How I made Morgan's teacher cry

After Morgan's last report card, we gave her a challenge. We told her that if she improved on the two area's that we felt she needed to improve the most, following classroom rules (raising her hand to speak) and verbal self control, there would be a very special surprise for her. It was our first attempt at a long term goal and reward, and definitely our first experience with this and grades. She told us she could do it and so we challenged her to do it.

As we've gotten closer and closer to today, report card day, I've asked her periodically if she was going to be getting a surprise and she's told me that she was. She keeps asking me what it's going to be and I honestly hadn't settled on anything. It's a tough thing....this is the precedence for future report cards and so I wanted it to make an impression, but didn't want to go overboard, considering what we were actually asking her to do. Her guess? Disneyland. Yeah....ummmm....not so much!

I was pretty sure she was going to have shown improvement in those areas, so as an opportunity arose to take a trip to the SF Zoo on Thursday with some friends, I clamored for it. First of all, I haven't been to the SF Zoo in over 10 years, so you know Morgan has never been. She's such a zoo an animal person that I thought she would really enjoy it. Not to mention that since she is off of school on Thursday and Friday, it would be a great thing for us to go do.

Now that I had my game plan, I was ready to go to the conference and get her report card. Since I'm in the class a lot, I pretty much know how she's doing. I know how she compares to the other kids and the areas that she continues to struggle with. I wasn't expecting any surprises. First thing I was handed was her report card for P.E. and music. She got all normal scores except that she apparently can't catch or throw a ball. I was a little baffled by the not being able to throw a ball thing. I mean, I know she can! But, apparently the "yes" standard is for them to take a step forward with one leg and throw the ball with the opposite arm after the step. Which I'm sure she could totally do if I had known that's what she was going to be tested for, I could have prepared her for that. Ah well.

Next, it was time to go over her report card. She did so great! They are graded on a scale of 1 to 4, with four being "exceeds" standards". She had soooooo many fours! So good to see. The areas that she was supposed to show improvement on before, she had. Hooray! I went through each line item with her teacher and we talked about where Morgan is now vs. where she's supposed to be to go to first grade. In most cases, she's ready for first grade, if not already at a first grade level. I'm so proud! Her teacher reiterated how wonderful it is that Morgan has such a desire to learn and how nice it is to have students like that. We talked about her reading assessment. She's at an 8 and she needed to be at a 4. Her teacher expects her to be at a 12 by the end of the year and the standard for students starting Kindergarten is a 6. She's doing great and I couldn't be prouder. I actually started to cry at this point because this has been such an awesome thing to witness.

You see, last year around this time as we were preparing for Kindergarten, there was one thing that Morgan would always tell everyone when they asked if she was looking forward to Kindergarten. She would tell them that she couldn't wait to learn how to read. To see her come full circle and actually being able to read now, at an accelerated rate at that, is so cool! She's over that hump where reading is more work than fun and so she'll actually go get books on her own and sit down and read them. She is a reader. She comes from a long line of readers, so this is something that I'm so happy to see. There's so much to be said about a love of reading! As I'm wiping away my tears, Morgan's teacher is tearing up, too. She has so much love for her students and really enjoys seeing them learn and mature. She could feel the same thing I felt - how proud we were that Morgan set out to learn to read and here she is reading on her own. Seeing her love of it is icing on the cake. Morgan's teacher recognized what a cool thing that was and shared that feeling with me. I just love her!

But the amazing thing, and I know that I risk coming off as an overly proud parent -- which is probably an accurate statement, is that she ALSO is doing wonderfully in math as well. She can easily count and write to 100 and is doing simple addition and math problems. Soon they will start on subtraction and go further with money. These are beyond Kindergarten concepts,where by the end of the year they only need to be able to get to 30. To see her accelerating in math as well as reading is just more than I could hope for. She really has been a joy in this area and I just couldn't be prouder.

SF Zoo here we come!!