{teacher teacher}

If you've read my blog for any amount of time (or happen to know me in real life), you know that I have a younger sister (two actually, and a younger brother). My first younger sister is Emily. She graduated almost a year ago from college and is a teacher. Full fledged teacher! I kid you not! An elementary teacher! A FIRST grade teacher!

I probably have never said this to my sister (we don't do all mushy gushy), but I am SO proud of her. Of course there was never any doubt in my mind that she would do great things, I mean, she does take after her older sister who is pretty awesome. For as long as I can remember Emily has wanted to be a teacher. There were no other career options for her. Me, on the other hand, I've wanted to become it all... architect, archaeologist, forensic pathologist, speech and language pathologist, and now audiologist. For some reason, I have a knack for picking careers that involve a TON of schooling! What the hey!

I've heard many a story from my sister about the adventures of teaching, and teaching at such a young age. People, I LOVE my son to death, but 20 of him in a classroom ALL day long... definitely would drive me to the loony bin faster than anything else, that is for sure! In my opinion (you know, because it matters SO much), teachers, of any age group/grade level, are AWESOME! Yes, there are bad teachers out there, but I am hoping there are more great than bad. And friends, my sister is one of those great teachers. I say this not just because is my sister, but because I know so. If Ayden weren't my son and Emily were not his aunt, I would totally want her teaching him! Needless to say, that probably wouldn't go over well in the classroom with a bunch of other students, but still.

We have been lucky so far with Ayden's teachers. He has had a great kindergarten, first grade, and second grade teacher. I fell in love with his second grade teacher. She was SO kind and helpful, especially with all of my concerns about Ayden's reading. And what's more, he has had two wonderful speech and language therapists so far. The one at his last school was so sad to see us leave. His previous school will always hold a special place in my heart. Okay, now I am getting all sentimental about missing Stevens Point and I don't want this to turn into one of those kind of posts. It will just make me miss it even more. (Yes, I still go through Point withdrawals, so sue me!)

Ayden's current teacher, although I've only met her twice now, seems great as well. I have been in touch with her regarding his reading, we've all met with the SLP at the school, and I think Ayden is on track for a wonderful third grade experience. I am very excited to see what adventures await him this year! One thing that has gotten on this mommy's heart though is the fact that the teacher writes percentage scores and letter grades on the student's homework. It probably wouldn't have gotten to me so badly had little man not come home with an 'F' on one of his assignments. We are fresh into a new school year and wouldn't you know it, first 'F'. I guess in Chilton, in third grade, they start getting letter grades. I know Ayden has no idea what an 'F' actually means. To be honest, the page also said 'please redo'. I had no problem with having Ayden sit down and redo the assignment, but I guess the letter grade was just harsh to me because I want Ayden to do so well. My child is FAR from perfect and actually, as much as I hate to put it into words, I do not feel like he will excel in school like I did. Yes, Ayden is very smart is different areas, I just happen to think that at times school is going to be a struggle for him. It also hurt because then it had me wondering if I did everything I could to prepare him for this assignment. Apparently it was a science quiz that was open book. I cannot remember in the first news letter that the teacher sent home if she dictated what the science quiz would be on and so I'm wondering if maybe we should have been preparing with Ayden for this particular quiz which makes me feel like a failure as a parent.

Oh and now we have weekly spelling words that we need to work on and my dear child is just LOVING that! Insert sarcasm here! Is it wrong that I bribed him with a $1 for each spelling test that he gets a 100% on? My child needs some sort of external motivation to want to do good in school and on assignments. None of this, you should do good to make yourself proud thing will work for him right now. Plain and simple. It did hurt to know that he didn't want to get a 100% because then he would get the challenge words and he didn't want the challenge words because he knew they were going to be hard. Aw buddy, you are SO smart, you don't even know! So, yes, we did have a talk about wanting to do good and knowing that he can do good. Keeping my fingers crossed for today's test!

Okay, back to the point, my sister is an AMAZING teacher and love her to death! Definitely appreciating her more as a sister and a friend now that we are older and that we live closer to each other again. And, Emily, if you are reading this... not that it matters to you much, but John is okay in my book too! If he gets little man's approval, he gets little man's mom approval too! You have the okay to keep him around for a long time, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!