Wheee! Parent teacher conferences!

2005-02-02 at 10:42 p.m.

Drama free. Mostly.

The real Drama Spike in my evening when Squinty's father came by. "Hi, I'm Squinty's dad," he introduced myself to him, which, whoo. Set me back. Because going from Squinty's attitude in class? No WAY did I guess his family would show up.

Squinty sits in class and smartasses his way through the day, putting in just enough energy to pull a C. If he's pulling a C with this attitude? He could be nailing this shiznit.

Worse, though, was the story I was going to have to tell his dad.

So, I asked, has Squinty told you what's been going on in Geometry this week?

No, of course not.

I'm not quite sure how to tell you about this. We had a project where the students had to get each section initialed as they finished it. Squinty had checked out, I told him. I'm not sure why, but he had decided that he wasn't going to work. I'm not sure if it's because he's not understanding or what, but he's not interested. I paused, looking at his father. And then, I said, he forged the initials.

I looked at him.

This is serious, I told him. And I had to write a referral. This is academic dishonesty, and cannot be tolerated. (Oooh, so teachery! is running through the back of my head.)

Dad nods, clearly slightly taken aback.

So it's in the hand of adminstration, now, and they've sent him a notice, but he elected not to go to his adminstrator's office (code, by the way, for ignoring them). Any repurcussions are out of my hands, and I'm willing to move on, but he needs to meet me with some showing of interest.

Dad was appropriately apologetic. I'd sure like to be a fly on that wall tonight.

I got to talk to another kid from that class, who calls himself the Arab Pimp (hey, he calls himself that!). Oh, AP, you're so smart, the smart mouth, though, OY! After some sweet talk, "Yes, your son, AP, he's so shy, it's so hard to pull him out of his shell... but seriously folks..." I got to say something I've been wanting to say forever:

"You know, I know you're having fun when you make with the funny, but you don't hear what I hear. Kids may laugh, but they're getting frustrated with you. Geometry'd be great, but for [AP]. It may be funny now, but you're hurting yourself in the long run."

Will it make a diff? Hmmm. I'll believe it when I see it, but I feel better for getting it out.

This whole thing, what a trip! Parent teacher conferences! Holy fuckeroni!

Oh, that's one other thing. When I accidentally tell a parent that their son 'bit the big one' (translation: failed spectacularly on a test), it means I really need to work on my sailor's vocabulary. It's taking over.

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