My daughter has 23 school days under her belt for this school year. She has stayed "on green" for exactly 7 of those days. Not even a third of the time, if you're keeping track. She has been on red twice and on yellow the rest of the days. I never dreamed that an elementary school warning system modeled after a traffic light would occupy so much of my time and energy.
Anyway, it was with that grim knowledge that I gamely strode down the locker-lined hallway to my daughter's classroom last night. I was expecting to hear words like "very social" and "talkative." In fact, I told P that I thought it would be fun to take a flask and then do a shot every time I heard one of those words. Well, let's just say it's a good thing I don't actually own a flask, as I would've been plowed before I left the building. Although, looking on the bright side . . . I would have been unlikely to injure myself in as much as I was perched on a chair with a molded plastic seat just a few inches off the ground. The teacher also handed me a handwritten index card containing the following notes about my daughter:
Sweet, affectionate, smart, energetic, social. :-)
Needs to work on too much socializing
*Special spot has helped very much.
Can focus - does a great job completing literacy assignments thoroughly and well.
Can verbalize math concepts nicely (MathTalk).
* Keep reading w/book discussions @ home.
Now, about this special spot. I was aware that my daughter's desk had been moved a couple of times since school started. Apparently the teacher was looking for that magical set of coordinates that would cause my daughter to stop talking. So, guess where A's desk is now? DIRECTLY NEXT TO THE TEACHER'S. It explains a lot, really.
All in all, it was a good meeting and there was nothing unexpected. The script seemed to be roughly the same as what I heard from her 4K and Kindergarten teachers. "Very sweet . . . talks a lot . . . very bright." I'm proud of my little chatterbox.
As I was waiting for her teacher to finish with the family that came in before me, I checked out some artwork that was outside the classroom. Each student has a locker (the lockers have doors but no locks) and on each locker was a picture of Johnny Appleseed and an accompanying story about a recent trip to an orchard. The picture was one of those deals where you start with an outline and can fill in the face however you'd like. I couldn't help but notice that my daughter's version of Johnny Appleseed was a bit different from the others. He was wearing earrings. Also, he had exceedingly full, red lips. And, where most of the other kids had drawn a dot or small circle for each eye, my kid had given him big blue eyes (with distinct pupils) and eyelashes, too. Let's just say that Johnny was very secure in his manhood. The things you learn in school, eh?