Friday, October 26, 2007

Sparky

Haven't talked about the boy much lately.

Judging by the cranky quotient, that clearly is good news; if he were appearing more often, it would be because he was pissing me off. He hasn't been. He's been a real joy to have around for the past few weeks.

Yes. I know. The other shoe will drop, eventually. We are enjoying this period of peace and joy.

It's nearly conference-time for this semester, and we received his interim grades last week: Band, German, PE = A; Biology, English = A-; Geometry = B+. Comments? Two teachers appended attaboys, one teacher noted that he "needs to spend less time socializing." All of this, by the way, is available online, so we can track how he's doing in almost all of his classes (not gym class for some reason).

Sparky has complained about the latter class; EVERYone talks. He's frustrated because he can't hear, and although that's a class in which is grade is a solid A (although fading, I see in the online detail), he likes it. Yesterday, however, he came home quite upset: the teacher had a meltdown. A meltdown the likes of which he has apparently never seen in a teacher. It freaked him out. The guy sounds like he's had it with this class, and it also sounds as if the class has been baiting him to get him to do this (there are sophomores and freshmen in the class). I know from talking to other parents that this teacher has a bit of a reputation for being difficult.

He also let slip that he's having trouble seeing the board in Geometry, and the teacher writes small, so he's been getting the notes each day from another student. No wonder he's frustrated and not loving that class. It's been a little confusing because he's always enjoyed math, and there has been a different sort of feel to his annoyance over math homework this year. Now we know a little bit more about why. He's going to talk to his teacher today about being moved to a different desk where he can see.

Remember when talking to a teacher, asking for a little consideration or help, put the fear of God into you?


Oh, and the school district decided this week on how they are going to "load" the new high school next fall. They are doing what we figured they do: the current freshmen (next year's sophomores) will transfer if they are in the new district along with the incoming freshmen. The older kids will all stay at the Old School. So that's wonderful news for Sparky. He gets to be in the first graduating class. We were hoping they would have one class at a time start; it's a much shorter drive to the New School for us! Selfish, much? :-)

And he is leaving, so I need to say goodbye to him.

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