music to my ears

Yesterday, I got a call from Mrs. Banks at work. Normally, she would have been tutoring SJ, since it was a Wednesday. I had cancelled the tutoring appointment, since we were headed to the Pirates game that evening. Immediately, I assumed he had gotten into some trouble at school. I always assume the worse (they are boys!).


She said she had spoken to his teacher, Mrs. Hazelnut. Mrs. Hazelnut co-teaches his English/Language Arts class. He had been taking the state mandated tests since Monday. She wanted to see how SJ was handling the tests. This was a fair question, because in the past he has not handled them very well.


She was happy to report that Mrs. Hazelnut told her that he has been doing a fabulous job. He hasn't complained, grumbled or had a meltdown all week. She said he has been cooperative and has worked very diligently on the language arts portion of the tests (math is next week).


I was so happy to hear this. It was music to my ears. Mrs. Banks also said that she told Mrs. Hazelnut that he has hardly complained to her about reading in their tutoring sessions as well. I said, "I have a theory." I told her that I think he is working so hard, because he believes that he will be able to be in a "regular" language arts class in 9th grade if he does well on these tests.


She agreed with my theory. She also said that she thinks it is great that he has realized that maybe he could be out of co-taught language arts if he does better on the tests. We won't know until the end of the school year how he does. For his sake, I hope all his hard work pays off!

8th grade tutoring #10 and #11

Two weeks ago, SJ had his weekly tutoring session with Mrs. Banks. Before the session started, I got a text from Mrs. Banks. This was our exchange.

"I'm in the basement and have called for SJ. No sign of life upstairs."

"Ok. I will text him."

I then called SJ. He answered immediately. I told him that Mrs. Banks was waiting for him. He said he didn't want to have tutoring. I told him that was too bad and if he didn't go downstairs immediately there would be big trouble when I got home.


I sent Mrs. Banks another text.

"I just talked to him. He should be down shortly."

"He arrived."

After his session was over, I sent her a follow up text. I thought SJ may have given her a hard time. Here are our text exchanges.

"How was he today?"

"He was good. He really didn't complain. We talked about his birthday and Easter and then read a really long chapter. He remembered all of the details too."

"Yeah!"

Last week, SJ was waiting for Mrs. Banks when she arrived (I gave him several reminders in the morning). She sent me a text after their session was over to update me on his progress. Here is our exchange.

"SJ did well tonight. We finished reading Chapter 2 and began Chapter 3. He was able to find a lot of answers to the questions. We had a good discussion about a new character that was added to the story."

"Glad to hear. I guess he was ready for you today?"

"He was in the kitchen when I came in. He grumbled down the steps and then happily read with me."

"Good. Better than last week."

I had cancelled his appointment the next week (yesterday), because we had plans to go to a Pirates game. More to come in two weeks.