Advisory: this is a chatty, kind of ranty, non-quilting related post.
We went to my grand daughter Eva's second grade open house last night. She was so proud to show us around her classroom, pointing out her projects on display and her art work on the walls. She was especially excited to show us the huge amount of work she put into this life size paper rendition of her organs and skeletal structure. In the picture, she is showing us her brains! It has been a great year for her. Up to a point...
I am going to backtrack here. Last year Eva was placed in a combination kindergarten/first grade class. Typically combo classes are a challenge and are assigned to well seasoned, organized teachers. Not in this case. The teacher was teaching for the first time ever, was listless and socially inept. She could not even make eye contact when speaking with parents. I decided to volunteer to help her in the classroom, because if you can't see anything good in a situation, try to make it better, right?
I have never seen a teacher so low energy. It was all she could do to keep some semblance of order with the kindergartners, much less teach anything to the first graders. Then she got pregnant. Her energy level dropped even lower, her classroom was an unappealing slovenly mess, and then she quit.
Luckily an amazing substitute was called out of retirement to finish out the last couple months of the school year, and I swear, those kids learned more in those few weeks than they had the entire year so far. She also cleaned up things and made the room attractive and inviting. All was not lost and we ended on a positive note.
Then this year Eva was assigned to another combination class--second/third grade. Our hearts sank and we prepared ourselves for another poor experience. But we were wrong. This time she got a great teacher-experienced, organized, fun and high energy. The third graders were doing more advanced work of course, and I swear the second graders picked up on many things above their grade level. We were giving each other high fives, saying that Eva deserved a great classroom experience after last year.
Then spring break came. Her wonderful teacher was in a bad accident and broke both arms. She tried to break up a dog fight and one big dog grabbed one of her arms and snapped it and the other big dog grabbed her wrist and broke it. And she's out for the rest of the year. Obviously she can't help it, but what bad luck.
It's been substitutes since April and now that the end of the year has come, I have no clue how or who will do end of the year assessments and report cards. At the open house last night, there was no teacher to greet the parents or tell us how great our kid was. The principal was acting as hostess. I introduced us to her as "Eva's family" and it was clear she had no clue who Eva was. We are a small town. It is a small school. Wouldn't you think the principal would know all the kids in the school especially when they have been there for three years?
Eva is undaunted by this situation and as you can see from the photos, was as proud as punch to show us around her school and classroom. But it makes me sad. She deserves better.