Suspension

I was all set to share some gorgeous pictures from yesterday. Those will have to wait.

At 7:15am we had another parent-teacher conference for SportsBoy. He had to lead it this time which is standard procedure for Feb conferences for 6th graders. His part was OK. He had filled out a self evaluation and properly indicated that he needed to improve on his organizational skills by keeping up with his homework daily, breaking down large projects into small tasks and turning in completed work on time. Fine, we knew about that from earlier, right? I’ve been asking him every single night he is with me to show me his homework and also if there is any big project coming up. He always shows me something (math, spelling lists, worksheets etc) and stresses no big projects.So then we turn to his teacher and ask how it’s been since his last restriction went off just about 3 weeks ago.

*THUD*

It seems there is indeed a large project going on. The first piece was due 2/14. Another piece was due 2/21. A third chunk is due tomorrow and the final bit next Thursday. He has done NONE OF IT! Ok, not entirely true. He’s done *some*. It’s all scattered though. He’s done about 1/3 of each step. With not one word to either his dad or I.

Then we saw his grades. *THUD*

They are worse than last time!! If I count the scores on this scale:

A+ = 100, A = 95, A- = 92.5, B+ = 87.5, B = 85, B- = 82.5, C+ = 77.5, C = 75, C- = 72.5

which I consider somewhat generous…then his average = 80.71 – it was 81.43 in Nov.

*sigh*

So his seat became hotter, his eyes became very red and he was calmly taken to task by all three of us. His teacher is awesome. She stressed that this was a communication and trust issue. Communication because he is clearly just not telling us what is going on in school. She asked him if he knew what his dad and I were doing this week. Of course he was able to tell about my day yesterday and what his dad was going to do today. She pointed out that clearly WE don’t know what he is going to do in school since he has not told us! Of course then we all stressed the trust issue.

So now the situation is that first we have to negotiate an extension on the first 3 parts of his project (I think he can finish them all by Monday for sure, possibly Friday depending on how much he gets done tonight). He is naturally back on complete restriction, but this time not set by a calendar. It’s a probation thing and he has to earn his way back by maintaining consecutive weeks of keeping up and pulling grades up. We will go back to the THIRD grade task of signing his agenda daily. We have also put him on team sports restriction for one full week. He will miss one travel ball game and two LL games. We have notified both those coaches and they are on board. We are calling it an Academic Suspension. He will still be required to attend the games as a spectator but he cannot sit on the bench with the team or play. For football I contacted coach and asked him to speak to SB on Saturday which just happens to be the first registration day for that sport. Since coach made the decision to move up another level, he had already told SB that he hoped he could hit 90lbs this fall. Well, now he is going to tell him that he better hit a 90 point average by the spring in school or else he wont get drafted! He may be skilled enough to be a division 1 player, but he has to show the academic prowess too and right now, he does not make the grade. So with all three coaches on board and speaking to him within the next couple of days, we hope this will get the message to him. With LL it should really be painful because he will go to practice Friday and have to explain to the team just why he cannot play the next two games.

It’s going to be so pleasant at my house tonight, don’t you think?