Friday, April 18, 2008
Kellie's Report Card (9th Grade)
I don't have the actual report card in front of me, but I will post it as soon as tomorrow. Not to be too ominous, but I am not pleased.
Kara's Report Card (4th Grade)
Kara is doing extremely well and has shown improvement in every grade as the year progresses. She definitely deserves a pat on the back.
Teacher Comments: Congratulations on another successful grading period, Kara! Thank you for always answering questions and being such a good listener during class. You have really been participating more and it shows! I'm so proud of your progress, Kara. You are wonderful.
| Course | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
| Reading | A | A | A | |
| Writing | B+ | B+ | B+ | |
| Math | B | B+ | B+ | |
| Social Studies | A | A | A | |
| Science | B | A | A | |
| Listening | S | S | S | |
| Oral Language | S | S+ | S+ | |
| Art | S | S | S | |
| Physical Education | S | S | S | |
| Music | S | S | S | |
| Handwriting | S | S | S | |
| Technology | S | S | S | |
| Work Habits | S+ | S | S+ | |
| Conduct | S+ | S+ | S+ |
Teacher Comments: Congratulations on another successful grading period, Kara! Thank you for always answering questions and being such a good listener during class. You have really been participating more and it shows! I'm so proud of your progress, Kara. You are wonderful.
Austin's Report Card (7th Grade)
I have been slack this year on posting grades, but I am trying to catch up. Report cards just came out and the news is somewhat mixed. That said, let's begin with the most pleasant surprise. Here is Austin's report card for the year to date. Comparisons with last year's grades will reveal a startling improvement in overall performance. Austin has definitely had a good year. We could not be more pleased.
Comments:
Actively Participates in Class
Student Courteous/Cooperative
Work is of High Quality
Diligent in Preparing Homework
Chorus:
Needs to Participate in Class
Failure to Complete Homework
| Course | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
| Social Studies | B | B | B+ | |
| Science | B+ | B | B+ | |
| Interdis. L.A. | B+ | |||
| Expl Tech Ed | A | |||
| Expl FACS | A | |||
| Chorus | B | B | C+ | |
| Physical Education | A | A | A | |
| Math | C+ | B | B | |
| Language Arts | B | B | B+ |
Comments:
Actively Participates in Class
Student Courteous/Cooperative
Work is of High Quality
Diligent in Preparing Homework
Chorus:
Needs to Participate in Class
Failure to Complete Homework
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Surprise, Surprise
One of life's maxims is that your children will both disappoint you and amaze you at some time in their life. Today was one of the amazing moments. Kara was a participant in the Manassas St. Thomas children's program today. We had heard her lines and taken her to practice but did not get a chance to really hear her performance until she did it live.
The program was part of two of the periods of worship and Tracy took her early in the morning while I followed with Kellie and Austin for the later sermon. All week long Kara had told us that she was very nervous about getting up in front of the entire church, and truth be told, I could tell that she was fidgeting while she waited for her lines.
When she did speak, I was very pleasantly surprised by what happened, or rather what didn't happen. I am amazed by the fact that you can hear someone speak every day, and that familiarity does not prepare you for what comes out of a microphone. When Kara delivered her lines, it seemed at first that someone else was talking. She was still obviously nervous as revealed by her body language, but the voice betrayed nothing. What I heard did not sound like Kara, and I think I just had a glimpse of what she will sound like as a young woman. I heard a stunningly controlled clear voice that belied her ten years. She made no mistakes and it was clear that the longest monologue was given to the ablest candidate. In short, I was blown away by the performance.
I am not a good public speaker, but in my long life I have heard people who are. Today, I saw just such a budding talent in Kara. I was not the only one to notice. At brunch after the service, Mr. Ron told Kara that she had a career in politics ahead of her.
That career prospect aside, I was very proud of my daughter today. It is a good day all around when one of your own exceeds expectations.
The program was part of two of the periods of worship and Tracy took her early in the morning while I followed with Kellie and Austin for the later sermon. All week long Kara had told us that she was very nervous about getting up in front of the entire church, and truth be told, I could tell that she was fidgeting while she waited for her lines.
When she did speak, I was very pleasantly surprised by what happened, or rather what didn't happen. I am amazed by the fact that you can hear someone speak every day, and that familiarity does not prepare you for what comes out of a microphone. When Kara delivered her lines, it seemed at first that someone else was talking. She was still obviously nervous as revealed by her body language, but the voice betrayed nothing. What I heard did not sound like Kara, and I think I just had a glimpse of what she will sound like as a young woman. I heard a stunningly controlled clear voice that belied her ten years. She made no mistakes and it was clear that the longest monologue was given to the ablest candidate. In short, I was blown away by the performance.
I am not a good public speaker, but in my long life I have heard people who are. Today, I saw just such a budding talent in Kara. I was not the only one to notice. At brunch after the service, Mr. Ron told Kara that she had a career in politics ahead of her.
That career prospect aside, I was very proud of my daughter today. It is a good day all around when one of your own exceeds expectations.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Pepper Clark: Nov 25, 1990 - Apr 9, 2008
Today marks the end of a matriarch's reign in the Clark household. Due to renal failure, Pepper had to be put to sleep this morning at 9:48AM. Tracy and I were both present and we think we made the right decision to spare her the inevitable pain that would follow. Terriers live a long time and Pepper lived until the ripe old age of 17. No matter what human life span analogy you prefer to use, 17 years is a long long time. All of us can only hope that we have an equally long life.
It's a long enough to span the lives of every one of the Clark children and the effective length of my marriage. Pepper was Tracy's 21st birthday present, which means that Tracy was no more than a kid herself when Pepper joined our household. Pepper has lived with us so long that no one in the house can remember when she wasn't there. She has been a constant in our household for seemingly forever and she will be missed.
Pepper was born in Berlin, Maryland in a Kennel whose named had faded into the recesses of my memory. As I recall, we were there to look at Yorkshire and White West Highland Terriers, and there certainly were plenty of both, but for some reason, a small Cairn Terrier quietly hunkered down in the back of a pen with a sign that said "Toto"on it, caught Tracy's eye. Tracy took her out and the rest is history.
Today has been a very painful one for the Clark Girls. Tracy, Kellie, and Kara have all had their moments today, but time marches on. As we have planned for some time, we plan to inter her in Pembroke NC, somewhere on my parent's property.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
No Laughing Matter
Yesterday, Tracy and I had a front seat in the theater of modern education and how the schools react to certain events. Apologies to Bob Uecker, but the "Front Row" is not always the best seat in the house. What I am rambling on about? The subject of our story today is Kellie and her ex-boyfriend. I am not sure what my legal standing is here, so I won't use any names.
About a month ago, Kellie broke up with her boyfriend and it seems that he did not take it too well. He left threatening text messages and posted several MySpace messages that made similar threats of violence. Just as we were wondering if these were the empty threats of a pissed of 15 year old kid, he posted a message online that he was going to "shoot" her. Since the young man in question is an avid hunter, this particular threat received the lion's share of our attention.
Realizing that enough is enough, Tracy printed several of these missives and took them to school. Once there, she showed them to the school police office for his opinion. This may be news to the elders among us, but in Northern Virginia, each middle and high school has a county police officer who works out of the school. They each have an office and it is this office that Tracy went to. The plan was to ask him for his opinion, but once he saw the threats, the course of events was set. Virginia is home to to Virginia Tech and Cho Seung-Hui so we are more than a little sensitive to this kind of stuff and there are action plans that must kick into gear.
In this case, the student was brought into the police officer's office and he readily admitted to authorship of the messages. Furthermore, his cell phone was confiscated and several more threatening messages were found in the outbox. Meanwhile, just to be absolutely sure, Kellie was removed from school grounds on Tracy's order.
We got a call later that day informing us what had happened. The kid received an automatic 10-day suspension and cannot return to school until he has passed a psychiatric evaluation. If he does return, he has been labeled a "high-risk" security problem and can searched on school property at any time for any reason. He was released into the custody of his father, who called Tracy this evening. What could have been a very contentious phone call was nothing of the sort. He was contrite and simply apologized for what happened.
Today, we found out that the kid posted a message to all his pals on MySpace that said goodbye and that he would not be returning. I am not sure what this means, but we think that it means he was expelled from the county school system.
It turns out that raising a teenager in today's world is exactly what it used to be. Today's teens are subject to a world that we cannot comprehend and because of the recent spate of school shooting, the knee-jerk reactions are the standard response.
Bottom line is that Kellie is safe and sound. There appear to be no repercussions at all. In order to stifle any attempt by the kid's friends to harass her, they were all brought in and told in terms that they could not fail to understand that they were being watched. This appears to be worked very well.
About a month ago, Kellie broke up with her boyfriend and it seems that he did not take it too well. He left threatening text messages and posted several MySpace messages that made similar threats of violence. Just as we were wondering if these were the empty threats of a pissed of 15 year old kid, he posted a message online that he was going to "shoot" her. Since the young man in question is an avid hunter, this particular threat received the lion's share of our attention.
Realizing that enough is enough, Tracy printed several of these missives and took them to school. Once there, she showed them to the school police office for his opinion. This may be news to the elders among us, but in Northern Virginia, each middle and high school has a county police officer who works out of the school. They each have an office and it is this office that Tracy went to. The plan was to ask him for his opinion, but once he saw the threats, the course of events was set. Virginia is home to to Virginia Tech and Cho Seung-Hui so we are more than a little sensitive to this kind of stuff and there are action plans that must kick into gear.
In this case, the student was brought into the police officer's office and he readily admitted to authorship of the messages. Furthermore, his cell phone was confiscated and several more threatening messages were found in the outbox. Meanwhile, just to be absolutely sure, Kellie was removed from school grounds on Tracy's order.
We got a call later that day informing us what had happened. The kid received an automatic 10-day suspension and cannot return to school until he has passed a psychiatric evaluation. If he does return, he has been labeled a "high-risk" security problem and can searched on school property at any time for any reason. He was released into the custody of his father, who called Tracy this evening. What could have been a very contentious phone call was nothing of the sort. He was contrite and simply apologized for what happened.
Today, we found out that the kid posted a message to all his pals on MySpace that said goodbye and that he would not be returning. I am not sure what this means, but we think that it means he was expelled from the county school system.
It turns out that raising a teenager in today's world is exactly what it used to be. Today's teens are subject to a world that we cannot comprehend and because of the recent spate of school shooting, the knee-jerk reactions are the standard response.
Bottom line is that Kellie is safe and sound. There appear to be no repercussions at all. In order to stifle any attempt by the kid's friends to harass her, they were all brought in and told in terms that they could not fail to understand that they were being watched. This appears to be worked very well.
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