Noah the Teacher

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today was a day off for the boys from school as well as Camp Gladiator for us.  Actually there was a session today but rain drove it indoors to a very cramped space.  We decided to pass this morning.

I had a quick call with HomeAway and then we had to go into the school for parent-teacher conferences.

First, we went to Evan's class.  His teacher told us that Evan was very popular (we had a good idea of this) and that it's a time when boys and girls start noticing each other and that Evan was a good looking kid.  She said she didn't want to embarrass him.  Evan insists he doesn't care about girls, though he has friends that are girls this year for the first time.  He also said that no girls "like" him though that goes against what the teacher said.  So who knows?  The reason she was telling us was  not to embarrass him but I guess there was a brief period that Evan wasn't paying as much attention to school as much as his social life but he's figured it all out and the balance of school, social life, and sports.  But in general, he is doing well and has improved and she's happy about where he's at.  His grades are good.

I spent some time talking to Evan's reading and writing teacher after that.  She's a tougher teacher, though I like her.  She's good for Evan.  She holds him accountable.  She also has a daughter in high school that is very serious in soccer so while she's tough on Evan at times, she understand his baseball commitment.  We had a really nice conversation and Evan has improved with his organization in her class.

Meanwhile, Rachel went to see Ms. Crenshaw with Noah for his conference.  When I got there, Ms. Crenshaw was telling them how great Noah is doing.  As they start to plan for next year, Ms. Crenshaw asked each kid if there was a student they'd want to go with them to their 4th grade class.  Out of the seven kids before Noah's conference, five kids said they wanted to go with Noah.  Apparently, Noah has been teaching math to his fellow students.  She has them work in groups and when they don't understand the math, Noah explains it to them.  She said that Noah is really good that if they don't understand the first time he explains it, he is able to come up with a new way to teach them.  She had Noah demonstrate for us.  I guess they were working on irregular fractions.  She asked Noah to explain irregular fractions to Rachel before I got there.  He was explaining what 9/4 were.  She said it was different than how she taught it to the class.  Then when Evan and I got there, he explained what 9/4 were a different way than he had explained it to Rachel, but still different to how Ms. Crenshaw taught it.  Noah told me that when she pairs kids up, several times kids have asked to be paired with Noah that aren't in his circle of friends.  He said he was surprised.  Noah told us that he also helps other kids with reading.  While Rachel and I are aware that Noah is very bright and we have been aware that Ms. Crenshaw thinks very highly of Noah, this was a whole new side of Noah that we hadn't known about.  It's terrific.  We are really, really proud of Noah.

We came home and Rachel got food for the boys for lunch.  She then left to go tutor.

Meanwhile, I had a call with Focus Forward.

Around 3pm, Evan and I left for his hitting lesson.  Rachel stopped at Target on the way home so Noah was by himself for a bit.

For dinner we grilled hamburgers.

The boys are upstairs getting ready for bed.

Until next time...