Parent and teacher conference.

I've spent two weeks working, sporadically, on writing my teaching philosophy, which goes out in my dossier for jobs. It is really hard to explain why I'm a teacher and how I do that, especially when I only get two pages. I love my students, that is why I teach. I like the process of learning and watching that happen over and over again; it's a bonus that I feel somehow part of students' growing consciousness and critical thinking about existing in and being active with the world. Being a parent is this feeling a million times over. I love watching Turner grow. Each day getting to know a little more about him and his personality, what he likes and doesn't as well as why. He likes school. He's excited to practice what he's learned, trying to impress Andy and me. I mean, we've always been impressed by Turner. He is easy to be around, and he is entertaining. This week, I found out how much so.

I was excited about parent teacher conferences. I was worried about how he was adjusting given the Kinder switcheroo. On our end, things seem great and he is loving it. But, I was really curious to hear what his teacher thought, and eager to know what kind of student he was. Ms. Cipolla, by the way, is a dynamite teacher who easily summarized her teaching philosophy for me before she began our conference (I didn't ask, she just offered it up). She is articulate and thoughtful in why she teaches what she teaches and how she goes about doing it. I wanted to bottle her philosophy up and drip it all over Microsoft Word. I was so grateful as a parent, to get to know her in this way.

So, after Ms. Cipolla explained her approach with Kindergarteners, she pulled out a Ziploc bag full of Turner goodies. There were pieces of art and she explained their learning objectives. There were examples of his writing and several drawings (she called T a 'real artist'). And, there were the tests. Public school means standardized means of assessment. The entire district takes the same tests to measure learning objectives. They are: how many letters can the student identify in the alphabet, how high can the student count, how many colors student could name, how many numbers can student recognize, in one minute how may "initial sounds" can student identify when given a word, in one minute how many phonetics can student name (they tell him a sound and he identifies the letter).

So, here's my warning. This is going to sound like bragging, because it totally is. Turner could identify all the letters, upper and lower case, in the alphabet. He counted to 29 before she cut him off. He recognized all his colors and all twenty numbers offered to him. In one minute he identified 21 initial sounds. 8 was the goal for students to get in the middle category (those above expectation) category. Students below 8 were divided into those needing extra reading instruction and those marginal, who might need it but maybe not. Two other children were above the middle category (which ranged 8 to 12). One of them got 13 in a minute and the other 12. Turner, again, got 21 (I read her paper, she didn't show me the numbers for the other kids of course). In the next test, phonetic naming, the goal was again 8 in a minute with categories distributed as before. More children were in the bottom two categories in this test. Turner scored 22. In the math tests, he did equally well though her results weren't as quantified. He was to count the number of blocks in an object and his method of counting was studied. Turner pulled all the blocks out of the object, lined them up and counted them, moving one to the side as he counted. Then, he double checked his counting. Ms. Cipolla was impressed that he counted twice before answering her. She said this is something they try to teach the kids, later in the semester, and that he was one of two kids that did this (the other student was female). Ms. Cipolla said that he has met all his kindergarten learning objectives already. So, the pressure's off, not as though there was any.

Now, for the 'bad' news. Turner had two bullet points to work on. They are: "will follow classroom rules by sitting quietly and refraining from distracting behaviors (talking or touching/bothering other students and/or disruptive behavior (talking out of turn, shouting out answers or general disobedience)" and "will be an active listener focusing on the speaker and not playing with clothing/shoelaces, items on the floor." Ms. Cipolla smiled as she delivered this news to me. And these things were not a surprise to me. She said, "He's a real entertainer you know. I laugh so much at him." Yes, he does always want to share a joke or find a way to be funny. "And he has this crazy vocabulary. He tells these stories..." Yep, he can totally tell a story. "But, he does a good job of entertaining his classmates too. They pay attention to him instead of what we are talking about." Oh, and "He tackled a kid on the playground. I think he was trying to hug him, but he took off running wide, I mean, wide open and his arms were stretched out. He grab onto the other boy and they went down like a football move." No one was hurt, but the other kid wouldn't play with Turner the rest of the day. Turner got a yellow card that day. I ask Ms. Cipolla if we need to really worry about any of these things, or can we just reinforce at home that we are Peacebuilders and practice more active listening. She smiled and said she thinks Turner is just wonderful and that he is still adjusting to the new school. She said she "loves" having him in class, and that he has times in class when he is so quiet and engaged in an activity or in what she is saying. It is just other times, always on the mat surrounded by his classmates, that he has a story to tell or something to do to make the others laugh (I think dancing has made an appearance or two).