And I went to see/meet Hannah’s teachers.
They all lover her. Only two teachers had a single negative thing to say, and that is that she reads too much in class. This is an ongoing problem since elementary school.
She is getting high A’s in all her classes.
Except gym.
She promised to fix that.
Things I noticed; She sits in the front of the class for most of her classes. She associates with many kid in the hallways.
I am a very lucky Dad.
I will let you know how Rockwell and Melinda’s interim reports went, they were tonight also.
Here is Hannah’s Schedule. Turns out all of her classes are “honors” classes. (Except for gym and band). In the first semester of Fresheman year?
This is sort of interesting to me. Call me ignorant, but I really did not realize that what you did in middle school translated this significantly into high school. It goes to show that taking school seriously, as early as possible, really counts down the line.
It plays into a fear of mine. When I was younger, in HS, I did not participte in wrestling, because all the others on the team had started wrestling in middle school. Perhaps my fears where not as unfounded as I later thought? Still, that should not have stopped me. I should have tried out anyway. I guess I was too much of a perfectionist. I do not have that issue anymore.
Melinda, however, might have that perfectionist tendancy… hmm. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.
So, I had to email Hannah’s homework to her teacher (we did not have a thumbdrive to use). Naturally, I wanted to read the story. I have to say, pretty darn creative. And I’m starting to think that creative is going to be a useful attribute in our world of the future. What do you think? (The formatting got removed.. there are paragraphs)
The Car We Had to Push from a Different Perspective Rubric The World Was Coming to an End By: Hannah Elser
The world was coming to an end. What didn’t people get about that? It was pretty clear to him, especially the way people were acting these days. Ridiculous, they are. So he was trying to warn his community that they should get ready, that the world was coming to an end. So he took the direct approach, he rode around in his big red Devil yelling out the window that the world was going to end. He didn’t have to. It’s not like he was going to be alive when the world ended, he was too old for that. It was just something he did. A hobby, almost. The bright gray eyes stared at the poster in front of him . ‘Opening of King Lear’, it announced, ‘November 3-6’. He might go to that. He had gone to a concert before, hopping up on the stage halfway through the symphony, waving his hands wildly about, and ranting about how the world was going to end. It was all in the name of humor, of course. Honestly, the violin solo wasn’t bad, it was just kind of… well, boring. So he stood there running a hand through his hair, smiled and decided that, yes, this would be a nice opportunity to spread the word that the world was ending, and to make them laugh. He had decided, quite awhile ago, that if people weren’t going to believe him, the least he could do was make them laugh. And he knew they didn’t believe him. He wasn’t stupid enough to think that there weren’t people whispering that he was insane behind his back, or in front of him for that matter. So he would make them laugh. The world deserved the little humor he gave to it before it died. If not the people on it, the world. ‘Because people are stupid creatures’, he thought,’ We create warfare and then go around saying that it’s for peace. We wear neckties. What kind of stupid race wears ropes in a knot around their neck? Neckties, honestly. The world is full of stupid people who abuse their children, shoot old ladies for no particular reason, get drunk when they’re sad, and so on. The world is full of stupid people.’ He wasn’t going to remedy that, he was just finding a temporary solution until the world ended. The mans eyes crinkled as he smiled at his thoughts. He was driving to the theater. It was the fourth and he had gotten ticket from a friend who worked at the theater. The friend, Thomas, said that he didn’t even want to know what his friend was planning but he smiled and shook his head knowingly while he said it. He approved. He handed the ticket to the young man behind the counter. Bill, if name tags were anything to go by, had a strange look of what appeared to be disgust on his face. Apparently he knew who he was, which wasn’t surprising. There weren’t many people in this town who didn’t know who he was. His reputation was not a good one. He had chosen a seat on the balcony. There were more places to hide and it was darker, and it would take longer for them to get up here, drag him down the stairs, and kick him out. He had a slim body type made for running, and hide-and-seek had always been his favorite game as a child. He sat there for about fifteen minutes before the curtains rose and Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund entered the stage. It was halfway through the play when he remembered why he was there in the first place. He was about to begin his bout of screaming, then hesitated. It wasn’t a bad play, in fact it was quite good. Don’t get him wrong, he had no qualms about interrupting it, he just wanted to see the end. Oh well, he could always ask Thomas later for another ticket, or, if he gets banned from the theater, ask for for the script. Everything was solved in that department so he began. He started shouting- shouting for all the people in the theater, for all the people of this world that it was going to end. The lightning sizzled and the thunder boomed, but the play was just background noise now. He had forgotten how much fun it was, being on the stage and making people laugh. It was exhilarating. But being a comedian had its ups and downs. Why he did had been wonderful, he had loved his job, but the pay… well, he didn’t love that. They caught up to him pretty quick. He made a mental note to last longer next time. That was a new game he could play. Try-to-beat-the-record-for-not-getting-kicked-out-of-the-theater he would call it. He laughed at his own thoughts as they dragged him out. They already thought he was insane, what would a little laughing at nothing do to that? So he kept laughing as they dragged him to the exit. They threw him to the ground. Bill, if name tags were ever correct, looked down upon him, scoffed, and said,”Crazy old geezer. You’re insane!” He just leaned against the wall and laughed a little harder. The boy needed more laughter in his life. Huh, maybe he was insane. Oh well, it seemed insanity was fun. It sounded better then that human stupidity anyway. Let’s stay.
Hannah is in band. And in HS, that usually means marching band also. No marching yet, though, that will come. And, no Bassoon. You can’t march with a bassoon! She will probably get a saxophone when they find one for her, but in the mean time.. Bass drum it is!
Well. Hannah and I saw Melinda, Rockwell and Kathi off to their second and last adventure in St Croix. Its going to be hard to be without them this school year, but Hannah and I will keep each other company. I would not have approved, except we got them into St Croix Country day school. That made me feel much better about it. Ill try to do a better job of keeping everyone updated on what they are doing than I did last time… sorry!
In other news, Hannah has finished her first week of high school. She only had to correct the teacher once… The teacher said Demeter was a Roman goddess, when she is actually a Greek goddess… Her and her friend Sara brought it up discretely after class though… Wise move.
Note: I had no idea who Demeter was until I looked her up.
My oldest started High school Yesterday! She might look a little like a “punk” in this picture.. But don’t let it fool you. She starts out with Honors English 2, Honors Geometry and Band. At least that is what I know so far.. I have not see her schedule yet (Kath helped her with that.)
I saw her looking at the last pages of a couple library books before we handed them in the other day.. I asked her what she was doing. She said she was counting how many pages she has read this summer, just for the fun of it.
Not to leave them out, here are the other two kid’s scores. Melinda’s Teachers seemed to really like her, she had all sorts of little awards. Rockwell had a couple too, but I can’t find them. Sorry older Rockwell that is looking at this .. 🙂
Rockwell likes math. It’s his favorite subject. I approve of that. 🙂
Umm.. so, Hannah got her Iowa test scores in the mail today. I suppose taking standardized tests has to get old after a while.. Except when you get scores like this. I knew my oldest was pretty bright, but goodness, with NPR’s like that.. It’s pretty special, I would say. Unfortunately, she was not in school when they did the Science section. Hannah was not happy about that when she found out, because science is important to her.
And not to be outdone, Melinda’s Composite total NPR was 98%… But I have to find her score sheet to show you. I mean… seriously.
You know that saying/joke: “kids, move out and get a job while you still know everything”? I might have to reconsider that. I am starting to think they probably are smarter than me…
Hey, I can’t ignore this stuff. If it sound a little outrageous, trust me, it does to me too.
Hannah just competed in the VI Mathcounts competition, and came in 6th place out of 100 students!
Way to go HannaH!
Either out of all the students (public and private) on St Croix, or all the students in the VI, I need to find that out. Either way, it was quite a feat! Here is an interesting thing.. Her friend from the apartment complex she lives at came in first place. I’m glad she has smart people to “hang” with…
In other interesting news: I mentioned Hannah has a “reef Ecology” class before… They just got their itinerary for next week.
Get this. Her next outing is a nighttime bioluminescence study on kayaks.
What is this kid going to do in high school, thats what I want to know.
