The kids went back to school a few weeks ago, it was pretty uneventful. Derek is in 4th grade with a new teacher to Hancock, Mrs. Ortega. Dax is in 8th grade at his same middle school ACP-O. Treyson is in Pre-K. He is continuing with Miss Angela again. She upgraded her program to Pre-K, 5 days a week, so we will continue on until he is old enough for kindergarten.
This last week, we went to curriculum night at Dax's school. We follow the kid's daily schedule and meet all of their teachers. I didn't go last year, but I did like meeting the teachers, so now I actually know who he is talking about when Dax tells me stories of his classes.
The first teacher we met was Ms. Schmidt, Dax's science teacher. Dax had said he really liked her, and I liked her too. We were the first ones in the class and she told us she really enjoyed Dax and then told us a little story about Dax. She said the other day they were having a lab and they were looking at a small clip of a newspaper through the microscope, Dax looked at it and said, "ugh that is filthy and gross, no wonder tabloids are so dirty". She thought it was pretty witty, and I have to admit that was one of Dax's better jokes. The rest of the night was uneventful except for Dax's Spanish teacher Mrs. Betlach. She obviously thinks very highly of herself and spent the first few minutes talking about how great she was, on and on and on about herself. She eventually went on to explain the curriculum, which I was grateful for. I started thinking it was going to be 10 minutes of
"I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I, Wanna talk about number one, Oh my me my"
We asked Dax what he thought of her, and he seemed to think she was OK, although I do think he is a bit intimidated by her.
Dax had the same math teacher as he did last year. It was a rough year last year in Algebra, we got many e-mails from Candy Rife, her being so concerned because Dax wasn't taking notes, although he had a B in the class. Dax made a lot of progress and actually was taking good notes by the end of the year. Dax always felt she picked on him. He often referred to her as "not so sweet as Candy [Rife]" I thought they actually ended the year on good terms. He got her again for Geometry this year. It didn't take long for her to start sending us e-mails again. Long story short, she said Dax was lying about taking notes when she didn't think he was. She wrote him up and sent him to the office for Lying. This upset us because Dax does not lie. He would not even go to a PG-13 movie when he was 12. She could have said other things about Dax and I wouldn't have disagreed, but he is NOT a liar. After a few meetings with the principal and discussing it. Dax has moved back to Algebra. Mrs. Rife was the only Geometry teacher, and everyone agreed it wouldn't hurt to redo Algebra and get an A instead of a B- because Algebra is so important for advanced math classes. Dax is just thrilled to be out of "Not so sweet as Candy's" class and he really likes his new math teacher, Mrs. Williams. It is a win-win situation.
My friend who is an Algebra teacher said she thinks everyone should take Algebra until they get an A, she said it is actually a "blessing in disguise". We're moving forward, the rest of the school year looks bright now that he has a fresh start and he doesn't have Candy Rife on his back. Dax also said Mrs. Rife could be a contestant on "The Biggest Loser" which is a lot of weight for him to carry on his back.
