Back to School Night

AKA Curriculum Night. Joel went to Becca's on Tuesday night, and I went to Ben's last night. After the annual forced PTA meeting tradition, I went to Ben's homeroom class to meet his homeroom/ literacy / social studies teacher Ms. Ebert (not to be confused with the Ms. Ebert who was Rebecca's teacher last year).

Ms. Ebert was AWESOME! I mean, first impressions only and all, but, she seemed awesome to me. She has been teaching 5th grade since 1977 and her enthusiasm and love of teaching and of her 5th graders was evident. She is all about getting the kids to think deeply, to draw parallels between seemingly unrelated objects/concepts, teaching them little pearls of wisdom or "maxims" that she writes on the board every day or two and discusses with the students, and talked about the need to have "balance" in the classroom so that she is not always talking/they are not always listening but the day is "balanced" between different types of learning and activities. She is also big into giving them choices and responsibility during portions of their day, concerning how, when and where they do their work.

Also, as I was getting ready to leave her room and head across the hall to Ben's science/math teacher's room, she stopped me and said, "Are you Ben's mom? I just love having him in my class! He is such a hard worker and so quiet and well-behaved! He is doing really well!" WOW, way to impress the teacher so far Ben! Hoping that the rest of the school year turns out as well as these first couple of weeks have gone!