Today I've mostly bin...

[Bunnylump]

What Gill said actually even applies to young folk (no offence intended Dramaticat). When my son broke his pelvis, it took him several months to fully get back his balance. Now bearing in mind he's a basketball player (and therefore trains specifically to have good balance) that's quite a sobering thought.

[giraffe]

....to my third parents evening in a week. (harrassed parent smiley)
I didn't actually spot any teacher telling me about the wrong child (unlike last week ) but the history teacher thinks Lally is a confident, outgoing child who joins in class discussions. Probably a case of mistaken identity.

[Bunnylump]

That's probably, to be frank, a sign of a pretty rubbish teacher. The ones who are worth their salt will understand how a child ticks pretty quickly. Of course, it COULD be the case that this teacher is bringing out a previously unseen side to your daughter. But to be honest, I doubt it.

I had one out of 13 teachers say to me (when K was in year 7) that she thought that she had no understanding of chemistry and that she was copying answers from the girl next to her. And I just happened to know the girl in question who was definitely a case of 4 by 2 by 2 by 2.* I suggested to the teacher that it could be possible that the other girl was copying from K. She wouldn't have it, and insisted on recommending that she was moved from set 1, wait for it... to set 7 (of 8). K was at that time a straight A student.

That was one of those times I just thought there was no point in even discussing it, and rang the KS3 co-ordinator. She just laughed, and said she'd never heard anything so ridiculous in her life and had her moved back. I THINK it's fair to say we were right, as she got an A for chemistry at GCSE!!! The teacher was eventually sacked...

*Obviously official SEN terminology, that means two short, thick, planks.

[Biscuit]

i remember going to parents evening for my oldest daughter who was the child of mine who tries the hardest, always to do her best. She was only 5 and the criticisized that she was tidying up at the wrong times - the teacher felt she was testing her. I do wonder at their comments sometimes.

My middle daughter they said was disrupting the class by rolling her long socks up and down at storytime. - that was easy - i just put her in short socks.

Having had my son who was a real challenge to any teacher i wonder at their negative comments over the other two. I remember they complained that my son built structures out of his stationery instead of listening to the story but to be honest i have to doodle to stay concentrated so probably my fault (or inherited) - i try to doodle what is relevant to the notes i need.

[Bunnylump]

Hmmm, me too. If I don't doodle, I fidget. If I don't doodle or fidget then I find myself doing things like shredding paper (or beermats!!) or tapping. Too much energy and nowhere for it to go, that's my trouble. And if I get even remotely stressed (eg on a train journey) then when I get off I'm like a caged animal prowling about. It really is a DREADFUL affliction!! I wish I could stop it but I can't. My boss always laughs at me. When we have departmental meetings I generally have an A4 sheet COMPLETELY covered in doodles. At first she thought I wasn't paying attention, but then I explained that the big teardrop was when we were discussing IEPs, the weird 3D puddle was the School Improvement Plan, the spiderweb was the arrangements for Arts day and the intricate twisting leaves were peer observation techniques she looked a bit shocked!!

[Biscuit]

i was in a particularly stressful meeting at work and hadnt been concentrating then someone looked at my book and commented on the fact that i had drawn a man being hanged. oh dear me. that didnt go down too well

[Bunnylump]

OOps!!

[pebbles]

Bunny, I will give him virtual a hug from you. Thank you! He is looking at two to three months off work!

I have made him take the painkillers, but they are not helping much because he has not got the right support for his shoulder. A&E told him that he should go to the fracture clinic at his local hospital. No appointments until next week, so he has to go back to Charing Cross on Thursday morning.

[MBH]

the weird 3D puddle was the School Improvement Plan

.
That sounds about right

[dramaticat]

Be careful dramaticat!

A girl I worked with moons ago broke her lower leg. She went to get her cast off and came back with one on her other leg. She couldn't control the weakness in the leg she'd had the cast on and fell- and broke the other leg bone on the way down to the floor!!! Double poop or what

Bloody hell

Don't worry - I'm being cautious.

[dramaticat]

Having had my son who was a real challenge to any teacher i wonder at their negative comments over the other two. I remember they complained that my son built structures out of his stationery instead of listening to the story but to be honest i have to doodle to stay concentrated so probably my fault (or inherited) - i try to doodle what is relevant to the notes i need.

The teacher should have asked him to give a summary of the story at the end - I bet he could have done!

[LAT]

Don't you find you can tell the teachers who actually like children and are good at their job from those who are just doing it because they can't think of anything else to do, or even worse, because they like to bully the children? Yes it must be hard to remember all the children you teach but surely a bit of effort to talk about the right child is part of what is expected.

Glad to hear you are being careful Dramaticat. You really don't want to do any more damage!

And I doodle, fidget and natter pointlessly all the time. That's probably part of the reason I am getting lonely out here. Still I'm a bit happier this evening, although I just had to say goodbye to my son over the phone as I won't see him again until June.

[MBH]

although I just had to say goodbye to my son over the phone as I won't see him again until June.

I'm sure he'll only be a "click" away

[tricia]

LAT wrote:
although I just had to say goodbye to my son over the phone as I won't see him again until June.

What about getting a web cam for you both - not that I know anything about them - at least you will be able to see him

Tricia

[tricia]

posted the same one twice

Sorry

[Bunnylump]

I'm sure he'll be having a fantastic experience though, LAT. And even better that the clever boy has organised himself a job to come back to as well! And there is still the internet and his mobile phone, so you should get updates...

...Trying to teach a boy, who thought that a sentence like "me and my dad and fred done the tent then i said to fred we got our fones so dad ort to let us go of exporring" was ok about SUBORDINATE CLAUSES. Really, what's the POINT of that??

[giraffe]

[quote="LAT"]
Yes it must be hard to remember all the children you teach but surely a bit of effort to talk about the right child is part of what is expected.

quote]


It must be hard to remember all the children you teach, but this was the Music GCSE class. The teacher was the head of music and she clearly cannot tell K from her friend. They do have very similar names, but as K is SO involved in music at the school she is the one teacher I would have expected not to have her ruler under the wrong child's name and be reading out the wrong scores.

LAT I'm sure your son will have a great time.

Bunnylump that's why it is so important that their speech is corrected at an early stage, but I doubt primary schools bother to correct how they speak. It's probably not PC.

[Wulfruna]

Just been on the phone to my son, too
Unfortunately this is mainly because he is still cut off from the internet at the moment....... Hope you all spotted Gill's announcement (see "announcements") about the February issue - explaining that Scurra has an internet connection problem. The engineers have been out to investigate but have not been able to identify the exact problem - they are dealing with it as an external "outage" in the area, but it has now been off for quite a while, with no sign of a solution. They may need to come back to check out his own connection as well, so it could yet take longer...
So please be patient if when you get your magazines you can't get onto the puzzles online. He will send out passwords and open up the site as soon as he possibly can.
We'll just have to revert to good old pencil and paper for the time being
And, of course, while the Jester's away............

[gill216]

And in the meantime, if anyone is super speedy and wants to check any answers them send me a PM.

[dramaticat]

... closer to taking a proper step rather than hobbling.

I'm still using the wheelchair during the day while I'm alone at home, but I'm going to try and manage on crutches only at the weekend. I'm being very good and doing my exercises four times a day.

I'm already feeling more stable on my (two) feet.