Educational Update

Progress reports came out Thursday, September 27th:

Social Science -- B
PE -- A- (missed class hadn't been made up yet)
Advance Pre-Algebra -- A+
Culture Through Cooking -- A
Science -- B
Language Arts -- B-


Midterm reports came out with conferences, dated through October 16th:

Social Science -- D
PE -- A
Advance Pre-Algebra -- A
Culture Through Cooking -- A
Science -- B
Language Arts -- B

Um, what? A "D"?!?! Not my daughter... I stood in lines to see all her teachers except Cooking (she has an A, and it was getting late); Social Science was the last one because it was really long. Even her math teacher saw it on my paper and said, "What the heck, M*******?!?!" We were all pretty confused. Got up to her teacher, and he said, "Oh, no. She has a B; I must have put the other girl's grade on her report." Seems there's another girl with her same last name; spelled the same. Thank you for the almost-heart attack, Mr. S! Also, Princess thanks you; she was about to be grounded from life.

Couple of things to note -- Not one teacher told me that she "is very social" (translation -- talks in class too much). That was an issue for a few years in grade school, but seems to be less so in middle school (yay). Almost all her teachers, however, did comment on her test-taking. That seems to be an issue across the board, so I know it's not topic-specific. In grade school, it was simple a matter of needing to slow down. This year, I think it's that, plus not fully comprehending the material. Her science teacher *did* tell me that he makes it VERY difficult to get an A in his class, but I'd still like her to get her barely-B up to a higher percentage...


Oh, and this year, she bought a yearbook; I sent the check for that the same time that I ordered her (tiny, as always) picture packet (I usually only order the bare minimum, so she has a few to give to friends, and she can get the class photo... although, being in middle school, there's no class photo anymore, so now it's all about getting a pic for the yearbook she's purchasing).

I was worried her bio (or his worse half) would do as they've done in the past, and send in a retake form, trying to force her to take a second photo... that would mean her education is interrupted, and I'd have to make yet another phone call to Lifetouch to make sure the yearbook photo would be the one *I* paid for, not the one *he* made her take.

So, this year, I told her she has the right to refuse to have them taken. To back her up, I also sent a letter to the school. It basically said that I didn't want her to be forced to take retakes, and that if there were any issues, they could call me (I was at work). My phone never rang, so when she texted me that she was on the bus, I asked about retakes.

She said, "Nothing happened, thank goodness." So, with her permission, I decided that I will send her bio an extra photo I have from the Portrait Innovations package I got. They now give you two 10" X 13" pics, and I only need one. Hope he appreciates it, and that in the future he either coordinates with me to buy just one package together, or to take what I'm able to give him from the P.I. set (I like them MUCH better than Lifetouch... and they're so much cheaper, too!).