School Troubles

While on the way to the dentist, Shane dropped a "By the way," of by-the-ways to Carrie. I thought she did a good job writing it up, so I'm stealing her post and putting it here.

Rarely do I post this often, but in this case I feel compelled to. This morning I spent the better part of a hour with my son's elementary school principal. Shane was jumped/attacked by a group of kids. Why? Because...... he was trying to save a frog. 

Shane found a frog in the sun and scooped it up to put it back into the woods in a marshy area he had seen before. At first he was surrounded by kids asking to see it..... then asking to have it..... then came the bribes ("if you let me have it, I'll give you something")..... then came the threats ("give me the frog or I'll punch you")...... then came the physical attacks. Shane was tripped, punched, kicked, sworn and cussed at. Although he cried out for help, he kept letting himself be hit. Why? Because he refused to stop protecting the frog because he was afraid of what they'd do to it.

The school is mid investigation and one child has already been removed from his class. Two weeks of school left and this is the memory my son will have when he leaves. I hurt as a parent. I hurt as a mom. But at the same time I couldn't be MORE PROUD of my son! He protected that little frog and stayed true to himself. I love you, Shane. You're my hero.

I let Shane know I was proud of him for doing what he felt was right regardless of what the odds were against him. "You're my brave boy!"

New Vocabulary Acquisition

Shane ran over more excited than usual when I picked him up today. 

"Dad! You'll never guess what happened! Someone at one of the girls' tables wrote a bad word on it!" he said.

"Oh?" I replied

"Yeah! It was F-U-C-K. I don't know what it means," he said. "What does it mean? How do you say it?"

I was tempted to reply, "Sound it out."

I didn't. I was tempted, not stupid (Though the idea of Shane mispronouncing it and thinking it was "Fook!" is hilarious).

I stayed stoic and said something, like, "Yup. That was naughty. What else happened today?"

Shane moved on to the next topic and I started composing the tale in my mind. After Carrie was upset about "D-I-C-K," I'd said, "At least it wasn't an F-bomb!"

Shane's Report Card

There's a lot more writing than first quarter. I think some of it sounds like a form letter with data typed in. It mentions a parent-teacher conference, but no forms have come home. I actually wouldn't mind a conference to hear about how he's doing.....which I wonder if I should think about that more with my own students. I'm not a big fan of calling home, but it can be a powerful tool for building a relationship with a family.

I won't do this every year. Shane's getting to the point he's too old to post too much about him.

First Day of 2nd Grade - 2018

We got Shane to smile for a first day of school picture.

And thankfully Carrie took it quick, because the smile didn't last.

I tried to be a good example (time time...).

Rah walked over to see us off. He rides a different bus for 5th grade with a pick up time 40 minutes later. However, he was up and out, so he hung out with us.

Carrie and I showed up at 5:15 PM to pick Shane up from CLASS and found him under a table.

If you thought Shane would be tired on his first day and ready to come home, you'd be wrong. He was embedded like a tick and didn't want to leave!

"I just started to play!"

We gave him a few minutes before forcing him to come home. I didn't help when I suggested Shane try different colored blocks to see if it made his 'top' change colors when it spun.

The first day may not have gone well in his actual class, though.

"You have to make a lot fewer mistakes in 2nd grade. Like, A LOT fewer," Shane said. "I made some too many. If I made too many more [the teacher] said she'd call home!"

He went into a tale about "finger dancing quietly on the desk" and some other things.  "All you do is FOCUS. All day you focus. Yeah."