Category Archives: Memories

Dona’s third grade report cards: Miss Meyer

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First year

Until I realized how Miss Meyer’s decision to have me repeat third grade was to my great benefit I was ashamed of “flunking” third grade and never told anyone. Miss Meyer had a [probably much deserved] reputation as being mean and most of her students (and many parents) were afraid of her. She seemed to have a soft spot for me, however, and was nothing but kind to me. The only perk of being held back was being able to choose your teacher for the next year. I chose to have Miss Meyer again. She told my mother she was astonished since no one wanted to be in her class the first time ’round.

Unfortunately I learned of my fate from a classmate who overheard Miss Meyer talking to the principal about keeping me back. The next day, Patti Kimbro, a friend who lived on my street with whom I walked to and from school, told me she heard that I was flunking third grade. I ran home in tears and told my mom what she said and my mom verified it. I was supposed to be told by Miss Meyer along with my parents. At least this way I didn’t cry in front of Miss Meyer.

For someone who was in danger of failing third grade this report card doesn’t look too bad. Maybe there was communication between Miss Meyer and my parents in other ways.

It looks like my height and weight were moving slightly above the 5th percentile this year.

Second year

My second year with Miss Meyer was better — although not perfect. I was still “on grade level” and still needed improvement in some areas, but it seems that I was finishing my work on time. This year was the year I got glasses — so that might have been a factor.

I wish Miss Meyer had written more comments. This is the only writing I have from her. I was able to tell her how important she was to me when I did my teaching practice with Mrs. Gibboney. I think she was pleased, although she responded to my “I think about you all the time” with “No, you might think of me sometimes, but I don’t think it’s all of the time.”

My height and weight continued to be between the 5th and 10th percentiles this year.

Dona’s second grade report card: Miss Allen

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My second grade teacher was Miss Allen. I don’t remember much about her except that I thought she was pretty. And I think she ran off with the principal at the end of the year. Maybe I have that last bit wrong.

It looks like I went downhill after first grade — or perhaps they expected more out of me. Again my handwriting was bad — all those Ns.

Let’s look at my height and weight in second grade. My height at 45.25 inches at the beginning of the year and 46.75 at the end put me around the 10th percentile for my age again. My weight of 38.5 at the beginning of the year and 41 at the end of the year put me below the 5th percentile again.

I thought I blogged my reading scores that Miss Allen mentions at the end of the teacher comments but I cannot find a post about it.

Dona’s First Grade School Report Card: Mrs. Gibboney

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My first grade teacher was Mrs. Gibboney. She seemed old, even when I was in first grade. I don’t remember much about first grade except that I was kept after school now and then because I could not finish my work which, if I recall correctly, often involved copying text from the chalkboard. It is possible that I needed glasses — or my hand-eye coordination was poor. Also, as I didn’t realize until I was an adult, I likely had ADHD and possible learning disabilities.

I remember once during a reading lesson when she scolded me for something I didn’t do, and would not accept my explanation. It was a sight word quiz. The teacher would read out a word and we were to circle it in our workbooks. I’d just gone ahead and circled a bunch of words — one in each section. I got them all correct, and I was sitting next to her. She accused me of looking in her book, but in reality I had a bunch of lucky guesses. Her suspicion was understandable. (One other time something similar happened — I was giving one of these tests when I was student teaching elsewhere and I didn’t know that there was a teacher manual that I was supposed to be following. I just looked at the student’s page and called off one word in each section. Later, when I had the manual in hand, I’d read off the exact same words as the manual dictated.)

My handwriting has never been ideal, so I would probably still get a checkmark (checkmark=needs improvement) in that area. I excelled at reading though — at least later in the year.

When I was in college I did a short teaching practice with Mrs. Gibboney. I got to know her a little bit — certainly much more than I knew her when I was in her class.

My height at 43 inches at the beginning of the year and 44 at the end put me around the 10th percentile for my age. My weight of 34 at the beginning of the year and 37.5 at the end of the year put me below the 5th percentile.