Teacher for a day

EJ's school has a program called the Accelerated Reader program or AR. It's a program where the children earn points for the books they read and each book has a color attached to it. The lowest color earns the child the lowest points when they test on the computer. As they read, they get rewarded with small gifts, but the rewards get better with the more points they earn. Since this is my first time understanding this program, I was thrilled to learn more about it at the parent-teacher conference in November. EJ's teacher suggested he take two tests a day and he graduate to the colors that involved a little bit harder reading. I have to say that I am quite proud of our little boy for the hard work he's put in since then. Almost daily, we would ask him if he took an AR test. Usually he did. When we would be at the school, we'd check his points in the display case outside the library. EJ was always one of the highest point earners. A few weeks ago, he made it to 70 AR points, which means he got to be Teacher for a Day. Today was the day he's been waiting for! In the a.m., he and another boy in his class who also earned this honor, helped in their own classroom doing phonics with his class. During lunch, they were responsible for handing out napkins & sporks to those who needed them. In the p.m., the boys went to P.E. and read Dr. Seuss books to the kids. Yeah, that doesn't make sense since it's a gym class! EJ had to explain to me too. On Friday, it's field day at the school and the theme is Dr. Seusss. Finally, the boys ended their day in the library.

On Friday, May 2nd, EJ said he only had to read eight more books to make it to 80 points. With that many points, EJ would be able to go on the AR field trip to the zoo. I was pretty skeptical about EJ completing the task since the following Monday was the cut-off to earn the trip. SO, Monday after school, EJ told me he got 80.3 points. Again, unless I had confirmation from the school, I didn't want to have EJ getting all excited. His teacher was unavailable at the end of the day so I had to wait until Tuesday. When I picked him up that day, he did have a paper congratulating him on earning the trip! I walked over to his teacher and told her how I was skeptical when he told me he had eight books to read. She said that EJ and another boy read like mad on Monday morning to earn those points. They had to get all the reading done by noon since she left for an appointment that day. Ever since then, EJ has been asking about the zoo trip. It's on Thursday and he couldn't be more excited to be going and to wear his AR t-shirt!