Claire....

It's bullet time.....

• What's going on with Claire:

1. Lies
1. Since Claire has been back from her break, she's been caught in more lies than truth. Then of course when she states something, I second guess her because of the continuous lies that have been happening. The lies range from saying she has no homework, to not getting a specific piece of classwork. Then many other lies she's shed that aren't as severe. 
2. Bullying
1. While, Claire was transferred from West Broad due to getting bullied, I feel that something is going on with her at this school. Kids aren't as genuine as they were when I was in school. With the lies she's been telling, it makes it hard to believe that she isn't participating in SOME way in the act of bullying. Claire has this thing with her looks and tone of voice that can be quite disrespectful to others. So perhaps while she's not laying a hand on another child, she could very well be acting in a way that would be classified as bullying. I just really feel that if she is coming home almost daily in regards to someone hurting her, there's got to be a reason for it. And, it's not like it's the same child every time that does something "out of line", it's 99% of the time, different people messing with her. 
3. Grades
1. I told her that she needs to bring up her grades effective immediately. Apparently the classes she finds boring, she doesn't pay attention in. That of course leads to poor grades and poor participation within the class. 
2. We've been working on Study Island so that she better understands material in the classroom. We're hoping that this'll get her where she needs to be. She's also in tutoring every Tuesday and Thursday until mid February. 
3. We have told Claire that if she is not at a comfortable level regarding her grades and maturity once fourth grade approaches, we will be holding her back. We do not want to send her into a new grade w/out mastering the skills needed to be within the fourth grade. This "No Child Left Behind" bullshit is extremely unfair to children, and if need be D and I will be stepping in and making the call on this one ourselves. 
4. At one point, her Social Studies grade was a 6%! This is how poorly she's doing. Her other classes, she is slipping in, too. They're not nearly as bad, but they definitely aren't something to rant and rave about. 
4. Socializing....
1. Claire has a huge problem with keeping quiet in the classroom. She tends to get thrown off base by her own mouth yacking it up in class. This of course presents a problem, not only for her, but for her peers and teachers. Instead of working on classwork, she's too busy worrying about a thought that just came up, unrelated to her classwork, that she feels is so necessary to bring up during classroom time. 
2. I've spoken with Claire's teacher via e-mail in regards to her grades, and she has stated that Claire is a smart girl, she's just too worried about socializing instead of doing what she's supposed to do. 
3. Claire has informed me that she "likes" a boy. His name is Damon and he has a brother, and they're in her classes all day. 
1. This leads me to believe that the distractions are related to a boy. It's not certain, for sure, but I believe that she's too busy trying to be lil' Miss Popular and make herself more pronounced within the classroom, because of him. 
2. I will say, I'm glad she felt she was able to come to me about this because I feel if I didn't have an open relationship with her about things like this, she would hide even more things from me, making it impossible to know what her intentions were/are. 
5. Home life
1. For Claire, I've been harping on her in a huge way. I want to see her succeed, but I want her to know what it's like to succeed, instead of just scraping by. She needs to know that you can't just get out of a grade because of the school system flaws. She's a good student, but she just needs to stop being so damn distracted by other things going on in her head. 
2. Like I said earlier, she is on Study Island on a regular basis, and we're constantly correcting her grammar at home to help build her vocabulary properly. Kids now-a-days don't have an education that allows them to speak proper and then of course their parents don't do anything to make their children sound smarter. 
3. We've taken it into our own hands to buy things for Claire that are ONLY educational. No toys are being bought. Anything that comes into this house is to be educational for her. Books, science related items, etc. Those are what are welcomed here. I think she gets too sidetracked by toys and brushes off the importance of educational items. 
4. Periodically, I'll let her play with her toys, but until she really gets her act together she will be exposed to purely educational items. 
5. She's a pretty upstanding kid at home. She helps deliver the route every weekend. She makes sure her room is in order, along with dusting periodically for me around the house. So, really, home life for Claire is pretty decent, we're just really hopeful that she'll get it together, school wise.