Funny Story

I have a funny story for you, but I need to preface it. As I have said I teach this AP Calculus class. First semester was pretty rough. I had two parent-teacher conferences before break, and two after. I have had two kids drop and three kids want to drop. For the three that want to drop, they are suppose to be making an effort to do well. If they give it their all and still find themselves lost, then they can drop the class before midterms come out. I had this one pt conference before break that was horrible. I felt like a horrible teacher and the parents pretty much told me that. I found out there was a "personality conflict" between the two of us and I didn't know we had any issues there. She told her parents last year if I was teaching Calc instead of the teacher from last year then she didn't want to take Calculus. The parents were pretty adament about her dropping. The counselor struck up the agreement above. This girl promised her parents she would try, but I think she assumed it wouldn't work. Funny thing is it did work. She has been coming to me for help, paying attention, working hard on assignments, and now she understands the material. So in class on Friday she was all upset that she actually understands the math and is doing well because her goal was to get out of my class. Funny isn't it!