Wednesday, May 13, 2009

SAT, Pedis, Manis and Dog!

Ok, SAT meeting yesterday. It was the last official meeting of the year and we had 5 students to talk about. Marianna from my class was last on the list.

Marianna is one of my lowest students. I had her last year and was unsure whether to promote or retain her. Sr. Callejo and I got together and decided that because she was progressing (albeit slowly) we would retain her and monitor her progress this year. Well this year she had Teacher Rhonda for the first six months of school and she basically stopped progressing.

I had parent teacher conferences about a month or so after the switch. I explained to her mother that after working with Marianna all last year and so far this year, I felt that pushing her into seventh grade (she's about three years behind in both math and reading) would be too much of a leap and she would feel left behind and frustrated. The mother was disappointed but understood what I was saying (through a translator.) I explained to the mother that I would put Marianna through the SAT process we would see where we landed in May. She agreed.

Well, Marianna is still behind and is still progressing slowly. Going through her educational history, we learned that she had been taken out of bilingual classes and put in monolingual classes before she was fluent in either language. Because she was not able to continue learning in Spanish it became it was hard for her to continue learning English as students use their first language to help them learn the second. I've also noticed some interesting things about her reading. For example, when reading Dr. Seuss, where there are repetitive words she'll still miss the same word ten, twelve pages in. When she is reading English or Spanish she'll skip whole syllables. Both of these are red flags and when I brought them up at the meeting some of the other teachers suggested testing for Special ED.

The mother refused testing outright. Which surprised me. I had heard stories of parents refusing testing but had never seen it happen in person. Sr. Callejo explained to me (in a very patronizing way, that "that's a big deal, a big label for the Latino culture to deal with." Oh, how I hate that...he makes it sound like 1, I don't know that Special Ed is seen as a negative label by most of society, 2, that I don't know anything about the Latino culture and 3, I need things explained to me because I'm just an Anglo.) So, I said, "Well, it's a big label for everybody, which is why we explain to the parents that they can still refuse services after the testing, but that the results of the testing will help us learn how to best help the student."

Anyway, we gave the mother a few options; 1. Marianna is held back in the sixth grade, 2. Marianna is tested, 3. Marianna is held back and tested, 4. Marianna is promoted to seventh grade and tested, 5. Marianna is promoted. We back and forth over the options, assuring the parent that the first time a student is recommended for retention, the parent could override (not the second time though.) She just couldn't decide. So I suggested we give her a few days to decide. She agreed that she would let us know by Monday.

I've a bad habit of tearing at my cuticles. I've had this habit...gosh...since middle school I think. My mother could probably tell you exactly when she noticed. It's I'm stressed/I'm bored habit. My thumbs have always have always gotten the worst of it. Two years ago, I noticed that my tearing habits had moved to my toes as well. This I put a stop to. I got a pedicure every other month or so, so that they would be too pretty to tear. It worked! Here is the latest:

I made a deal with myself that if I could just let my fingers and thumbs heal and the nails grow a little, I would go and get a manicure. It took two years, but I was finally able to do it. I went for two manicures and the second time watched very closely. I will probably never be able to do a pedicure as well as the ladies at Magic Nails, but I could probably do a manicure alright and lo and behold, after two or three tries, I think I got the knack of it:


I guess it's a little fuzzy, but there are little pink ditty dots! Yay! I hope I can keep it up!

So an update on the dog. We are not getting a pitbull. (Everyone hear that?) I guess people actually read this blog because I've had a few interesting calls from family about it. My parents made it very clear that they didn't think this was a good idea for all sorts of reasons. But for me it finally came down to the idea that I don't want my parents to visit (as they will be in November and...well...the rest of my life) and be afraid of the dog. Even better, years from now when we have little ones running around I don't want my mother sitting at home thousands of miles away worrying about what the dog might do to the children. So no pitbull.


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