The morning after.

I. Am. Ex. Austed.

My last 2.5 hours of conferences actually flew by, but not in the 'fun' sense. They were busy and fast and WEIRD.

For example, I had a mom come see me about her daughter's B-. Really? I don't know...maybe I've been teaching there too long, but a B- is NUTHIN'. I've seen parents praise their kids for a B-, and I've seen them say "B- in COMPUTERS? But you're on the computer all day! How'd you get a B-?"

(Note to parents: just because your kid can turn on the damn computer doesn't mean that they are proficient, nor does it mean they're turning in the work they're assigned.)

Anyway, this mom comes to see me, and I'd never seen this woman before in my life. Most of the time, that's a good thing. If you don't need to see parents, their kids are generally pretty swell. So Mom comes in and asks if she can speak to me about Linda's* grade. I said okay, but I had to ask which Linda, because there are about 10 of them in the school. We have to call them by their first name and last initial...Linda R.......Linda G.......Linda A.....Linda S.....

Mom turns around, says something in Spanish, and in walks Linda. I laughed.

This particular Linda is probably the one kid in that class I don't worry about. I'd never met her mom, but you just knew that her mom was riding her and not only asking if she did her homework, but checking up on her and actuallying doing her homework with her. This mom knows what happens everyday, who her teachers are, when she has gym class, and if she doesn't eat lunch by 12 she's going to get a little nauseous. She's a MOM.

I explained to her that Linda is one of the brightest in the class, but her constant talking in the last month of the quarter brought her down. When I said that, Linda made a face, Mom made a face, and Linda looked at Mom with that "Sorry! Oops...?" face. I explained that we're working on switching seats and hopefully she won't be so close to people that she's prone to talking to (but Linda's a nice kid, so she's friends with just about everyone). Mom is cooperative and put the blame fully on her daughter, and her daughter is a good kid; very cooperative, attentive, and bright. One of the ones you really enjoy having in class.

My next conference was pretty sucky. I happened upon it by accident, actually. I was walking downstairs to find another parent and found one I'd requested a conference with last time but it didn't happen. This was the kind of conference that was emotionally draining, really. Single parent with a kid who's pretty much out of control. She didn't make excuses for her kids but admitted that she didn't know how to handle things and was getting really stressed out. I felt for her but that conference lasted until 7:30 p.m. and the day ended at 7:00. Yeesh. I packed up my crap and ran out as fast as I could after that one.

I'm so glad I'm finally on break. I love that I can relax and stay in my pjs all day if I want. I LOVE that I don't have to think about working until next week.

And once we get back: 7 more weeks!