My hopefulness report card

My least favourite thing about being a teacher is writing report cards. Not only do they take a ridiculously long time, but just the thought of them makes me feel like a bad teacher. I hate that I have to stop wonderful teachable moments (i.e. when my class gets genuinely excited about a topic that we're learning, but I have to stop talking about it because I know that I have more curriculum to cover that day) that my students will actually have to remember.

I also hate having to justify marks to the crazy parents of my students.  I teach in the French immersion program and the community that I teach for seems to see it as a prestigious program and that all of their children are A+ students. Which is not the case at all. 

Last week I met with a mother who insisted (for half an hour!) that her daughter (who is still mispronouncing simple words that she learned two years ago when she started learning French!)  deserved higher marks in my class. Her biggest complaint was that she failed the pronunciation portion of her French speech. She also said that I didn't like her child and that was why I was giving her lower marks. In my most diplomatic teacher speak I tried to explain to her that her daughter isn't the brightest student in the class and that the fact that she makes the same mistakes over and over again and as the teacher it is really frustrating. What I really wanted to tell her was that her kid asked me how to say hello in French at the end of the school year -- I say "Bonjour!" to every student when they enter the classroom. It is also the first word on my word wall. My unilingual hubby, who hasn't taken a French class since the 80's even knows that bonjour means hello! I guess I should not take notice of her daughter's issues with the French language and that I should just give A's to every kid as soon as they walk into my classroom in September. 

Yeah right.

We met with our FertilyCare instructor for the second time last week and according to my chart it seems as though I have a problem with low progesterone levels. We're going to meet with the doctor that works with the MBFC this afternoon to see what the official word is. Part of me is relieved that this is the issue, another part of me is really frustrated that we've been TTC for almost three years and that I've mentioned my progesterone levels to THREE doctors that just brushed me off! I really hope that meeting with yet another doctor is going to bring some sort of answers. 

Mr. JB and I visited our acupuncturist yesterday and he said that my body is almost ready to get pregnant. He also mentioned that so many things grow in the spring time so it is the perfect time for us to get pregnant. 

So it seems like the universe is aligning, or at least is coming closer together. 

My hopefulness grade: B+.