"Oh, I Have That Kid?"

I just had parent teacher conferences. I met with 3 of "M's" 5th grade teachers. "M's" teachers find her to be an absolute joy to have in class. They can't say enough about her. She's getting straight As and even her band teacher thinks that only after 2 months of playing clarinet she wants her to try out for concert band which is usually reserved for 6th-8th graders who have a year or two of experience. They said that she is incredibly polite and thoughtful and they just love having her in class. I was of course on cloud 9 and feeling really good and thinking "wow, this parent-teacher stuff is getting easier every year." So I go down to meet with 4 of "C's" 1st grade teachers. I walk in and all 4 immediately talk at once and tell me that "C" is way too social, talks too much, gets out of her seat, brings toys to class, spills water on her desk daily, goes to the bathroom too much...hmmm, what else...oh yeah, and apparently she is missing 1/3 of her homework that I know she completed at home but for some reason it never got turned in. So they separate her from the class and make her sit alone sometimes and apparently IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!! She still finds a way chit chat with all the kids. I was horrified! All I could say was "I have that kid?" As we left the school that day, it all starts to come together, all the things I have been missing...from the front door of the school to the end of the sidewalk, anywhere between 5 and 10 little girls AND boys yell for "C" and run over to hug her like they are going to miss her sooooo much overnight. When did this happen? She's only 6!!!! This past weekend I had her sit down and write 4 apology letters to her teachers, stating what she thought she needed to improve and made each of them promises that she would try harder to pay attention. The teachers have said that there has been a change in her attitude at school but then when I was helping out in her literacy class the teacher made her sit alone at the teacher's desk so she would stop talking. I gave her the evil eye when it happened.