Situation: I was looking over my son's grades, and noticed he had a few missing assignments that were impacting his grades.
My feelings: I was angry at first, but then, I felt guilty about my anger because this was to be expected to some degree. Middle school is new to him. The transition process can take some time getting used to. Especially, coming from spending the majority of a day in one class, now, switching every 45-50 minutes between 7-8 classes. Additionally, new middle schoolers can find it challenging to remember to turn in assignments on time, know where to get makeup work from; or even grab the correct binders from their lockers when there are only a few minutes for passing period to get from point a to point z in an unfamiliar place you are still trying to navigate.
The Conversation: As I was sitting on the living room
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As usual, I spoke and asked about his day. He stated, "it was good" and that pleased me. I asked Dane to have a seat on the couch so we can chat about his homework. I explained he has a few missing assignments that are impacting his grades. Dane was concerned wanting to know what assignments were missing, what were the grades, and how could he fix them. I told him it was a missing journal in LA1 and a worksheet in math. His grades consisted of A's, B's, C's, and one D. In order to fix it, I said he would have to complete the missing work. He said he was going to ask the teachers for the work and complete it. Why was it not completed? Dane replied," I did not know about the math worksheet, and I didn't know what to write for the journal". I instructed Dane to write whatever comes to his mind. He responded, "I'm still not going to know what to write". It was as if he was not