This week my school has parent conferences, which is making the classroom a little more hectic then usually. All day my teacher was trying to prepare for the upcoming conferences; doing running records, looking through student work, and preparing comments. It seemed that she had everything every organized, but there still was a lot of criteria to follow. She showed me the paper work that she had to fill out, then she needed evidence to back up what she was putting on the report card.
It was a great experience to see the effort that a teacher has to put into the conferences. I never realized the amount of time that it would take, but it makes sense. Conferences are the one thing that I am the most nervous about. I don't want to be a young, first year teacher and have the parents come in yelling at me for their children's grades or progress. I know that I am going to have the sweetest parents and then those that want nothing to do with me. Watching a brief conference gave me a little ease, but not as much as a would like.
How could we approach the first conference with the parents? Should we initiate a parent meeting before school even starts? This way we could get to know them and what each of us expect with their children coming into my classroom.
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6 comments:
This week at school for me as well the teachers were holding parent conferences. Report cards were do to as well, so as you have noticed things to get very chaotic, and yet the work that needs to be done gets done on time and is well planned and organized.
My classroom teacher philosophy seemed to be that the biggest thing to parent conferences is being organized well ahead of the game so when the time hits you are on your game. I really agree with this feeling.
Your lucky you got to see a brief conference, I still don't really know how they go. My teacher didn't want to talk about the conferences so I don't know much about them. I think that it is important to keep parents informed of what is going on and always remain open to meeting not just a scheduled conference times in the year. I think it would be a nice idea to invite the parents to meet you and see the classroom before school starts, however it might be difficult due to what you as a teacher will have to do.
You might enjoy reading this article!
How can you deal with angry parents?
And, visit Christina's blog which devotes a great deal of this week's discussion to conferences! Christina's Capturing Thoughts
Thanks so much for the feedback ladies, I found your posts very relatable and comforting.
Regina, those website and Christina's blog were very helpful. There were many great ideas that I have never even thought of.
Hi Tina,
Have you considered the fact that this blog is one way to develop your writing skills? Notice how much you are writing; how varied your writing is; and, how much you're responding to your peers?
Great Point! I never thought of it that way. Responding to the different blogs, really opens up my writing skills and how it is developing.
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