Mid-terms and Parent Teacher Conferences are just three weeks away. Seriously.

I have all my student's names down and I'm still trying to figure out their personality, but just the thought of sitting down with any parent kind of freaks me out. Another thing that freaks me out is the fact that many of the parents I will be seeing don't speak a lick of English. I will request for a translator, but even then, it worries me that information may get lost in translation.

I have already been in contact with two partents. One, whose son is in my 1st period, e-mailed me just to let me know that she was interested in how he's doing and asked if I could send her weekly e-mails of his progress. I love that she likes to be so involved and I appreciate her concern. I wish all parents would be a little more like her.

The other parent contact came via phone call from a worried mother whose son was complaining that he couldn't see the board in my classroom. I had given them a new seating chart and put him in the front of the room the same day as this phone call but I asked the sweet mother if her son had glasses. She said yes but they made him look "geeky" and he refused to wear them. I encouraged her to send his glasses with him to school and assured her I would secretly ask him to wear his glasses while he was in class. Sure enough, those glasses were a little "geeky," but he wasn't squinting and he was actually able to focus on the work.

On a slightly different note, I didn't give them the external text features quiz; I knew they weren't ready so I spent yesterday going through some more examples and answering questions. I was feeling really down on myself that they weren't getting it, like it was my fault or something, but then I talked to the 9th grade English teacher next door. She had been teaching the same things and her kids weren't getting it either. That made me feel a little better.

So glad it is the weekend. I came home last night a little after 6 and decided I needed to just veg and that's what I did. No school stuff or anything. I needed the break. Happy weekend!