Last Day of School

The 2016-17 school year is all wrapped up!

Hyrum completed second grade. His teacher was Ms. Gomez and while neither Hyrum nor I particularly disliked her, we weren't especially impressed with or fond of her. I felt like there was very little communication and I never really knew what was going on in the classroom. Perhaps that's why we were so surprised when we saw his final report card. The kids are assessed on a grading scale of 1 - 4 (1 meaning student demonstrates limited understanding and is in need of additional support and 4 indicating student has in depth understanding and exceeds expectations). They also get an effort score. Hyrum got mostly 3's and several 2's. Only one 4. His effort scores were mostly Satisfactory, but some Minimal. In the notes section his teacher said he needs to work on being responsible with homework and should work on his writing over the summer. We were very disappointed in all his 2's and were particularly perplexed by the comment about his homework. It felt like I was pulling teeth all year to get him to finish each week's packet and I made sure every Monday it was in his backpack, but it seems it inconsistently made it to his teacher. We will definitely work on his handwriting and reading comprehension over the break, as well as keep him up to snuff on math. 

Abraham finished Kindergarten. His teacher was Ms. Benson, who we loved. She recognized his rowdy behavior was often linked to boredom and tried to keep him engaged and progressing rather than getting upset with him. His report card was outstanding. He got a few 3's but mostly 4's and his effort in every category was Excellent. Ms. Benson wrote that he did a wonderful job and was a joy to have in class. She mentioned in our last parent teacher conference that we should look into having him put in the gifted program next year. I'll have Abraham work on his handwriting over the summer as well. Even though it's legible, he doesn't form all the letters correctly and still tends to write backwards.