Have you recovered from your fainting spell?  Do you need some smelling salts? Some orange juice? A moment to catch your breath?  Go ahead, have at me.  You love writing report cards?!? Are you crazy?!?  Aren’t they the bane of every teacher’s existence?!?

That certainly seems to be the consensus but, to quote Martin Sheen on the West Wing, “as a lifelong holder of minority opinions” I beg to differ.

Writing report cards offers me the opportunity to write, which I love – you may have noticed.  I get to write about children, one of my favourite topics.  These are the children I spend my days with, watching them like a detective or like a pirate trying to ferret out treasure.  I take notes, recording what they do and say.  I take photos, I take videos, I save samples of their work, sometimes suffering through intense negotiations: “Can Madame just…