Tamer Things II

OMG.  It’s not a fluke (as I half-feared when I went to bed last night).  They really are tamer.  Calmer.  More focused.  And most importantly, LEARNING!

I’ve never had a class like this one, where I doubted on a daily basis my ability to get through to them and teach them the standards they’re supposed to learn.  (California has a lovely, enlightened, thoughtful set of standards on all subjects at each grade level.  All public school parents ought to know about them.  All public school parents ought to hold their children’s schools accountable for teaching them.)

But today and yesterday together delivered a broad beam of hope.  Evey one of them, excepting my lovely, lanky Yadira, improved their reading fluency (how many words they can accurately read in one minute) by over 20 words and many by over 40 words.  And they all, every last one of them, have learned how to write a coherent, meaningful, paragraphed friendly letter.  They are become citizens of the world who can communicate their ideas and feelings.

BTW.  Griselda.  Today the Department of Child Services sent me a letter:  the allegations of abuse were deemed to be unfounded or unsubstantiated.  So much for cheer.