tidbits & snapshots

making the grade.

On Monday, Brady got his 1st quarter report card from 4th grade.  And this was a big one.  It was the first report card in 6 years of schooling (including pre-school & kindergarten) where he got "real" grades, a.k.a. letter grades.  Up until now, all that the report cards showed were a bunch of letters & numbers indicating that he met, was progressing or not progressing toward grade level expectaions and whether he needed continous teacher support or was doing outstanding. 

Yada, yada, yada. It's always reminded me of Dad's annoyance of kids playing a game but not keeping score.  There is always a winner & a loser he would say...otherwise why play the game?  Although I was happy with his "progress reports", I wanted to know if Brady was a winner or a loser. (Of course I knew that he was a winner...but I wanted the validation!)  And Monday was the day I would find out...finally!

For some reason, I've always loved report cards, including mine (if I can remember back that far).  But his.  They really make me happy.  I anticipate them almost like a  Christmas present. (I can hear you laughing here...please stop.)   I have an idea of how he is doing, after all I see all his grades as they come home & I even see mid-term grades at conferences.  But, I look forward to seeing the final results up close & personal. So...the day came.  Brady's teacher  awesome teacher, Mr. Wegner,

let him look at his report card before he brought it home ...Brady's take??  He told me that he was "a little impressed" with how he had done.  I told him that I didn't want him to tell me what he already knew.  Don't spoil my surprise.  I needed to sit down, take a look...see, feel & touch them for myself (again, please stop laughing!) And of course, he didn't spoil my surprise.  SO... have I built up the anticipation enough??  Here's the reward:

Looked pretty good to me!  (A few of those silly M's, P's and NP's still sneak through...).  Brady got straight A's, with a B+ in writing.  SO...I thought  it would be fun to compare it to MY 4th grade report card (of course I've kept this...stop laughing).  Here that is:

Wow...we had the SAME grades...all A's, other than writing!!   In my defense, we didn't have + or - in our grading system, so I will assume my writing grade would have been a B+!!  :)

And the bonus today (Thursday) was that Brady came home with a SHARP award...what is a SHARP award, you ask??   

Well, it is the Shakopee Academic Recognition Program.  He received a certificate during a ceremony in the cafeteria where he was recognized & rewarded a certificate (that now resides proudly on our fridge) for "academic excellence in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, health, and spellling" and was signed by both principal & teacher.  

Happy validation!!