This morning I volunteered in M's art class. It was a lot of fun. Her class is working on drawing outlines of their photos of a DC landmark – she picked the Kennedy Center – and we started with putting acetate over the photos and tracing the lines with a Sharpie. I was struck by the fact that there are some noisy boys in M's class who are very disruptive, which made me sad for her because it is such a waste of time to listen to the constant reprimanding. Sigh.

M got a wonderful report card today! It is very long and a lot has to do with what the class is doing (not what M is doing), but here are the best parts:

M is an absolute doll. She's got so much to say, and I know she wants to share things with me, but it's so hard to always give her my attention, even though I so want to hear everything she has to say. I hope she doesn't take it personally…. [About a reading assignment,] M did a nice job of reading and answering the questions. Going back into the text to find answers is definitely a difficult task to master, but M did a nice job. M is doing a great job keeping up with her wriring pieces in Writer's Workshop…. M is doing a nice job of expanding her vocabulary! Her book reports continue to be wonderful – I love the effort she puts into them…. She's been a Super Speller for the past four months – great job! I was so proud of her for not only being in the Spelling Bee, but for proving to us that she should be in it. Keep up the fantastic work!

[Description of a recent math assessment]… M did a wonderful job on the quiz and a really good job on the unit test, showing a solid understanding of the various ways we looked at parts of a whole. The Unit 3 quiz covered most of the other topics. Again, M did excellent work and understood all the areas easily. We have had 5 weeks of Beat Your Best in multiplication. In order to get a 4 in math this advisory, a student had to be at 5 minutes or below. M is at a 1 1/2 minutes and I will not be surprised if she surpasses that, too. Super work!