Friday and My Attitude!

The Meet and Greet Friday was a success at school. I tried to count how many showed up but gave up early on. I was distressed to hear that two students would almost immediately miss extended days of school. One of the boys, an 8th grader, will do fine. He could probably miss a month and come back with every assignment finished and not skip a beat re-entering the rhythm of the classroom. The other boy, a 7th grader, is new. His mother was quick to tell me that he suffers from ADD and she is more than willing to help him with his work. That probably means she'll do his work for him. He's going to miss a few days the first week of school. I just looked at her and wanted to ask her what in the world she was smokin' but I resisted and told her to be sure to check in at the office because they would need to excuse the absence. Of course she wants his work. He'll be there the first day but nothing after that for a while.

My husband and I talked about this kind of mentality at length today. We never missed school for fun. Well, I never did. Hubby was allowed one day a year to go hunting with his family. I won't mention what I think of that kind of outing. I have decided that this year I'm not going to ruin my day by getting upset when less than average students get pulled out for days of fun in the sun, or whatever they're doing. People don't get it. They just do not understand that struggling students need to be in school every single solitary day! Routine matters, consistency matters, getting every opportunity to learn matters. But I'm tired of getting upset about this. I'm sure my blood pressure flies to the moon when I get the message a few days before the departure, even though the policy is clearly written that we must have two weeks notice.... right.

I want this to be a good school year. The potential is there but starting with this kind of stuff does not make me a happy camper. So... hummmm, hummmm, I'll just chill out and let come what may. I'll focus on the student who came to me all upset because the 56 spaces on her book list weren't enough to record all the books she read over the summer and she used notebook paper for the rest but could she please, please, please have another book list sheet (or two) so she could make it right! I'll think about the four students who brought in their summer projects ahead of time so they didn't have to carry them on the first day of school. I'll remember the boy who did his required project but then did an extra one because he liked the idea of it. I'll think about the girl who did all four possible projects, because she could. It will be a good year; I am claiming that right now!