Report Cards Are In

Two posts in one day..... wwwooowww.....

So, the girls (Kayla and Kayte) are headed to an ROTC competition in Orlando this afternoon. The main competition is on Saturday. I can't say that I get the gist of the whole thing... who can do the most sit-ups... who can run the fastest... who knows the most about the ROTC program.

But, it's supposed to be some kind of a big deal. Kayte called this morning because they forgot to pack their bathing suits for this trip. Everyone else is bringing suits, they forgot theirs.

Then she tells me they are going to the hotel early today so they have lots of time to play at the pool this afternoon (tomorrow is the big competition)... could I please bring them their bathing suits up to the school for thm? Well, I couldn't. First of all, I'm at work alone. One of my bosses is out of town, the other is at the hospital with his son, I am the only one here holding down the office. Chris is home, but he has no vehicle.

I also have to admit that the thought of going into Kayte's room to find a bathing suit scares the bejesus out of me. Her room is FULL of clothes and they have already had three or four days of washing clothes already. So... why they have three or four loads of laundry in hampers and tossed all over their room, on the floor, on the bed, and generally everywhere - I have no idea. But it makes my skin crawl seeing it and stepping into the room to look for something is NOT something I want to do.

Then I realized that the teacher was pulling them out of school today at 11 am. Why so early if they were just going to get to the hotel room and swim all afternoon? Grrrrr

No.... I didn't bring her a bathing suit. Not that I'm sitting her racked with guilt or anything.

Okay... I am - slightly.

I'm such a hard-ass sometimes.

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On the "GOOD NEWS" front.....

Chris and I are booked on a cruise! We'll be gone the 6th of March for a 4 day cruise for my 40-th birthday. I'm VERY excited, and can't believe we are actually going!

Kayla got her learners permit yesterday for driving, that puts TWO learners in the house thus far. Next year there will be FOUR. Lord help us!

More on Kayla the report cards are in and it's official. She has HONOR ROLL! Although last 9 weeks we THOUGHT she had honor roll, at the last minute, she ended up with one C. This is her FIRST TIME EVER making Honor Roll. She is VERY excited about it, and we are very proud of her. She is working very hard to stay on top of her grades and her assignments. Additionally, she is doing that WHILE balancing work AND a boyfriend. She's really doing a great job.

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I received an email from one of Justin's teachers today. You see, we have very simple rules here that we follow:

We check your grades on Edline (the school's online grading system). If you have a D you are on restriction from one thing. More than one D - you have more than one thing you are on restriction from. If you have an F - you are on "lock-down" restriction. This basically means you do nothing - no playing outside, no games, no videos, no computer, no nothing until your grade comes up. The POINT of that is so that you will spend all of your extra time studying.

Anyways...

Justin has had two F's on Edline. One of these was in Science. Now, he's had problems in Science before. Not with his grades so much as his behavior. This is the teacher who will email me to tell me when Justin is goofing off.

Well, Justin noticed that the Science teacher had a zero down for something that he should have had a 100% on. That's the benefit of Edline - you get to see each grade every day and when a teacher misses something, you know about it quickly. To get off lock-down restriction, all Justin needs to do is get something from the teacher showing us that his grade is no longer an F... But is now a D or better. Heck, if he brought it up to a C, he wouldn't be on restriction at all.

So, he goes to class today and tells her that he has a zero and should have had a 100. She looks at it and agrees, Justin is correct. BUT... her printer is broken and she can't print out a new sheet showing his correct grade. So, she tells him to wait here, and she'll run next door for him and use the teacher's printer next door.

While she is gone, Justin begins to play around with a boy behind him. She hears a ruckus from the other room and comes back to her classroom only to find Justin and this other boy 'play-fighting' in the classroom. Disrupting the rest of the class and most certainly playing around when she expected him to just sit tight for a minute while she ran next door to help HIM out.

Well, the teacher got mad.

She was so mad that she took his paper and ripped it to shreds.

After class, Justin told her that he really needed the print out so that he could get off restriction.

She handed him the shredded paper, then emailed me to tell me what happened so that - when I saw the paper all torn up - I would know why and what happened.

Justin - Justin - Justin!

I'm telling ya, this boy just won't stop playing around in class. He is SO smart, yet so incredibly immature.

Speaking of grades - I also got a call today from Kayte. Now, last 9 weeks (the one they just got their report card for today) Kayte had a TERRIBLE time in Math. I blogged about that - the teacher's teaching style wasn't working for Kayte. She wasn't learning. She was an A/B student who was failing the class.

Well, on Edline Kayte's grade was an F. However, in an email the teacher told me that her grade would become a D on her report card after her Final Exam was factored in. What does the D mean? Restriction. Flat out, no question, restriction. The rules are the same for all the kids.

Today Kayte gets her report card and guess what that grade was? A "C".

So, Kayte tells me "You put me on restriction for nothing." I was MAD MAD MAD.

First of all, I don't PUT them on restrictions, THEIR GRADES put them on restriction... So in essence, they put THEMSELVES on restriction. As of the last Edline posting of grades for Kayte last 9 weeks on December 20th, her grade was clearly an F. She saw it, I saw it. Now, it sure stinks that she was on restriction because we 'thought' her F was going to turn into a D, but it actually went up to a C. But, I by no means "put her on restriction for nothing".

As a matter of fact - in this regard - when it came to this class and this teacher - I really 'went to bat' for her. I fought to get her out of that class and to change teachers, even though the teacher wanted to fight it. The teacher didn't believe Kayte was giving it all she had - I knew Kayte was trying her best and just not understanding this teacher. The proof is in the results... Last nine weeks she had all F's and D's on her assignments... This nine weeks with a new teacher, she has all A's and B's. Same class - different teacher.

Kayte really knows what to say to push my buttons. Or, rather, it's not WHAT she says.... Kayte just has this attitude when she says things to me that just gets to me often times. My blood pressure is still up thinking about her saying that to me! OIE.

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We also had a note from one of Jonathan's teachers. He only did really bad in two classes as a result of being suspended. One was computers (he couldn't make up the assignments when he was in ATOSS as they don't have computers there) and the other was English.

He apparently took issue with some of the items on his report card. He went to the teacher and to the office today about his report card, and apparently - he was correct.

They had him down as having 10 "unexcused" absences in one class (a class where I had already written to the teacher telling her that he was in ATOSS which is excused and counted as present in class.) The other issue was his final exam in English. Apparently he failed it... but it was a "passing fail" - whatever that means.

This teacher sent me and email AND called the house today to make sure that we all knew that she had his report card and that Jonathan was correct in what he was telling us. He had a B his first 9 weeks of English, an F his second 9 weeks, and a 'passing F' on his exam -- which should give him an average of about a C or a high D for the first semester.

Although I was relieved to hear he passed, I still don't totally get the 'passing F' thing. Oh well.

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That reminds me of the other argument I had with Kayte today. She called me to tell me that she had a 2.8 GPA or something like that and that she was SO proud. I was less than proud, expecting it to be much higher.

She told me that all of her friends had about a 1.8, so she was the smartest of all her friends. I told her she needed to get smarter friends.

She told me that it wasn't like that.... that Freshmen can't get high GPA's. That they have to 'work their way up' over the course of their four years.

Now, I SERIOUSLY doubt this. But I told her that I would call the Guidance office and talk to them about it so that I could better understand what she was trying to tell me. I left a message for them, but as of yet haven't heard back as of yet. I'll let you know what they say when I hear back from them.

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I should run. It's Friday night and I just got home and the I've got to figure out what we are doing for dinner tonight.

Please keep all of use in your thoughts and prayers. We always need them - even when I don't get the opportunity to blog as much. They are still needed and always appreciated.