School stuff

I was planning an upbeat post for today as the last one was just downright depressing!  Thanks Stacey and Clarissa for supporting me in my whine fest. Just for the record, donations of chocolate and other comfort type food are much appreciated during my moments of ranting / raving / crying etc. Thanks!

I think I may have mentioned it but I spend a lot of time at our school.  Boy Child and Girl Child go to the local school.  It’s government run and has about 500 or so students there.

Last night was their end of year concert. There were lots of performances: the preschool, the kindys, the 1/2’s, etc.  And the school  Brass band – Year 5 and Year 6, the choirs, senior and junior and the children who had been dancing one lunchtime a week with one of the teachers. 

I find school concerts  are one of those things were people tend to watch their child but manage to talk through acts that their child is not involved in.  I’m not sure if those people frustrate me more or less than the people sho just show up for their own child’s act and then leave.  Probably more because the people who leave give you more space and generally don’t talk through the acts.

My perhaps not so upbeat thought of the day is that we may have another 12 years of school concerts to endure attend. 

Anyway the concert was a nice family event.  Chatted with a lot of people and watched the performances.

While I’m on the whole school discussion thing one of the things I have spent most of this year doing is listening to and helping some Year 5 and 6 children reading.  I started in Term 2 and have probably spent about 100 hours listening to various children read.  I started with 3 children permanently and one occasionally with another parent helping.  One student got to a good decent reading level and was about the same time as the other parent couldn't make it anymore.  Then I was asked to help / check a number of students from one class.  So all in all I had 6 students read consistently generally twice a week some every day and listened to a number of others occasionally.

It was great to see these kids progressing, moving up the levels and getting it!  One child broke my heart in Term 3.  I was asking were their parents aware that they were reading with me and how they thought they were going.  The answer blew me away.  “I’m not stupid anymore, I can read now.”

This child had thought that not being able to read well meant stupidity.  They felt that they were dumb.  This child’s self esteem had risen so much because reading was becoming easier.  My response was ”Oh, mate.  You were never stupid.  You just needed practice.”

That child was my inspiration and reason to keep going. Even when some kids didn't want to read with me and played up.  When a particular child would refuse to go with me to read and would only consider it with the other child from that class went first. 

Having the opportunity and time to read with these kids was a high point for my year. Knowing that spending one on one time just listening to someone reading can change how they feel about themselves.  Spending one on one time with another child who could read well but is the eldest of 7 and apparently doesn't seem to get much time to read with an adult seemed to help that child.  I think the devoted adult attention helped that student too.

All the kids I read with improved.  Even if they only read for 10 minutes once a week they still moved through the levels and their comprehension improved. I’m proud of them all.