About Harper…my take.

Harper’s 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Weiss, had a parent assignment the first week of school. It was to write about your kid…

Hi Amy,

Cool assignment for the parents. So, a little bit about Harper…

She is independent.  She has always been pretty self-motivated with school work, involving us only when she doesn’t understand a concept.  That is most often in Math, and honestly, she seems to do better when someone other than my husband and I teach her.  In elementary school she was in the highest level of math and reading enrichment (not GT, but in the separate study groups).  She is very strong in reading and writing and generally does enjoy doing both.  She definitely pulls her weight in group work but has had to learn that in group assignments you have to figure out ways to work with people who you may not have chosen to work with; this has been a learning for her over the past few years.

She feels a lot, but may not always show it.  She has a strong desire to achieve academically and will put the effort in to do so.  She responds well to positive reinforcement and takes difficult feedback better from someone who she believes cares about her, or likes her.  She gets embarrassed easily in some instances.  For example, if she’s called up in an assembly, or does sports at school where her friends may see her, she is extremely self-conscious.  I hope she can get more confident in this regard.

Outside of school she plays soccer, loves to scuba dive and travel, loves to hang out with her friends, and LOVES animals (ask her about Bornean Sun Bears!).  She has a good group of core friends but has really been looking forward to also meeting new people in middle school.  This was one of the things she was most looking forward to.

She is creative.  We don’t know exactly where that comes from because it doesn’t come from my husband or me!  She thinks she may be interested in set design and I believe there is a club maybe at school that works on that, or on producing the daily news.  She did that for a while at Dunn, had fun and did a great job.  

We are, and she is, very excited about all of the new experiences in the upcoming year!

I have also CC’d my husband Greg, in case he has anything he wants to add.

Cheers to a great year for all!

Betsy