Report Card Day

Yesterday was Report Card Day.

As a kid and young adult I always loved getting my report card.

I loved seeing how I did, what my teachers had to say, what little surprises my parents might learn about me and my behavior (which was almost always good with the occasional "talks too much in class"). I cared quite a bit about my grades - not obsessively - they weren't all A's - but they were good and I wanted to do well.

I was a good student. I loved school. Always.

(Okay, except those first two years in college. You couldn't really say I was a good student then but I definitely loved the experience.)

Getting Simon's report card is a bit of a different story.

When it's Report Card Day I encounter a mixture of thoughts and feelings:

THE CHALLENGING STUFF


  • Seeing anything having to do with standardized or percentage-based numbers. Ugh. Just ugh. Usually I look at it, make a couple mental notes, and then move on to the next part of the packet. For Simon, like many students with delays/disabilities/issues, standardized testing (or any kind of testing really) is a major challenge. More often than not the test results say so very little about his actual abilities.

  • For as much as I work on my attitude and perspective and acceptance and the bigger picture, it's still just hard to read about his struggles. I love him, the whole of him, and support and encourage him to do his best every single day.


THE GOOD STUFF

  • Getting to see where he's at with this goals. Each year at his annual IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting we, along with his teacher and his program director, come up with specific goals related to reading, math, writing, speech & language, and social skills. Most of his goals this year revolve around social skills, reading, and speech & language. His report card includes updates on his progress for each of those areas.

  • Anytime the teacher(s) include something personal. His speech teacher noted how "he comes to speech with a cheery attitude."

  • It's a reminder that things change and progress and get better and get more challenging and that's just the way it goes. Whatever is the biggest issue right now will ebb and flow into another issue. I find it actually helps me keep things in perspective.

  • He's doing just fine and is making forward progress at his own pace. We find ways to be proud of him every single day.


THE GEM

In addition to the "official" report card content, this was included in his packet:

The "M" next to "I enjoy reading." is one of the best things I've seen in a long time.

I got a little choked up when I came to that one.

This is the first year a form like this has been included with his report card. What I love about it is that it gives him a chance to be self-aware - to acknowledge which things might be more challenging for him and which things he's great at right now.

This is the kind of thing we hope for Simon.

That he can develop a love of reading and learning regardless of if he's performing right at grade level. That he can learn to recognize what he needs to work on and celebrate the areas where he excels.

The more confidence we can build in his own abilities the better equipped I believe he will be in the long run.

GO SIMON GO!

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173 thoughts

  1. Mum2Levi says…
    05/23/2019

    Thanks for sharing this. This is me. Because I always felt so proud of my report cards, I wanted to keep them. I struggle with what to do with my sons. I have a tendency to want to protect him, and am not sure i want him to see his. Ali-as Simon has grown older, does he want to see his report cards? Now, or from when he was younger? I never show my son's to him now. There are so many other strengths that they have, that don't show up on what they choose to score on. Thanks.

    Reply 2 Replies
    1. AliEdwards says…
      05/23/2019

      Hi! Thanks for leaving a comment here - I honestly haven't looked at this post in many, many years. Now that Simon is in high school he does look at his report cards and is aware of what his grades are (he has access to them online via his school along with the printed copies we receive here at home). When he was younger we didn't really talk with him about them - just read and then worked on ways to incorporate what he needed to work on here at home too. We do talk about it now and he's at a level where he understands what we expect (do your work - try your best) and his accommodations at school have been appropriate (we've been advocating on that all along). He has personal goals and plans to go to a community college after high school. In grade school and even in middle school his actual grades were less important overall and were just used as an indicator generally of how he was doing - now they serve a bit more of a purpose because of where he is at individually. Does that make sense?

    2. Mum2Levi says…
      06/09/2019

      Yes, that totally makes sense! I guess they will eventually need to see where they are and what choices they want to make re: their future. A community college is what I've thought about for my son too, but we'll see where he's at later. Advocating for accommodations is so important, I totally agree. Thank you for sharing this, Ali. Appreciate your perspective so much, and especially on this.