We had a big day yesterday with open house and all. Not for Fiona, so much, as she has been assigned a teacher we’ve had before and the one we’d hoped for this year. We’re absolutely delighted. We already have a couple of wonderful years with her already, between the kids, and there’s a good chance that Fiona will get to stay in her class for both 4th and 5th grades. Honestly, her teacher is not much like me—really a hands-on, energetic, enthusiastic sort--‘let’s get dirty and have fun and be engaged’, really practical, really no-nonsense type. Not like me at all, but still considerate and intellectual and idealistic. Just love her!
In fact, Fiona’s teacher actually became vegetarian back when Alex was in 5th grade with her. Her daughter already was veg, and she seemed to be influenced by Alex. Pretty cool, right? I think she requested Fiona this year. Super! She treats me really well, and, you know, sometimes I feel like I get a lot of undeserved credit for my fantastic kids!
Anyhow…Alex is the one who was confronted with the ‘big day’ at open house. He’s entering middle school with the big leagues now! Well, in comparison to last year, that is! Maybe this is really ‘little leagues’ still, as they’re still sequestered at Ellis Montessori with their small group of sheltered classmates. Will delay those ‘big leagues’ as long as possible, right?
So, Alex will be taking classes in blocks now, with teachers for each subject. This is a total shift from 6th grade, where he had two primary teachers deliver all his core classes. It was a little overwhelming, honestly, to visit with five instructors for him alone at the open house (four were male—how unusual for us and nice for Alex, for a change!). And that didn’t even include his Spanish teacher—from whom he’ll be taking classes daily!
I noticed with annoyance that the seventh graders begin their year with a quarter of ‘Health’ class, as well. Now that I think about it, though, that is completely optimal. At least, it should be. I think the issue is that we always had health classes administered by some bored, middle-aged gym teacher who could have cared less about all the important physiological and psychological issues that burgeoning teenagers are facing. They were saddled with the health class when they’d have preferred to be directing some team game. (Again, even more opposite of me!) Ellis, of all schools, however, is probably one of our best hopes for having an enlightened health teacher, and, upon second thought, I’m fostering a small hope that this health class might be just what we need. Alex is certainly going through major physiological changes at this time.
Alex’s gifted program is undergoing some changes at this time, as well, due to the middle school schedule. He won’t be attending GEP classes as such, directly. It’s becoming really more of an extracurricular outlet. It sounds as though he’ll be playing a 10-week virtual stock market game this fall and participating in Model UN in the spring, most likely—and I’m not sure that even includes the entire GEP middle-school population. As with extracurricular activities, I think it might be just on an as-interested basis. The GEP teacher shared that he will basically try to divvy up stolen time from the kids’ different classes. Not terribly structured, hmm? But how else to do it without eliminating one of their other classes, which no one wants to sacrifice—especially since these very same kids are already required to have a foreign language for their high school and college transcripts, taking one of the two ‘elective’ slots (and health the other ‘elective’ for the first quarter—so much for elective electives, right?)?
Summer seemed all too short, and the kids will be immersed in their studies come Monday. So lovely, at least, that they know the school and their classmates so well…
No comments:
Post a Comment