Goal Achieved

This year I have mostly 7th graders.  This means I spend a lot more time teaching them to write their names on papers than I would if I had mostly 8th grade, which is what I usually have.  It also means that I get many, many more parents coming to see me during parent teacher conferences.  7th grade is the first year of junior high, and the students and their parents are nervous, and worried about making the jump from elementary school with one class, to junior high with eight.

For the fun of it, I decided to keep a tally of how many sets of parents/guardians/representatives (sometimes the students themselves if their parents were busy) have come to see Miss E. tonight.  When I was informed that the line outside my door to talk to me was getting long and onerous, I realized just how many people I was going to be talking to.  But that's ok, I like parent teacher conferences.  I always a lot about a student by meeting their parents, hearing them talk, and watching their interactions with each other and their student.  So I set a goal:  50 sets of parents/guardians/representatives.  It looked like I'd achieve my goal easily, after all, I had 37 while there was still an hour and a half left.  But then, the steady flood of people through my door carrying purses and progress reports dried up.  I began to get worried.  Soon there were only ten minutes left and I was sitting at 49.  49!  One short!

But I'm happy to report that my tally now stands at 51.  51 sets of parents/guardians/representatives have come to ask about their students' grades.  51 smiles, 51 enthusiastic "Come on in!  Have a seat!"s, 51 "Do you have any questions for me?"s.  I'm all enthusiasmed out.  You could probably call me and tell me you were pregnant, propose matrimony or world travel to me, and I'd just respond with a distant, "Yeah?  That's cool."

It's time for me to go home now.

Good night.