A word of warning:
This blog entry will probably be nauseatingly braggy. If this offends or irritates you, feel free to ignore this post and check in a couple of days from now, unless you are a Grandparent, Great-Grandparent, Aunt or Uncle (in which case it is required reading) or a really nice friend, in which case- wow, you are a really good friend! Thanks!
That being said....
I very much hope and pray that every parent teacher conference that we ever attend, please G-d, over the course of many years, please G-d, is as incredibly fulfilling as tonight's was.
The conferences are set up in 5 minute increments. Registration opens online at 8:00 AM on a Friday a couple of weeks before the conferences and you just know I was on there at 8:05. I scheduled the perfect 5 minute increment slots timed so that I had one 5 minute slot with the reading teacher, a 10 minute break (to make sure I had time to get from one place to the next and just in case the teacher was running late), then 2 five minute slots with the English teacher, then a 10 minute break, then 2 five minute slots with the Hebrew teacher.
Anyhow, I saw the reading teacher first. This is the one area in which the students are tracked for placement, and Amira is in the top group, so I already knew that she was doing very well, thank G-d, in reading. It was really amazing to see how her comprehension and writing have improved (as well as her handwriting- wow!) since the first weeks of school. I love seeing her journals. She started keeping one at home, too, and it is just adorable. She is really doing beautifully and thank G-d loves to read- as Yehuda and I do. I very much hoped to instill this love in my children, so that is really very rewarding for me.
Her reading teacher happens to be one of my closest friends and she is so, so super professional, as well as being just an amazing teacher, so it was very cool to see her in TEACHER mode.
One funny thing from her- she said that often she feels like Amira's mother because she finds herself saying the same things to Amira that I say to her (when she is caught up in her own little world reading or writing or coloring...although she said, and I find as well at home, that Amira has improved a lot in this area!).
Then I waited for the English teacher. And she was running late, and I was getting worried because my whole careful scheduling plan was in trouble, but thankfully, we ended up only using one of the 5 minute increments, and I was back on track, and the parents waiting after me were very surprised and grateful.
Amira's English teacher is just amazing. She is dynamic and fun and brilliant and peppy and really knows how to bring the best out in her students. Amira absolutely adores her and has really learned SO much already.
She started off by telling me that she just loves Amira, that she is just GOOD and sweet and incredibly brilliant. In fact, she said (and I quote, mostly so that I can remember this forever) "Amira IS the top of the class. And I assure you that I have not said this yet tonight." (picture me sitting here writing this, still grinning wildly, although at the conference I tried to keep a modest yet pleased face, but probably ended up just looking weird).
Then she said that really she wanted to switch places with me so that I could do the conference and tell her how I have raised a child like Amira (!!).
Oh, way to make the parents happy! (to which I replied, I really can't take any credit, she is just really good, thank G-d. She takes after her father).
She said that she gets along beautifully with all the girls in the class despite being very academically gifted (it happens to be a really wonderful class of girls and Amira is just really happy in school) and that she participates beautifully (this has actually been an issue every year so far- she is so reserved that she never participated, so this is really new and exciting!).
She said (and again, I quote, so that I don't ever forget this and can use this memory when I am reminding Amira for the 800th time clean up her toys before I have to raise my voice) "Not that I would ever want a class of cookie cutter girls to teach, of course it is always nice to teach different types of children, but wow- if I could have a class full of girls like Amira.....now that would be amazing." (!!!!!!!!!!)
She is giving Amira math enrichment (I don't think I have ever even USED those words before, unless it was in a sentence like: Math enrichment, ha ha, what's that?). Yes, MY daughter doing math enrichment. Ha! Thank you Yehuda's genes!
By the time I walked out of the appointment, 5 minutes later, I was pretty much floating on air, and floated on over to the Hebrew conference.
Amira's Hebrew teacher is lovely and gentle and just an excellent teacher, and the girls all love and respect her and love to play "Morah" and imitate how she speaks Hebrew! She, too, was glowing in her report. Interestingly enough, Amira seems to still be much more reserved in Hebrew class than in English. The Morah said that for the first couple weeks of school she thought Amira was just a quiet, sweet girl and an average student, and was actually shocked to realize how incredibly bright she is. She said that Amira has yet to answer a single question incorrectly, has an incredible memory, picks up everything easily and quickly and that she reads and understands Hebrew beautifully. She said that there was one major difference between Amira and the other 2 girls that are at the top of the class with her, and that was that while those 2 girls rushed through their work to finish quickly and do more and more, Amira does her work carefully and slowly and makes sure that she doesn't make mistakes. Hello Yehuda.
I commented to her that I was amazed (from watching Amira do her homework) at how easily Amira transitioned from writing in Hebrew print to script and she said most of the girls are not having as easy a time with it. She laughed when she told me that the girls that Amira sits with all copy her work, and that one girl is does it blatantly- she just stands up, looks at whatever Amira wrote, and copies it! She said that while she doesn't love that this little girl does that, she does love that Amira shares happily and easily and would never, as other super-smart (her words!) girls tend to do, cover over her answers and not let anyone look, and that that lack of arrogance combined with her level of intelligence is something very special.
I love that my daughter is THAT girl. I really do. I am beyond proud and grateful and blessed. And it is my hope and prayer that Amira continues on this path as a person and as a student.
Oh- and Amira's first report card! It is all official looking! They are graded either E (excellent) S (satisfactory) N (needs work) or U (unsatisfactory). Amira got mostly "E's" with a couple of S+'s thrown in and one "S" in science. Ok, so she is my daughter after all!
Listening intently to the directions
The Princess and the Wicked Witch 
