Middle School Conferences

The other night I had conferences at the Middle School. I wanted to talk to Maggie's algebra and language arts teachers. She got a B in both classes and I wanted to see what they had to say. I also talked to her other teachers as it wasn't very crowded. The earth shattering news that I received from three of her teachers: Maggie needs to be more organized. She also has terrible penmanship.
I have been working on Maggie's organizational skills since kindergarten. I have been told that Maggie's absentmindedness goes hand in hand with her "gifted abilities." I have handed Maggie her homework, told her to put it in her bookbag and then I have found it in the bathroom or on the floor. It can take Maggie two hours to look up 20 vocabulary words because the dictionary also contains other interesting facts besides definitions. When Maggie is missing homework assignments it is not because she didn't do it. She just can't remember what she did with it. Math homework can be found in her social studies folder or in her health folder. Her health homework is probably in her math folder.
As for her penmanship, Maggie will never be able to write anything that anyone else can read. She learned to read 3 years before she ever learned to correctly make her letters.
When Maggie was learning cursive, it would take her a long time to do a practice page. Now she just slaps stuff down on paper. She can read it so everyone else should be able to.
She types papers and stories on the computer.
I know that I am lucky that the only "bad" things that my daughter's teacher have to say is that her writing is sloppy and her organizational skills need improvement. She is a smart, happy and loveable young lady. She actively participates in class and is always very willing to help another student if they don't understand something. She always has a smile on her face and gets along with everyone. There were parents there who's kids were failing or are behavior problems.
I will take my sloppy and absentminded Magpie over anyone elses's kid everytime!!