Awesome Mom! |
I now walk the kids to school and pick them up. Yes, in the rain or sleet or snow I walk the perfectly capable fifth graders the whole half a block to school. Its really for me, making up for lost time...but I shall pretend it is for them. You have to understand that as teachers we NEVER get to do this. We miss every single first day. We miss that morning hug at the gate. Many of us miss picking them up too. We pick them up when they are tired and surely done with their last game of dodge-ball, when child care is wrapping up in the final hours. Sometimes we make it for homework, sometimes not.
Laundry Mom! |
I now do all the laundry.
Mom a la mode! |
I do majority if not all of the cooking. Score for me! I cook awesome shiznat. Honestly, I rock in this category. Check that box!
Homework. I'm a teacher...I'm a teacher....I'm a teacher.....I can do this.
OK, insert my inconvenient child. His pediatrician lovingly called him that, it fits. I love him for his inconvenience
I've had teachers report this to me as if he's murdering small animals in the bathroom. I don't know why he does it. I suppose it's out of frustration.
Dammit! |
Filling in the Gaps. Really, we are in this new house, in this new state so that I can be available for the kiddos. What does that mean? It means that my super teacher powers have a purpose in my new life. One of my kiddos really struggles in school. He's a crazy smart kiddo with some attentional issues.
So insert me and the inconvenient child.Tonight we embarked upon the great journey of HUNGER GAMES. Being the strategic teacher I am I thought, yes lets' read a book that;s about a world he could not possibly imagine.
I sat and held up the kindle. The kiddos cuddled around me, and some computer voice read the first chapter. Not exactly what I expected. Weren't they going have Morgan Freeman or some interesting voice read this, not Robogirl? Oh jeez no intonation, no emotion. No interest for Mandy. But something magical happened. He loved it. He was interested. He wanted more! Robogirl speaks Inconvenient Child! Saaaayyyy WHAT? Yep, that's right! He was bummed when the Robogirl sucked the life out of my kindle and it died. We charged. Then I read. Soon, he started cutting me off and reading aloud! WHAT? So by the end of the evening I learned a few lessons:
- Kindle WhisperRead or whatever it's called is read by Robogirl. Some things are read incorrectly. It included no intonation. YAWN.....
- You cannot effectively pause the Robogirl and then begin in the exact place you left off. I mean who would want to that? Psh, pause and restart where you left off. I pretended like it was my intention to have things reread by Robogirl. We all needed a refresher after the big discussion about Effie Trinkett, ya sure that's it. As mom's we rock at BSing. Me? I'm the trifecta. I was a sneaktastic kid, I'm a teacher, and a mother. Don't screw with me.
- The inconvenient child can read grade level text. Provided he wants to, is motivated, and totally sucked in. Yea that's no problem. Don't all teachers strive for that kind of engagement? Um, no some things are just boring. More on that later....
- The IC knows nothing about probability. Not that I'm blaming his teachers hello second and third grade here's a shout out of appreciation for a job well-done. Honestly at the time he was supposed to be learning that his world was falling apart because my dad was dieing. Whatever the reason homie ain't getting it. So how can he make predictions about....well anything.....if he can't assess probability? We shall fix this fo shizel! That's another post.....
- The IC likes to jump to the end of books. Not because he doesn't understand the way a fiction text works
like some people who haven't taken the time to diagnose what's really going on, might say,but because he lacks impulse control. He wants to know so badly what is going on that HE JUST CAN"T HANDLE IT. Last night he even said, "Mom just skip a few pages so we know who really goes to the arena."WTF?Imagine how much he's missed out on...character development....setting changes....nuances in subtle the tones of characters....it's a tragedy. The mom in me was sobbing.Don't make the, "Why don't you know this", face Mandy. He will see! He will know. Don't do it! Smile like you do in the elevator when someone farts.The teacher in me was doing the biggest booty dance of all time! I've found a hole that I can fill, a pattern in his behavior that leads to low comprehension. I've found something I can fix.Also because I am right and others are wrong.Is this immaturity? Is it lack of impulse control? Not sure yet, but we will find out in time.
Cheers! One day down! |