This week was a huge milestone for us as parents- our first parent-teacher conferences. I went on my own as Jason figured it would be easier if I did not need to translate every 2nd word and someone needed to stay with Channah anyway.
So, having absolutely no idea what to expect, I went.
The first thing to know is that schools here are a little different to what I am used to. In a nutshell, you can go through the entire year with almost no feedback from teachers as to how your kid is doing. I was told not to worry, that if there was ever a problem someone would be in touch, but as a North American olah I found the whole thing a little worrisome. I was also told that I could call the teacher at home if I was concerned about anything but a) that felt really intrusive to me for anything not particularly major and b) while my Hebrew is pretty good face to face, I have a lot of trouble understanding natives over the phone.
I got the chance to meet with 2 of her teachers. First I saw her Torah teacher (I guess what I would have called her Hebrew teacher before I moved only here Hebrew is covered as part of general studies). She told me that Channah is a pleasure to have in the class. She is neat and polite and always works hard to get her work done. I asked my one real question- "Do you think she understand everything you are saying in class?" The teacher gave me a bit of strange look and said "She answers questions and can do the work so I certainly think so- why would you think she didn't?" When I answered that we are fairly recent olim and I was a little concerned about her Hebrew level compared to the rest of the class the teacher started to laugh. She did not believe me that Channah was not born here. Clearly from speaking to me she knew *I* was an olah, but she had just assumed that Channah had been born here and went through all her early schooling here.
Definitely made my heart sing and told me we came just when we should have. After just over 2 years my kids accent and vocabulary are good enough to fool the natives!
From there I went across the room to meet with her "mechanechet" (I what I still refer to as her "English" teacher even though she does not actually start learning English at school until next year. This is going to get confusing somewhere a long the line).
I got handed her "report card" and was incredibly amazing to see perfect scores and amazing comments right through. Seriously, I am betting this has got to be the best report card ever seen to a Mechanic or Swirsky descendant EVER (I would include Gasner's as well but my mom insists her's were that good). I know I sure as heck never brough home anything resembling this thing!
In any case her mechanechet also told me how sweet she was and what a pleasure she is to teach. She told me her reading was coming along wonderfully, as was her writing (which I knew because we read at home and I now find little love notes everywhere on a fairly regular basis). She is a little math whiz and gets upset if she needs to use her fingers to figure out an answer. She plays nicely with the other kids and is one ofthe first ones to volunteer to help out for anyone who needs it.
So say my heart was soaring is the understatement of the millennium.
Tonight we took her out to celebrate. We had planned to go to Aroma for hot chocolate, but when we got there it was packed. Since we were all sort of hungry we decided to go for dinner to cafe cafe instead. Channah was beaming as she ate her ravioli (her favorite food *ever) and enjoyed her milkshake. Jason and I were just as happy to be watching her and out with her celebrating something so special.
A few more months until we have twice as many special moments in our lives and I know I can't wait.
1 comment:
Rachel, that's what I call nachat! how wonderful!
gives me hope that my chana will have an easy transition, language-wise.
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