sophia's first parent-teacher conference

Adam and I went to Sophie's classroom yesterday afternoon to meet with her teacher for her first trimester conference. It was a student-led conference, so Sophie sat with Ms. McIntosh and showed us the pages of the portfolio of her work that she put together. There were examples of the skills they've been working on, as well as the progress they've made since the beginning of the year - like an example of how she wrote her name back in September and how she's writing it now. It was pretty cool to see the changes in such a short time. 

Ms. McIntosh also gave us a couple of forms (one for math and one for literacy) that go along with her report card to explain the different standards they have been working toward. They explain more in-depth the areas that were graded on her report card and gives the teacher a place to mark the specific area that the student needs to work on. For example, one section is on identifying letter sounds and there is a list of all the different sounds so the teacher can circle the specific ones the student still needs to master. 

Anyhow, when she started talking about these assessments, she told us how proud she was of Sophie and how well she had done. We know she is a smartie and we expected her to do well - but we were surprised when Ms. McIntosh told us that Sophie is the first kindergarten student in four years at Waterboro Elementary to have met ALL of the standards for the first trimester. In fact, several areas had notes about how far she had exceeded what was expected - like they were asked to write all number 0-20 and there is a note on Sophie's paper that she wrote hers to 99. 

Ms. McIntosh also talked about how Sophie is always one of the first kids to volunteer for any errands or to help another student, and that she is often picked to walk around and show her work to the class as an example. 

Wow. I can't tell you how proud I am of her. Like I said, we knew she was doing well in school, but this is truly exceptional. She's one amazing little kid. I can't wait to watch her as she learns even more!