Emily's Report Card

Four B's, one A- and one D+. So all in all, not too shabby. The D+ was in Math, and came as no surprise really.

I had spoken with her teacher a few weeks back and she had indicated that Emily was having trouble multiplying and dividing decimals. She also told me that Emily had done poorly on her last two quizzes, and had missed a few homework assignments. The teacher had been offering Emily all kinds of extra help but Emily was not taking the initiative and taking her up on it.

I asked Emily today why she thought she got a D+ n Math. Her answer was that she was stupid and hated math. I explained to her that she wasn't stupid and told her that everyone had things they were good at and things that they struggled with. I explained to her (which I sort of new I would have to) that her not doing her homework (or doing it and forgetting to turn it in) probably had a direct effect. I also explained that this is the one class, as is indicative on her report card that she needs to be on her game. My thought was that it's not like she is more organized in one area than another, or more disorganized in one area than another. Obviously, with her other classes, she can be a disorganized "mess" and still achieve a higher grade. With math, she has a bit more difficulty, so her organization needs to be right on target in that class. I explained that her grade may have been a C- or a C if she had turned in those assignments.

Grades are annoying and way too much of a focus to begin with, but she showed some concern herself with the D+ so I thought it would help her to point out some of the areas that may have lead to that grade.