Nathan's parent teacher conference

I know I have not wrote about Nathan’s parent teacher conference, but I am finally at a place where I can write something down without wanting to cry. I met with Nathan’s teacher four weeks ago.
Some of the things we discussed were things that I was expecting. He doesn’t want to sit still. He doesn’t want to take his time doing school work. Unfortunately he had been caught cheating off another students test....not once, but twice. We discussed possible things to help improve his reading performance and his attitude in school.

I was told that Nathan is currently reading 32 words a minute and the class average is 62 words. In my head I am thinking that he needs to improve a 100% just to catch up with the rest of his class. Then she tells me that they want the class to be reading over a 100 words a minute by the end of the school year. I instantly think that he needs to improve almost 250% by the end of the year to be on track with rest of his classmates and that seems like a near impossible task.

Then the bombshell dropped. I could tell from the teachers’ expression that she did not like what she had to tell me. She hands me a letter that stated (and I paraphrase here) that the governor of Ohio signed in a new law that states that unless you pass your third grade proficiency test, you will be held back that year. And Nathan is currently not on track to pass the reading portion of the test. I could tell from her facial expressions and some of the things she said that she does not like this new law, but there is not much she can do about it. I went in shock mode. My mind is running a million miles a minute but I am struggling to form a coherent thought.

I asked what we could do to turn things around so he would not have to be held back as a third grader. If she gave me an answer, I do not remember what she may have told me. I do recall her saying let’s see how his appointment goes with the doctor on the 24th of October (the one where the doctor was going to determine if he needed to be on meds for his ADHD).

I waited a few days and a weekend to think about everything we had discussed. That following Monday I composed a lengthy e-mail to his teacher and asked all sorts of questions (some of which I eluded to in my post about Darren’s parent teacher conference). I was the quintessential mother bear protecting her cub and I was not going to let Nathan be held back without a fight. I was told that there were a hundred and one steps to take before he could be put in a LD class, and we had to follow all the steps. Suddenly in my mind, the medicine went from critical for my sanity and relationship with Nathan to a miracle drug.

I did get a note from Nathan’s teacher last Friday that stated she saw an improvement in his attitude, behavior, work ethic and work quality. Hopefully this medicine will give him the boost he needs to get on track with his class so that he can pass the third grade proficiency test.