Grades

For anyone who adopts a school age child, there are many challenges. First the language must come, but it can take 5-7 years for the child to understand the language enough to begin to understand academical language....and in case you are wondering, there is a BIG difference between conversational English and academical English. Last year Maria spent a short time working with an ELL (English Language Learner) teacher. This teacher was focused on the conversational English, not on helping Maria begin to understand the academical English, which is where most ELL struggle. The teacher was not open to preteaching academic words or vocabulary that Maria would be taught in her classroom, which was recommended by the ELL resource at my agency. So, I made the choice to pull Maria out of ELL shortly after parent teacher conferences. I will add that all Maria was doing with the ELL teacher at that point was bringing home note cards with words or phrases on them for us to translate into Bulgarian....yeah, it wasn't really teaching her anything. I knew she had strong teachers last year that would make sure she did well.

This year has been different. Changing classes....different teachers for each class....more homework. I'm not going to lie....homework time is NOT pretty at our house. Most time there are tears...not because she can't do it, but because I won't make it easier for her. I do help her, give her options, talk through things with her, explain how I come to my answer, etc. it is exhausting for both of us at times. Then there is the issue of grades.....well, my perfectionist daughter cries when she gets anything other than an A. In fact she has told me that B's aren't good enough for her. She worked really hard the first quarter. Some of her grades dropped because of testing...specifically testing with vocabulary and matching terms and meaning. But at the end of the day Maria came home with 5 As and 3 Bs. She made the A honor roll! This is without having work modified for her or getting extra help. I couldn't be more pleased and proud of her.

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