Parent/Teacher Conference

Jay & I were concerned about EJ and 1st grade for some time. His grades were great, but we had been wondering if EJ & his teacher were "getting along." Not to mention, the structure and discipline were difficult for both us and EJ to adjust to. There were many days we heard EJ say, "I don't like first grade. I don't want to go to school." At one point EJ said to me, "I just want to stay home and have you teach me." I looked at my beautiful first-born child and said as politely as I could, "Son, I love you, but I don't have the patience to teach you." So, yesterday was parent/teacher day. I went over to the school to meet with the teacher. His teacher was very nice and spoke highly of EJ. To sum up the conference, EJ is doing quite well. He reads about a year ahead of his grade, enjoys answering questions, and socializes well. The areas he/we need to work on: encourage EJ to take more AR (advanced reading) tests and read by himself, listen to the teacher's instructions better, re-check his work, and enjoy group class work. Apparantly, EJ is not a fan of working on class work with his peers. He tells the teacher he doesn't want to and her retort is, "In life, you will work in groups and with others a lot." EJ says, "I'm going to be a fisherman." The child loves playing in groups though. Also, around the beginning of December, the students will begin testing for the gifted program. EJ's teacher is anxious to see if he makes it into the program because he fits a lot of the characteristics. See this link: http://pages.framingham.k12.ma.us/sage/brightchild.htm EJ's behavior has improved over the last few weeks. He's been bringing home stars every day, which makes both he and we very happy!