Encouraged

On Friday, Chris and I both had parent teacher conferences. While they're only have way done [to be completed on wednesday] we both walked away feeling encouraged. Not that either of us expected them to go horribly, but there's always that fear right?! Even some of the ones I expected to be the hardest went incredibly smooth. I was thankful for understanding parents who could still view their children as 6 and 7 year olds.    [Sooo much pressure is put on kids here at such an early age. They leave school only to go to extra math, mandarin, bahasa, piano, violin, and any other lesson you can think of! They're only 6 for cryin' out loud! Let them be kids!]      Okay, I just needed to rant for a bit :)


From Chris's mouth: "I was worried that my first parent teacher conferences would look more like the scene from Beauty and the Beast where the parents would assault my classroom with torches an pitchforks, and none of the desks would defend me." It's safe to say they were nothing like that! They went really well, and he said the parents just asked questions about how their students were doing, and he was prepared to answer them. Easy peasy lemon squeazy! :)

The parents of my kids were so great. I don't get to see most of them because the nannies bring the kids to school and pick them up, so it was nice to meet with them. One dad told me how thankful he was that his son was in my class. He said he asked his son last year if he thought his teacher loved him, and he said no, which broke the father's heart. He said he asked him the same question this year, and his son said, "Yes, I know Mrs. Katie loves me." I wanted to cry right there! I'm so thankful that they are able to see love through my discipline. It's so hard trying to walk the line of fun and discipline. Of course I want to be that fun teacher that all the kids love, but they will walk all over you if you don't establish strict expectations first. They say the rule is "no smiles until Christmas" so technically I have 2 more months to go! ;)

Another mom said that her son absolutely loves school now! She hesitated to put him in our school last year because she was afraid it wouldn't run smoothly since it was the first year open. Her son didn't like school because his teacher was so strict and he became afraid to speak in class. He's still pretty shy and I'm working on getting him to participate more, but I'm so thankful he is happy! She said he asks her all the time why she didn't let him come last year, because "Mrs. Katie is so much nicer!" I guess God was trying to tell me through conferences that I'm not a mean teacher even though I feel like it some days. [I made them miss all of their morning break twice last week because they weren't respectful to another teacher]. They know I don't put up with that!

One last comment I just have to throw in here. . .
This cute little Korean mom told me [through a translator] that her daughter is always telling her friends at their apartment that she has the prettiest teacher ever! It's from a first grader,  I know. . . but I'll take it :)

AND...

What's a blog post without pictures right?! Here's some random ones from our classrooms. . .

New additions to my class during our butterfly unit!

More wall art

Exploring the sense of touch

Recognize these Addie? :)

Fun with shapes

Mr Chris Cam

The "Great Wall" . . .puns like his dad!