ahh parent teacher conferences…

so just a quick update, we are working and hopefully stopping the exposing behavior. that being said we got to go to conferences today. they do them differently now, the student will evaluate themselves on the past marking period as well as goals that were set up at the beginning of the year. kevin nick his mom and i all sit around a table and talk about his grades, effort and conduct in school, what needs improving and how to go about that. as a kid i would think this would be a nightmare, but nick handles himself very well. minus the fact that his mom brought along his little sister, who is 15?? months old and is a MAJOR distraction to nick, and then his mom and i think finally nicks homeroom teacher, who towards the end was looking a little more than frustrated with the distractions she was causing to nick and to his mom. the whole time his mom sat there and played with nicks sister, not really caring what was going on with nick and his teacher. the little girl was running around the room, throwing bottles out of the recycling bin and really looking for nicks attention. meanwhile, nicks teacher and kevin and i are trying to get nick to focus on what he was saying, absorb what his teacher was telling him and work out strategies for the final marking period. periodically his mom would just walk away, mid sentence, to go get the kid and bring her back. the add thing really is the apple not falling far from the tree! we have had nick full time for the past seven months and there have been some major improvements. his grades have been steady and for the most part his effort and conduct. he has only had two detentions this year compared to i do not even know how many last year, and for the most part he enjoys school. but to have his mom just disregard the conference so much that even nick picked up on it was really annoying. i know i am not perfect in any sense but i really felt bad for nick and can really understand where he is coming from when there is just a lack of something (i cannot really figure out what it is) from his mom. i have to say i am really proud of nick for doing so well in school considering the first day of school was the day after he saw his mom beat by her drunk boyfriend and had to call the cops. not to mention he was removed from that situation that day and has not gone back, except for weekend visits. i know i wouldn’t have handled the situation that well at that age. he just does not give himself enough credit which i guess is where i come in? not sure, but now it is a beautiful afternoon and all i want to do is go someplace quiet with a good book, maybe one that i ordered over two weeks ago will show up in my mail box and completely make my afternoon!! one can hope.

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