A Nice Email

Mrs Skraby is Seamus' fifth grade teacher. I havent seen her teach, but our interactions with each other have always been positive. I spoke to her at the beginning of the year about his various issues and she has always seemed very willing to work with him. She's energetic and has excellent advice in working with kids his age. I like her.

This week when I was volunteering in the office, Seamus came in. Apparently Mrs Skraby had sent him up to sit in the office and finish his work. He was caught throwing a pencil across the room so Mrs Skraby called Mary (the office manager) and had an agreement that he would sit in the office until his work was done. Mrs Skraby also confiscated his bag of pens and pencils. (NOTE: there is a funny side story to this that I will share later today or tomorrow.)

I ran into Mrs Skraby at school within the hour of this happening. We agreed that as a means of curbing this and other distracting behavior she would keep Seamus' bag of pens and each day Seamus would check out a pen for his work and return it at the end of the day. Usually he has his bag of supplies in his desk but he hasnt demonstrated that he can act responsibly with them. Mrs Skraby's plan was fine with me so she told him about the agreement the end of the day. He was not happy. In fact, when he exited his classroom that day he looked like he was seconds away from having a huge crying fit. This is the email I received from Mrs Skraby that evening:

I am just checking to make sure Seamus is ok. He was pretty upset
this afternoon. I told him that I am just holding his bag for him
and he can pick whatever pen and pencil he wants to use. I am not
very popular right now.

I thought the email was very thoughtful and I replied back to her this email the following morning before school:

He's fine. :)
One really cool thing about Seamus is that things roll off his back
pretty easily. He was definitely upset after school - but he was mad
at me for going along with the plan, not you. I told him it was your
classroom and if he is distracted from his classwork by the pens then
I agree they should be taken away. He didnt like that, but he'll be
fine. Maybe he'll learn in time.
It was nice of you to ask.

I was at the school all yesterday. This kind of schedule (being at the school 4 or 5 days a week) is becoming a habit of mine. It seems in Catholic school there is an endless amount of things to be done and not nearly enough people to do them all. I didnt get around checking my email until this morning at which time I found this email from Mrs. Skraby:

He was much happier today. I think he realized we had not taken them away;
he just had to choose to use one. It was a good day today. I just hope
that you know that I really like him and want to see just good things for
him. He was very cute today. We went and planted seeds with the 2nd grade
and he made sure that he had his brother as his partner. He was very good
with him. He is a great kid and we will have a good year. Bumps and all!

Awwwww. I think I love her. ;) Receiving this email today has started my Saturday off wonderfully for a few reasons. First, I love that Im at a school where communication between the teachers and parents is open and encouraged. Mrs Skraby didnt need to email and that makes me even more grateful for her thoughtfulness. Seamus is a toughie and because of that I really value hearing about the little things he does well. In fact, I dont hear about his positive actions enough. Reading that line about him and Finn brought tears to my eyes. I know... I know... those of you who know me realize that it doesnt take much to make me cry. Im a very sappy person. But you must understand that my day to day life with two active brothers doesnt usually involve a lot of kind behavior. I wish it did! For the most part Seamus' interaction with Finn includes a lot of goofing off, bossiness and older brother torment. Hearing about Shea helping Finn makes me want to grab him up and kiss him for minutes on end. Secondly, I am so appreciative when my boys are assigned teachers that want to work with me for the benefit of my kids. That is huge! Its like a united front - you cant get something past her and you cant get it past me either. I know that I can seem a bit overprotective and/or over involved with my kids. Im working on it. But when their teachers and I can work together, I really believe it makes a huge difference in their performance. Mrs Skraby has been very open and willing to work with me from the beginning of this school year and its been a real positive experience. I hope that the middle school teachers next year are similar.