bat for all 3 of us over the years but I'll never ever forget the year I was turning things 'around' in high school and my Latin teach *hated* me... so my mom called a parent/teacher/kid conference. Her terms. A round table with all 7 or 8 of my teachers, my parents and me. Each one went around the round provided honest feedback - "capable but not disciplined" , "college bound with the right effort", "when she applies herself she knocks it out of the park", etc --- gets to the Latin teach who proceeds to RAKE me over the coals... My math teacher (who I thought was no fan) - interrupted her to say "you must have the wrong student - because unless you treated her with disrespect - she would never act that way." My point being my mom knew...she knew I was trying, she wanted to show me that I was making progress even though my Latin teacher was making me miserable. PS - I stayed in her class until Latin 4 (srsly, only 4 kids in my entire HS were in the class) to spite her miserable ass - AND made an A.
Kat said:Update to this -- I signed him out of school at 1:15. On the signout sheet, I wrote "FREEDOM FRIDAY!!! :) " for "reason". Ha!! I told him I'd make sure he got Freedom Friday.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on
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G.G., I love you even more after reading that!
My mother didn't typically get too involved for us, she figured if we got ourselves into trouble we could get ourselves out. However, there were a couple of instances where my parents went to bat for us and knocked it out of the park. I had graduated, but High Maintenance Sister was still a junior. When I saw who her math teacher was for her new year, I told my father very bluntly that if he didn't want her to fail, he would go to the school and make them switch her to another class. At the time, they had a policy of not switching kids out of classes to get a different teacher. My dad ended up across the desk from the principal who explained this to him, and apparently, my father just leaned forward and stared her down and said, "You will be switching my daughters teacher today." And it was done. My dad is a little guy - maybe 5'6" with his shoes on, but he can be intense as hell when it comes to his girls. Then, a little while later, this same principal (she had it out for us, seriously) called my mother at home to ask her about a rumor that had circulated about Know It All Sister when she was still in school. Mind you, this call came when my older sister had been out of that school for nearly four years! My mother handed that principal a giant chunk of her own ass.
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Permalink Reply by Floor Pie on -
Haven't been around much and only seeing this now. How did they respond to your note?
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Permalink Reply by Kat on
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I think they were ready to throw in the towel. It was clear the principal was not happy with the teacher, but we had passed the point of no return sometime in April for sure, and it was equally clear that nothing was going to salvage the year. They didn't stand in my way on the Freedom Friday issue or anything else.
The teacher continued to be a prick all the way up to the last day of school.
We are looking forward to a much better year next year. We know we will get it because it can't get worse. ;)
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