1st Quarter Teacher Conference

Pretty much what was expected.

Shane's doing fine academically. His math scores are superb. His reading scores were good last year, but they were significantly lower than I expected on his MAP test at the beginning of the year. I suspect a lot of that is because Shane does not want to sit still and read. He wants to move, talk, and interact. Always. Carrie and I have been making him read for ~20 minutes a day to earn electronics after school to try and help him focus on it a little more.

Behaviorally, Shane doesn't want to stop talking, humming, making fart noises, or interacting with those around him. If he does stop interacting, it's because he's engrossed in something and then doesn't want to transition or do anything else while he's super-focused. He's nice and kind about things, but he can also be stubborn about insisting on or explaining something before yielding.

The teacher had a story about how the school was having a lock-down drill at the beginning of the year. She gathered all the kids in a corner out of sight and then noticed Shane was not among them. Instead, he was sitting by himself in the middle of the room looking at a book. She called his name multiple times and went out to get him before he looked up and looked around. By then, the principal had come around and saw both of them through the door window. He pulled Shane afterward to talk to him.

So far, Shane still likes school overall. He lets me know when there's a good day, but he also lets me know when there's a rough day with misbehavior in the class (him or otherwise). One day, he wanted to let me know if the teacher called home it was because he burped so loud the kids in the other classes all heard him! Some of the charm seems to have worn off, but he (and his teacher) seem to be hanging in there.

Shane's teacher seems to be doing okay, but she sounds overwhelmed by the kids in some of his stories. Hopefully, that's not true. Shane is dramatic and a kid. He's not the most reliable narrator, but he's what we've got! I feel like we had two fantastic teachers already for Kindergarten and 1st Grade. Our expectations were sky-high, so even a good teacher would feel like a let-down.