Thursday, March 3, 2016

Mica's 4th Grade Conferences

We had some time to spare between the boy's conferences. Isaak's teacher said, "We didn't plan that very well." I said, "We purposely did that because last year we thought we spaced them out, and they overlapped. The boys played Minecraft in the hallway on their Kindles.

There was a Scholastic Book Fair going on, but I didn't want Mica and I touching books to possibly get others infected with Strep Throat. I let them get a quick look, and wrote down names of books they liked to check out at our library. We have so many books, we really don't need any more.

Dr Seuss My Many Colored Days at School
They wanted to wear as many colors as they could. Mica said, "YES I can finally dress how I want!" Picking out clothes isn't his strong suit.


Mica's conferences were second.

He's doing well in everything. I guess a lot of kids are struggling with math in his class. That's Mica's hardest subject, but he still does well with it. 

One thing I like about Mica's teacher is that she lays it all out there. I do to. 

I said, "Ok so you and I know Mica's doing well in school. The things that I want him to work on (he needs to do this) is asking more questions for help, pushing himself to move above and beyond with extra things like school clubs." 

His teacher agrees. I told her I knew nothing about:
  • Trying out for a string instrument
  • A reading competition for challenged students
  • A robotics club
  • The spelling bee
He thought as soon as he got into Student Council that, that's the only extra thing he needed to do. The lemur science thing that he did was a perk in his mind. 

It highly annoys Mica's teacher that he is too proud to ask for help. I mentioned that he's a bit cocky. She doesn't think so. She thinks that Mica doesn't want to ask for help because there are a lot of other kids in the classroom that need a lot more help than he does. She thinks he sees it as steeling from the kids that need assistance. Which that's a better way to look at than my way. 

She does ask him to help others when he's done with his work. She said, "If that's a problem than I'll lay off." I said, "Absolutely not. He needs to help others. Please do use him." 

Really a lot of what I talked to Mica's teacher about is on him. He has to ask questions, and apply for extras outside the typical classroom! I just want him to push himself. He tends to be comfortable where he's at. I told Mica school is a lot like Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility!

He did sign up for the Chess Club yesterday. - Yay

We did visit the girl that works with the boys in regards to challenging them. They got put into that program when they were fairly young, and we try to visit that teacher every conference. Since Mica was right there I laid it all on the table. Everything I discussed with his teacher was brought up to this girl. Mica looked embarrassed. I said, "Mica I'm not disappointed in your grades. You are getting all A's. I just want you to push yourself to do other things." His gifted teacher agreed with me. She said, "The books for the reading competition have been in the library all year." Mica said, "I couldn't find them." I said, "It comes back to the fact that you don't ask for help. The librarian would have helped you. I would have checked them out for you, had you provided me with a list." Now all of Mica's teachers know that yes school comes easy to Mica, but that he needs to push himself up a notch. 

As soon as elementary hit I hoped Mica wouldn't get bored in school. He seems to like it. He has an August birthday, and we sent him to school when he was 6. The right thing to do. BUT he does well with just about everything, and doesn't push himself out of his comfort zone. For once I'd like him to try something that's hard, and possibly fail. It's ok to fail if you try really hard at something. The fact that one can try again to get better and better is a great feeling when you've worked so hard at it. 

5 comments:

Ai Sakura said...

I love how Mica's teacher sees him as not wanting to take her time away from others who might need it more. Most teachers probably won't look deeper into why a kid doesn't like to ask questions much and take it as it is :)

Ai @ Sakura Haruka

Theresa Mahoney said...

He seems to be doing very well, even with the lack of asking for help. Allison has asking for help issues as well. Even Mariah does at times, too. Drives me nuts because I have to ask them all the time if they think I'm going to be around forever to ask all the questions for them.

mail4rosey said...

There are lessons that come with failing, definitely. I'm glad to hear all is well. Our school conferences went great too. My daughter has gotten award after award, and my son is on task, like always (thank goodness). I didn't know how they'd do w/the other stuff going on, but they're champs.

~ Noelle said...

So glad it went well. I hear you about pushing further though. It made my heart happy to hear the teachers thoughts on helping, bet you are proud.

Masshole Mommy said...

In our schools the kids can't play an instrument until 5th grade. My oldest had no interest, though :(

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