So here's the deal

I'm kinda upset.  I had to keep myself from tearing up last night.  I was not able to record Katie's dance yesterday.

First, I grabbed the camera on my way to pick up Justin.  We would only have 45 minutes between when school got out and when we had to be back at the school.  So I decided I wasn't going to come back home.  I was going to run up to Little Ceasers, grab a $5 pizza and have the kids eat in the car.  Katie had to stay after school.  Her teacher wasn't releasing the kids until AFTER the performance and so she was feeding the class pizza as well.

When I was waiting for the bell to ring, I decided to check the camera to make sure it was in the right spot.  Guess what?  Battery dead.  Are you kidding me!?  We just fully charged that thing last weekend.  We had about 2 minutes of footage and I shared it once! 

So I picked up Justin, ran back home, plugged in the camera and left to go get the pizza.  We ate at home quickly, made everybody go potty and were back out the door.  So I knew I didn't have much of a charge but was hopeful that I would have enough for the few minutes to tape Katie.  Especially since I wasn't able to tape it last year because we ran out of tape!!  Video cameras are not my friend.  I need to invest in a digital!

When we got there the place was already filling up.  I was able to grab 4 seats (Grandma DeeDee was coming too!) a few rows back.  Grandma made it just in time before they were going to make me give up the extra space because the lunchroom was packed wall to wall.  When her class started to perform, I pulled out the camera.  There was some weird indicator light in the middle of the screen - I'm not sure what it meant.  The boys danced first.  They did this cute little dance about little old Mexican men with canes and masks.  Very cute.  I couldn't see hardly anything.  Espeically with the camera.  Just a few seconds into it and I knew it was useless.  I fought back the tears and put the camera away.

After the first dance, I saw a fellow mother in the class video taping.  I asked her for a copy and she said it was actually the teacher's camera so she thinks everyone should be able to get a copy!  Great!

Then the boys and girls did a Spanish polka.  Katie was wearing the same outfit of last year.  She looked so cute!  Although her bun did not stay in all the way...oh well.  I tried.

The dance was a lot of fun and the audience seemed to really enjoy it, clapping along with the music!  It was cute!

Then all the kids got to pick a member of the audience to teach them an easy little dance to do with them.  Katie grabbed CiCi.  My first thought was, Ciara isn't going to be able to do that!  Boy was I wrong!  I don't think those two girls had more fun!  It was the cutest thing!  Of course they had to be in the very back and most of the kids picked their parents so it was awful to try and watch, but what can you do?

Then it was a fight through the masses to meet the kids back in the classroom.  I waited for most of the parents to leave with their children so I could talk to the teacher.  When she had a moment I told her I was a little bit concerned.  Her immediate response was, "About recess?".   She explained that because the school is a title one school (which usually means lower income) the school gets extra money from the district.  Because of that the school is held to higher reading test results.  So the school (except for the lower grades K and 1) doesn't participate in 1st recess.  So that was not a punishment by any means.  It was simply aligning with the rest of the school.  At this point I was already feeling better. 

The reason 3rd recess has been taken away is because the kids are supposed to be speaking Spanish only during the Spanish half of the day.  If they do not, they lose recess.  So I asked, is Katie not speaking Spanish.  The teacher said she was doing very well and was not one of the students causing them to lose their recess.  She continued to say that she knows it's not fair to "punish" all of the children for the majority and that she is trying to work out something to reward the other kids, but hasn't been able to yet.  I explained that Katie came home very upset yesterday because of it.  The teacher again acknowledged that she has to find a better way to handle it as she can see it in her "good" students.  She also thanked me for bringing up my concerns because if we do not bring them up, she continues none the wiser and/or as a parent, you just fester. 

I then moved on to the Valentines day party.  She said she is still not sure if they will be able to have one.  And this is why.  This week they have spent a lot of time practicing for this performance and need to catch up on some other things.  They only have about a 20 minute time frame at the end of the day to play a couple games and have fun.  If the kids do not cooperate, they will not have any time.  So it's not a punishment, it's a time constraint.

I also asked about getting a copy of the dances.  She said definately!  The camera is for the classroom and will be giving a copy on disc to each parent at the end of the year.  So I have to wait, but at least I get it!

I feel much better now that I had a few minutes to talk to her.  I've always liked her and I'm glad I can continue to.  Although Katie is still being lumped in with the others, I know she is working on a plan to reward her.

I did not go into Fabulous Friday simply because I forgot, but I will bring it up in SEP conference next month.

So there you have it.  I wasn't able to tape the performance, the kids had a lot of fun, I talked to the teacher, I feel much better!