Keaton’s school conference was today. We got his report card on Monday and I was a little disappointed. Not a lot disappointed because Keaton is a very bright kid and as a whole his report card was awesome. He obviously knows his stuff.

I was a little disappointed because he had some 2s. In elementary school they don’t get grades. They just get a 1 (little/no progress), 2 (progressing toward standard), 3 (as standard), 4 (above standard) or NT (not taught yet). They have always told us that they hardly ever give out 4s, but Keaton always has a few 4s on his report card. And this report is no exception. He got a 4 in Fitness, Vocabulary and Word Meaning and in Numeration.

Under Work Habits, he got 2s in Attention, Effort, Following Directions, and Organization. His teacher wrote “Keaton shows strong academic scores but has the ability to achieve even higher. Listening to directions and putting forth consistent effort will enable Keaton to achieve at an even higher rate of success.” Keaton also got a 2 in Problem Solving under the math section. But it turns out that Keaton’s test scores aren’t as good as they could be because Keaton didn’t read the directions all the way through and forgot to answer the whole problem solving question completely in some cases.

At the conference, Ms. Vavra told us that Keaton will be taking tests at the end of the year to determine what classes he will be in when he gets to middle school. Ms. Vavra believes that Keaton should be in the advanced math class and the advanced English class. But they look at those test scores so it’s important that Keaton do his best and makes sure he reads the directions completely.

We also talked about some things to keep Keaton challenged and interested. He is going to move up to the sixth grade spelling lists. Keaton can also “contract” out of the math and language arts lessons. If he passes the contract test then the learning strategist will pull him out of class for some special one-on-one projects.

Keaton and I talked about how it’s not important to be first. It’s more important to answer correctly and do his best. It’s obvious that Ms. Vavra knows how smart Keaton is and believes in his ability. So with a little pushing from both Ms. Vavra and me and I have full faith that Keaton will succeed to the best of his ability. I am so proud of his achievements and I know he will continue to succeed.

Good job Keaton! Keep up the good work!