Grading...SIGH

     So…I just finished filling out Second Quarter Report Cards—always a joy in a teacher’s life.  If only we could send home the type of report that shows what we are really thinking.  I say let’s forgo these archaic letter grades and turn instead, to an entirely new platform.  How about a video diary of what their child does during the hours of eight and three?  I would have footage of kids picking their noses and wiping it on various surfaces throughout the room…or even worse…eating it.  I would have kids staring glassy-eyed off into space, trapped inside their own unmedicated thoughts.  Engaged?  Sometimes…Or perhaps instead of videos, a simple note like, “John is doing swimmingly!”  (Because I DO believe that there should be more times in our lives where the word “swimmingly” makes an appearance.)  Either way, I feel that these paper accounts of placing a letter to a child’s achievement and effort will have to expire in the upcoming years…hopefully before my horrific sense of humor forces me to send home a “Susie just doesn’t have a clue…really…none” note!