Tuesday, October 31, 2006

First Parent/Teacher Conference

Friday was the end of the first grading period at school and we got to meet with Brandon's teacher for the first time yesterday afternoon. It went well. She has observed the same things about him at school that we see at home:
1. Academically, he's doing well. He knows all of his letters, the sounds they make (except for Y), and is reading well.
2. Everything is a race for Brandon. He often sacrifices the quality of his work so that he can be the first one done. (At home, he likes to race to see who can clean up first, who can finish their dinner first, who can answer the door first, etc.) When we told him this was something Mrs. Bledsoe wants him to work on, he denied the accusation--"I always do my best, I'm just fast, too!" By the way, I was exactly this same type of student. I wanted to be the first one done with every assignment, so I know where he's coming from.
3. He needs improvement on his playground behavior. He is too rough with the other children. He is really into pushing, wrestling, etc. When they go outside to play. The rule is that they are supposed to keep their hands to themselves. Mrs. Bledsoe says he intimidates some of the other children because he's so physical.
4. He's very loud. He's a very social little boy and loves to talk to the other children all the time. He has figured out the rules about when they can/can't talk, but even at the times when it is allowed, his volume is stuck on high. This is SO true at home. We often have to tell him, "Honey, I'm right here. You don't have to yell!" His normal speaking voice is just several decibels higher than most other people. I've really noticed it now that we're practicing for our Primary Program at church. We have to tell all of the children to make sure their mouths' are right next to the microphone, but Brandon's voice is deafening when he does that. We have to ask him to back up a little bit. :)

Overall, I was very pleased with how the conference went. Even though he gets smiley faces on his behavior calendar pretty much every day, I kind of felt like his behavior was still questionable at times. It was good to hear that she has seen a lot of progress in him since the beginning of school. I'm proud of him.


Here's the big boy with a #4 that he made out of Jenga blocks yesterday. He thought it was cool that he could build something bigger than his whole body!

7 comments:

Sandy said...

OH, Parent-Teacher conferences...so far in my adult life, I've only been on the teacher end of these...I'm not sure how I'll feel about being on the parent end next year!! I'm glad that there weren't any surprises for you, though. And Brandon's #4 is very cool:) See? He's turning his learning at school into real life experience:)

Anonymous said...

Way to go Brandon! I think you had a great first-time parent teacher report. Andrew and Tony were both very non-physical, so it's fascinating to watch Brandon grow up since he's much more on the boy's boy/physical end of the spectrum! But he has the most tender heart of any kid I know, and each year master the "He-Man" side of his personality better and better.

Andrea and Whitney - you inspired my Halloween costume for work today! Instead of being a "Princess-Kitty" I was a "Princess-Cereal Killer" and it's a hit!

Love,
Mom

Anonymous said...

Good Job, B-Train. I think that sounds like a very good parent-teacher. If one of the concerns is that he speaks too loud, then there's not any "major" problems.

Anonymous said...

By the way, how's Whitney's potty training coming?

Anonymous said...

Hi, Brandon
Now that you've made a big four,
you should start work on duplicating
the Great Wall of China.

Laurie said...

I think Clayton and Brandon were cut from the same mold. That is probably exactly the report I'd get if C were in kindergarten this year. Very smart, very tender but VERY physical and loud and boy. It's good for me to hear that C is not the only one with this make up.

Jayne said...

What's interesting to me is that you have consistancy w/ Brandon between home and school. I don't have that at all. My quiet-at-school children are very loud at home, and vice versa.

Go figure.