Report Cards

Three times a year, we teachers hunker down, furiously marking and assessing to have something worthwhile to tell parents about how well (or not so well) their lovely cherubs are fairing at school. The comment section of the report cards are the most time consuming, where for each child I average about 300 words...a small essay. It's amazing how many ways a teacher can disguise negative behaviours into a more positive comment. The language is just rolling of my tongue this week...

For aggressive fighter child: Name has been working on displaying increasing amounts of self control when interacting with peers and solving problems with words only.

For child who is always centre of attention: Name is learning to listen more actively and respectfully when others are speaking. He is learning to raise his hand when he has something to share.

For child who is completely clueless: Name is encouraged to be more aware of the world around her and to increase her general knowledge.

Sometimes what I really want to say is...

Name is an active child who just cannot keep his fingers out of his nose. He is unable to sit still for even a minute and I am not sure that he is physically able to raise his hand when he would like to speak. He cannot read to save his dear life and his penmanship is absolutely atrocious. What is the point of lined paper I ask?

On that note...back to my reports. Thanks for the vent.