Journey to Excellence

Eli ended his first semester of 2nd grade this week. He has met a couple of big goals and we are so proud of him! He had an Accelerated Reader (AR) goal of 10 points this quarter, which meant that he had to read 20 half-point books and get a 100% on the reading comprehension tests for them. He is still developing his reading skills and isn't ready for chapter books, so he has to read lots of books to meet his goal. He has really been into a series of non-fiction books about animals. He reads one almost every day. And he has to read each book twice before he can take the comprehension test on it. Usually he reads it to me after school and then to his daddy before he goes to bed. This week, however, I made him read one to Dawson instead of me. It was about naked mole rats. Yuck! This quarter I also started paying Eli $5 per week for every spelling test he got a 100% on at the Pre-test on Wednesdays. If the students get a 100% on the pre-test, they don't have to take the tes...

On Monday, Eli had his class Christmas party. They had snacks, made a couple of crafts, and had a Secret Santa gift exchange. Eli got a Nerf gun for his Secret Santa friend. The boy who drew his name happens to be one of his best friends. The kids each wrote four clues about who was their Secret Santa friend. They stood at the front of class and read the four clues and then the students tried to guess who it was. His friend gave these four clues about Eli: I have had dinner with him. He has long hair. He loves to play Wii . He doesn't like to watch movies. His friend knows him so well. Eli does not like to watch movies in class. A lot of movies scare him and he feels trapped in a classroom, so kind of freaks if he has to watch one. When they start to watch a movie, he gets up and goes out into the central pod and gets on the computer. He's always been like that and all the kids know that about him. As soon as the clues were read, his teacher said, "All togeth...

A little history. When Eli started having spelling tests last year in the 1st grade, he would have a lot of trouble keeping up with the pace. He would scream "WAIT!" when the teacher tried to move on to another word, when he was not done with the previous one. So, we decided that we would have him do his spelling tests with his Resource Teacher. Eli's Resource Teacher is an amazing woman, and her class is a safe place for him to land when he is needing some peace and quiet or some extra help with something. This year, at his meeting, we discussed having him take his tests on Fridays with his Reading Resource teacher again so as not to stress out Eli, the teacher, or the other students. But on Wednesdays, they have a pre-test for their spelling words and sentences. If a student gets 100% on the pre-test, he or she does not have to take it on Friday. He's had some bomb pre-tests, because he takes them in the classroom with the other students. His teachers and I di...