PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES AT BRANCH BROOK ELEMENTARY

       Parent Teacher Conferences in Ms. Forfa's class are warm, to the point, and compassionate. Fortunately, the parents in this community obviously care for and are concerned about their children, and may not be troubled by the burdens that affect other communities. Out of a class of 26 students, 26 parents/caregivers were present! Not only was my mentor Dana  Forfa's 2nd grade class replete with eagerly anticipatory parents, from the "staff room" conversations I held during the week, practically every teacher in the building was busy meeting with his or her classroom parents. (I make a point of this because, in stark contrast, the parent turnout at Maple Ave. School, earlier this year, was disappointing to say the least.)

        Anthony P's mom arrived with her usual warmth and smiling face, yet, she always seems to be waiting for the bad news...which NEVER comes! Her son is a delight and works exceptionally hard on each and every assignment.  Earlier in the school year, I had the opportunity to sit in on a Child Study Team meeting about Anthony. His mother was extremely worried because she was informed by the professional staff at at his previous school, that he would probably need an intervention of some type. Neither Ms. Forfa nor I felt that there was any type of behavior, academic or otherwise, that would warrant an intervention. Ms. Forfa stressed, "You just let him read at home, to you and to anyone else, and we'll take care of the rest!" Anthony is progressing well...

        Joselyn G.'s mom came in and was immediately informed how well her daughter was doing. (Something she is well aware of because every time I see her coming into the school or leaving, I give her an update on her daughter's progress. She is an energetic, bright and respectful young lady (actually all of our students are) who wants to do well and continues to make every attempt to do so. Because I have established a wonderful rapport with all of the parents I have met, Joselyn's mom felt comfortable enough to ask ME to make sure her hair was "in place" for picture day.

       Nicolas R's mother appeared, as she usually does, to pick her sons up (he has a younger brother in kindergarten) and was more than amenable to engage in a conversation about Nicolas' progress. Nicholas is a quick-witted, intelligent young man with a penchant for conversation with his table mates, especially Jaelyn, who sits alongside him. His reading level is a 16, which is the independent level for a second grader. Unfortunately,  Nicolas' parents recently separated and it is obvious that his frustration thresh hold is becoming lower.  For instance, if he is made aware that he has responded incorrectly to a math homework answer, he becomes easily agitated; Recognizing this, and utilizing the knowledge obtained regarding his family issues, I always begin by telling him how great he is doing and that he only made a couple of slight errors (which is the truth). Also, whenever he or any of the students respond correctly to all of their homework problems, I put the word PERFECT! on their paper. This seems to evoke a deep sense of pride in the students, as well as their parents. (Homework correction time has also become a time where I can implement expansion of vocabulary strategies. For instance, each week the word for really good or great papers changes: Excellent, Fantastic, Superb, etc. have all been relished by the students and can actually be seen appearing in their descriptive writings.)

       Leeah S, recently named student of the month waited outside while her parents came in and were given the wonderful news that their daughter is doing exceptionally well. This type of feedback ALWAYS makes a caregiver beam with pride. 

       Luis M. is the oldest of three boys, and his mom is now pregnant with, you guessed it, boy number 4! Luis is extremely bright, but would habitually fall asleep during class. Ms. Forfa addressed this area of serious concern with the principal, Mr. Cullen, previously, and apparently Luis' mom has been making a great effort to avert a serious problem. She stated that he would take long naps after school, then could not go back to sleep once he finished his extended nap. Ms. Forfa suggested that he not be allowed to nap after school or if so, only for an hour. His mom agreed, and apparently it has been working...He no longer falls asleep! Luis is a wealth of knowledge, something his mother attributes to the fact that he reads, reads, reads, all the time.  I know this is true, because at every given opportunity he wants to tell me about a book he is reading and is even utilizing words such as strategy and text-to-self connections without prompting!  He is a joy to have in class and his mother was proud to hear it...

       All in all, Parent Teacher Conferences at Branch Brook School were pretty much ideal. One can only hope that the parental turnout and level of concern in other areas of this fine city,  will reach Branch Brook's proportions. Perhaps, when we have our own classrooms, we will find inventive and persuasive ways to help those parents who have difficulties, become model parents as well.  A collaboration between teacher and parent (s) is crucial for the success of our children!

PT Conference Reflection

I had the nerve-wracking pleasure of participating in my first set of parent-teacher conferences at Ridge Street. Overall, the experience was a positive one, but there were definitely some important lessons that I learned about preparation and cultural awareness that I hadn't deeply considered prior to the conferences.

First, preparation is key. Mrs. Comesanas has a binder in which she keeps all her printed online assessment tool reports (DRA/Slosson scores, previous year reports, individual and group reports) so that she is ready to tell a parent where a student fell relative to his or her personal progress, progress relative to that of his or her peer's in this year's class, and progress relative to benchmark targets. She was comfortable with locating data on the students on command, so clearly she knows how to manage the online data. She also had anecdotal notes for each student and other comments prepared. These were all things I would want to emulate in my practice as a teacher.

I was able to participate in some of the preparation as well. In fact, Mrs. Comesanas entrusted me with recording detailed notes on each student's reading log, because my notes became a focal point of her conferences when she discussed literacy with her students. I took notes on the kinds of books our students were reading, whether there was a good variety, whether they seemed to be spending too much time on a particular book or repeating books frequently without additional insight in their notes, as well as the quality of their writing in the reading logs. As I wrote down the notes, I paused to consider what a wonderful assessment tool reading logs are for all the skills mentioned above, and more! I think that a reading log will be something I will try to incorporate as a daily homework assignment. In addition to motivating students to read, requiring parental signatures also creates an additional ability to dialogue with parents and feel like you're communicating with them, and ensuring that parents are forced to be interested in their students' learning and work.

One challenge that came up was with Spanish language. While I was able to understand the content of each conference, it was difficult for me to get heavily involved in them because my ability to speak Spanish has not caught up to my ability to understand it. I had let my Spanish studies fall off my radar for a while when I learned early in the year how  much Spanish my students actually spoke. Our one L2 student left the class at the end of October, so since then I've spoken very little Spanish to my students because our language of instruction is always English. What I didn't consider was that my students' English would be SO much stronger than that of their parents, which meant I did not prepare Spanish comments for the parents in advance. Knowing this might be a challenge even in a non-ELL classroom next year, I think one change I will make with my own conferences will be to write comments in Spanish ahead of time, because it will give me a crutch to lean on when making comments and will give parents something to refer to without having to rely on my broken or inadequate Spanish. A good lesson learned!

I also had a bit of an awkward moment with the one conference I was asked to hold on my own with the parent of the student whom I studied for my literacy child study. I looked over his scores and my log notes, but I didn't really know all of his grades off the top of my head. Unfortunately, this caused me to give serious pause when I moved to discuss the grades and saw that Angel was failing math. I did not remember that his grade was an "F" and thus was very nervous explaining to a parent that her son was having serious struggles in a major subject area. I did adapt well on the spot, because I do know Angel well and was able to explain that his math struggles were largely a result of his literacy struggles, and so to improve on his math grade I would focus heavily on his reading skills to enable him to read directions, solve word problems, and execute exemplars. The lesson I took from this was two-fold: have my own set of notes with my students' grades independent of his/her report card, and review them before each conference, even if that means asking the parent to wait while I gather my thoughts; and, it is a good thing I know my students well because it meant the difference between appearing a little nervous and appearing a lot incompetent.

Lastly, it was very interesting to see the difference between student behavior during class and behavior with a parent present. Our most jovial students looked nervous and stone-faced, and I felt really bad that a discussion that was aimed at helping them was causing them so much stress and anguish. We had a student break down and cry because she wasn't getting "A's" (Mrs. C told me that her father had probably set unreasonably high expectations of her and she hadn't met them). Other students looked really sad when their struggles were discussed, but we always included them in those discussions and let them know that our goal was to help them, not to let them keep earning bad grades. Once we calmed students down, set clear expectations and a plan of action to help them moving forward, their demeanor improved across the board.

In conclusion, there was a lot that I learned at each stage of the conference- preparation, execution with the parent, and including students in dialogue about their learning- that I hope to take with me when I prepare for my own set of conferences next year. It was much different from last year's conferences, where I sat across the room as a silent and for the most part invisible observer. There was no escaping the eyes or questions of concerned parents. Luckily, they seemed to have full confidence in both my and Mrs. Comesanas' insights and were willing to work with us to help their students continue learning. Also, I learned that bilingual classes always have perfect or near perfect parent attendance at these conferences, which speaks to the importance of education and parental involvement as a matter of home culture. We had at least one parent attend for each of our 14 students!

Reflection for Parent-Teacher Conference

Reflection for the parent-teacher conference night:

            When looking back on this event, I think about what went well, what could have gone better, and what connections were made.  It was really great to meet some of my students' parents, and I was surprised about how many showed up--nine out of thirteen.  Ideally one would want to see all of the parents, but this was a nice starting point.  

            One thing that was really useful was our student folder system.  Though it was time consuming and stressful to put folders together for the students--and the system can surely be refined so that it is less stressful by not letting papers pile up--they were the highlighted center of the conversations I had with parents that night.

            The student folders contain all of the classwork for literacy, health, and social studies.  There is also a folder for weekly assessments.  These were all helpful because they provided artifacts that told the story of how a student was learning and initiated talking points for conversations with the student and the parents.

            For every conference, I made sure that the students were a part of the conversation.  I felt that it gave them more ownership into their learning.  It also gave them a chance to respond to any questions that the parents had. 

            Conferencing with the parents and students came second nature to me.  I warmly greeted them and praised the things that I appreciated about the students.  If there was something immediate that came to mind as far as any issues we've been having in class, I brought it up in a way that didn't belittle or criticize the student.  Rather, I posed it as an issue that we were working on…and for every student struggling with behavior I saw marked improvement.  Having the parents there helped with reinforcing to the student that s/he had people who wanted them to succeed.

            Another highlight to the conference was being able to connect with other members of the students' families.  There was one student with whom I made a connection earlier in the year because her sister was having a baby.  She was excited for me to finally meet her nephew who was a month old.

            There were also two brothers whom I met, though they were not related to anyone in our class.  One was a former student of Ms. Wise and was in 3rd grade now.  The other one was in kindergarten.  Their mother was having a personal conversation with Ms. Wise.  This showed me how sometimes parents seek teachers for support.

            As the boys were getting into different things in the class, I engaged them so that they were less likely to get in trouble.  I ended doing all sorts of lessons with them with playing games using words from our word wall, using the whiteboard for writing exercises, and even doing some drumming exercises on a drum I had brought in for my Native American studies.  It was really fun to have a whole classroom with lightly structured learning and students that wanted to learn…and the mom appreciated having quality time with Ms. Wise.

           

            As the evening came to a close, I realized that I had done half of the conferences on my own.  This was helpful to Ms. Wise as she was able to have long conferences with some students and parents that really needed longer sessions.  I really appreciated the trust and respect that Ms. Wise had given to me from early on that allowed me to grow in a way that I felt confident, competent, and knowledgeable enough to speak with the parents.

            In thinking what I'd like to do differently in the future, I found two things.  One is that I would like to reach out to parents that didn't respond to the parent teacher conference letter.  I'd like to see if there was a way that I could help them make it to the school or find a suitable alternative to talk about their child's performance.  Something else I'd do is to have some kind snacks and drinks to simply make the conference even more fun and enjoyable.

Reflection on Parent Teacher Conference for Bragaw Elementary School

            On Thursday, November 29, 2012, the Newark Public School District held district wide parent-teacher conferences.  The purpose of the parent-teacher conferences is to offer parents an opportunity to meet with their child’s teacher.  There are a total of 34 kindergarten students at Bragaw.  The 34 students are divided between two classes; Ms. Jones and Mr. Smith.  Of the 34 students, 20 parents/guardians attended the parent-teacher conference. 

Due to illness, Mr. Smith was absent.  I observed Ms Jones conduct parent-teacher conferences with all the kindergarten parents.  Prior to the parent-teacher conference, folders were prepared for each student.  The folder contained student work, a copy of the student’s report card and explanation of grades.  This packet of information was given to each parent.  Each parent conference began with Ms. Jones offering warm feedback to the parents about their child.  Ms. Jones shared the child’s strengths, their areas of weakness, and suggestions for parents to help support their child academically.  Parents who attended the parent-teacher conference were receptive to the feedback from Ms. Jones and often agreed with Ms. Jones observations.  In between conferences, I asked Ms. Jones about delivering difficult information about a student’s progress or the lack of progress to parents.  Ms. Jones indicated that during the initial in person meeting, she does not bombard parents with a barrage of cool/negative feed back about their child.  Instead, Ms. Jones stated that she makes a habitat of following the parents lead regarding their child especially with respect to behavioral challenges.  During the parent-teacher conference, I observed Ms. Jones following the parents lead and then offering suggestions to the parent on how to support their child’s learning at home and in school.  Ms. Jones always closed by explaining that she and the other co-teachers are part of a team whose primary goal is to support the academic success of their child.

Observing parent-teacher conferences this year had greater meaning as I know the students being discussed intimately.  Parents who attended the conferences genuinely want to support their child but many parents do not know how and/or feel ill equipped to support their child academically.  One parent-teacher conference I observed involved the parent of the child discussed in my child study.  This parent is a young parent who appears to been genuinely overwhelmed and frustrated by parenting her daughter and the challenges of life.  Due to this frustration, the parent has been taking it out on her daughter.  During the parent-teacher conference, which not only included Ms. Jones and I but also the school guidance counselor, Mr. Meredith, we worked as a team to explain to the mother that we are here to support her and her daughter academically.  Mr. Meredith explained that her daughter has been referred to the Intervention and Referral Support team (I&RS) to assist in getting her daughter additional academic support.  Since I am working with the child one-on-one daily, Ms. Jones offered me an opportunity to be involved in the parent conference by explaining the work I had been doing with her daily.  I explained that 4 times a week, I work with her daughter one-on-one on indentifying the letters and sounds of the alphabet. I explained to the mother that her daughter is an eager learning and that she is making progress. I reminded the mother how the small change in calling her daughter by her full name has assisted her daughter in learning all the letters in her name and being able to write her name without the assistance of her name card.  I thanked her mother for helping me with her daughter and encouraged her to keep working with her daughter.  I concluded by  emphasizing the importance of having her intimately involved in the process of supporting her daughter academically stating that she is her daughter’s first teacher and that I (along with Ms. Jones and Mr. Meredith) are there to support and help.  The mother was receptive to the help and asked if I would make additional flash cards for her daughter to take home.  I left this parent/teacher conference optimistic but realistic that progress for this student will be slow.

By observing Ms. Jones interact with parents, I became more keenly aware of how crucial it is to have parental support and to empower parents to be a part of the process of educating their child.  Parents are the first teachers and the foundation for academic success for their child.  As an emerging teacher I intend to incorporate the practice of parental empowerment, parental engagement and the habit of providing truthful but appropriate feedback to parents by using the “sandwich method,” (warm-cool-warm) feedback.  By incorporating these three practices, I am confident that I will be able to effectively and honestly communicate the academic progress of my students.  

Parent Teacher Conference

Sherry Ayres

November 28, 2012

Parent Teacher Conference Reflection

            I like to see the student’s parents. It gives you a whole different view of who they are and how they came to be. It’s also interesting to see how the student interacts with his/her parents, which is often very different than how they are in class. It’s enlightening. The first time we met the parents at Back to School Night, there had only been a few weeks of school, and so we didn’t really know all that much about the students. This time was different. By now, we really know their children a lot more and have a lot to report.

             Parents were lined up at the door before the school day ended at 1:00pm. Officially, conferences start at 1:15, but Ms. Duca starts them earlier as she figures that both she and the parent are already here. As we are out in the trailers, there really is no way to have the parents wait outside without them freezing, so she allows them to come in, has them sign a sign-in sheet, and look through their child’s papers at his/her desk while she is speaking to another parent. Even right after school, there were no more than three parents in the room at the same time, and so the system seemed to work well.

            Ms. Duca started each conference by going over the report card with the parent, describing the grade s/he got in each subject area and why. She then explained the behavior/ characteristic marks at the end of the report card, and then read the comment that she wrote about the student’s overall progress. Then she would usually expand on anything that she wrote particularly in response to the parent’s comments and questions. I thought it was a good idea that she read what she wrote, as I know in spur of the moment, I’ll often forget something important that I wanted to mention, and so that is a good way to guard against that.

I loved seeing the pride swell on their faces as Ms. Duca showed the parents their grades. Of course, it was tough to see the looks of shame on their faces, but for those students for whom our strong urgings don’t seem to be getting through to, I think it’s a needed reinforcement of the importance of our words and the areas in which they need to improve. One parent, in particular, really lit into her daughter, who was in tears; it was very hard to see. Another family was in the room at the time, which I’m sure only magnified the embarrassment.  This student can be very aggressive herself in interactions with other students, but often seeks affection from me. Even from the very first days of school, she’d come over and give me a big hug. Now I can understand more some of the possible underpinnings of these behaviors. I was particularly pleased to be able to be of greater assistance when two parents came in who didn’t speak English as their first language. My Spanish comprehension is good enough that I can understand everything they said. My verbal abilities leave a little more to be desired, but I was able to get our points across.

I definitely felt nervous when parents of some of our struggling students came in, but watching Lisa in action has given me a much better sense of how I will handle these things next year. Moreover, I saw that really all of the parents were very receptive to the teachers’ feedback and for the most part my prior nerves were unwarranted.

Parent-Teacher Conferences- 11/29/12

            Last night, I participated in parent-teacher conferences for my third grade class at Ridge Street School.  Prior to the conferences, I was nervous because I was not sure how some parents would react to their children’s grades, but I was also excited because I knew I would play an active role in the conferences since I had been teaching, grading and working with these students for three months.  Besides this, I had already interacted with several of the parents in person during the open house and when parents come to talk to Ms. Iatesta and I.  This time, I would have plenty of input and ideas about how parents can support their child’s academic growth and socio-emotional development.

            Ms. Iatesta and I sat down on Wednesday and talked through all of the information that we would discuss with the parents.  She let me know that she wanted me to feel comfortable to interject, share my thoughts and take the lead on some of the conferences.  We prepared the report cards, forms with online resources for the parents to use, the DRA information and informed the parents about upcoming assignments that the class will be working on.  I felt prepared to show parents evidence of their child’s progression and areas of weakness.

            Almost all of the parents attended the conferences, and those who did not picked up their child’s report card once the office was ready to distribute them.  This reminded me that the students at Ridge Street School come from homes with involved and caring parents who have the means to support their children’s needs.  I mainly observed Ms. Iatesta for the first couple of conferences and added any comments I wanted to make towards the end.  Then I began taking over half of the conferences, either going over the report card and DRA scores, or discussing upcoming assignments and strategies parents can use to assist their children. 

            I felt confident and proud during the conferences because all the parents knew who I was and were receptive to everything I had to say.  This affirmed that Ms. Iatesta’s insistence on including me from day one, and insisting that the students understand that we are both teachers in the classroom, was crucial to my being able to smoothly take over more and more responsibility in the classroom and to be viewed as a competent co-teacher.

            Several of the parents arrived at once towards the end of the allotted time for conferences.  Ms. Iatesta and I consciously moved more quickly through the last several conferences, but availed ourselves to talk further with parents who had questions or concerns.  We ended up staying until 7:30 p.m., but I was neither surprised nor in a rush to leave because I was committed to staying and being a part of all of the conferences.  I realized that I am really part of the classroom, and play a pivotal role in these children’s daily experiences. 

On my drive home, Ms. Iatesta and I reflected about the experience over the phone.  We talked about what we noticed about parents’ reactions, and thought of changes we can make in our daily routines that would allow us to focus on areas of need with certain students.  What was truly eye-opening for both of us, was hearing one student’s parents discuss how their son works hard at home because he does not want to disappoint us.  Ms. Iatesta and I both understood in that moment that we have had an impact on these students, and that they want to please and impress us. That put us at ease, but also ignited a fire in us to work hard give them everything they need.

Despite all the hard work, challenges and frustrations that I know will come with my first year of teaching, I cannot wait to begin the journey.  As I have said before, this is another experience that reminded me that I am doing exactly what I was meant to do.  I am learning every day and feel excited to be able to play such an important role in children’s lives.

           

Parent Teacher Conference

Before Thursday, I was thinking that Parent Teacher Conferences would be interesting but would not be something to be apprehensive about.  Mrs. Marotta and I had discussed my role and decided she would take the lead and I could jump in as needed.  However, During the day Thursday an incident occurred that would force me to speak to a student's mother on a matter of discipline.  Now I was kind of apprehensive about the Parent Teacher Conferences.  Paul is a student that talks constantly and is very immature.  Actually, I'm a bit jealous of his gift for gab and ability to engage anyone in a conversation.  This skill will serve him well in life.   However, he is very often off task and distracting the students in his group and students in the surrounding desk groups.  When Paul first transferred in, his mom had warned us that he often got into trouble for talking.  He is definitely a social learner and we do not want to have to put his desk alone as an island.   In the past week, Paul had been disrespectful to me on a few occasions.  I had called his name to be quiet and he replied, "That's my name" and started laughing.  Nothing too severe but still inappropriate.  So when it happened again on Thursday, I informed him that I would be informing his Mom of his behavior that night.  He was not happy.  And of course, Paul's Mom was second to last on the schedule, so I had plenty of time to think about how to address the issue.

We had a full schedule with all slots full.  The first thing we had to deal with was a parent that showed up at 1pm and wanted to do his conference.  However, he was scheduled for 2:10pm.  So Mrs. Marotta informed him that he would have to wait. And he did.  From this, I learned that Teachers need to stick to the schedule, especially at the start of the afternoon.  The first scheduled parent showed up on time for her 1:10pm slot.  Her child is classified, so we ended up going for 20 minutes before ending.  At this point, Mrs. Marotta put me in charge of handing out forms that some parents still needed to sign and the new NPS Schedule.

We managed get back to original schedule when one of the parents did not show.  We were also able to take a few early when other parents did not show.  This get us on time later that evening.  In all, we had 21 out of 26 show.  So it's important to keep to schedule early but important to be flexible as the day goes on.

Four of the conference stood out as lessons to me.  First, the conference with the new transfer student from Ghana.  Her father was the parent that showed up at 1pm for 2:10pm slot.  We wanted to find out about her educational background, what she knows and doesn't know.  She has been extremely quiet and is mostly inaccurate on assignments.  She can write fairly well.  Se just doesn't write about what she is supposed to write about.  We were not very successful in getting information.  Mrs. Marotta kept stressing that maybe it was a language issue and Afua's Father kept telling us that people from Ghana spoke English.  And it kept going in a circle that I wasn't sure how to stop.  So the lesson for me was be clear with questions for parents.

The second stand-out conference was well several conferences.  These were the hard working students.  I learned how to complement and how to encourage Parents to keep their child's learning moving forward.

The third stand-out conference was for a girl that I like very much, Yaddy.  She works hard and is very sweet.  I had noticed that she didn't sometimes withdraws and doesn't interact with other students.  But sometimes she fine with other students.  However, we learned from her Mom that she is very self-conscious of her weight and looks.  She had a brain tumor and had gained a lot of weight after the operations.  Her Mom told us that she doesn't interact with other kids because she's afraid they will call her fat.  She also has eye problems but she won't wear her glasses.  We didn't even know she wore glasses.  So the lesson was a teacher can learn a lot about a student from a conference.

Finally, it was time for Paul's Mom to show up.   Mrs. Marotta and I had discussed how we were going to approach the issue.  She would begin and I would continue when she gave me the look.  When the look came, I stated, "We're becoming concerned about Paul starting to become disrespectful."  I detailed two of the incidents.  She was not defensive as I feared.  She apologized profusely and said that she would talk with him about this.  Mrs. Marotta did end the conference on a positive note.  Then Paul's Mom informed us that he had been a very, very premature birth and that he had had major health problems as a baby.  He is also an only child and graves all the affection he can get.  Again, it was good to learn context.  So here I learned how to handle discipline issues and do it in a way that doesn't pit the parent against the teacher and keeps the student's educational needs first and foremost.  Also, Paul behavior was more appropriate the next day.  We'll see how he does going forward.

P-T Conferences

     On Thursday, November 29th we had Parent-Teacher Conferences and distributed the student's report cards. Of the twenty-two students in my class, 18 parents or other family members (grandparents, siblings, etc.) came to talk with me and my teacher. Three of the students parents had let us know ahead of time that they couldn't make it to see us, and unfortunately, one students' parents have been impossible to contact.

    Looking at the schedule for our P-T conferences, I thought that there was no possible way to keep them on time. In a way the conferences are designed to fail time-wise. If every session is 10 minutes, which is not enough time to begin with, there needs to be time in between session for parents to get settled at the beginning and collect their belongings at the end. A five-minute grace period between session would be helpful to allow for transitions and help ease parental wait time. In my Vertical Level Meeting we discussed changing the structure of the P-T Conferences, but extending the conferences to another day is something that has to be negotiated through contracts.

    Despite falling about 10 minutes behind in the first hour of conferences, we were able to catch-up at the start of every hour due to gaps in our conference schedule. The breaks allowed us to get back on schedule, and sometimes reorganize ourselves and our paperwork before the next parent can in. I was surprised that we were able to stay so close to schedule and to have so little wait time for parents outside of the classroom. 

     Most of our conferences were structured the same way. As parents came in we started a 10-minute timer and let them know that we only have 10-minutes, but if we need to continue the conversation after the timer goes off, we would schedule an appointment to continue to conversation. (We had a calendar on the table for easy scheduling.) We had the parents sign-in and sign the cut out paper saying they received their child's report card.  Then my teacher explained that the report cards look similar to the report cards from Kindergarten and went over the grading key (S, E, D, NE, NA). She explained that it doesn't correspond to letter grades and that right now we would be looking for students to be in the D to E ranges. She also pointed out that she wrote a comment about the student on the back page. Next we shared with the parents the positives of their child's social-emotional development, and moved into areas that need to be worked on (if there were any).

     After that we shared with parents their students DRA2 level from October. We told parents that a level 4 is on grade level at this point in the year and that by the end of the year the goal is for the student to be reading at a level 16. We showed parents book samples of the child's current reading level, a level 4 and a level 16. We let them know what we are doing in the classroom to get their child to a level 16 or higher by the end of the year, and how they also need to work with their child to increase their reading skills. We reminded them to read to their child every day, even the weekends, but also talked about how comprehension is important. We asked them to ask their children questions about characters, setting, plot, to retell the story, etc. We let them know that they can ask these questions about movies, television shows, etc. We also gave the parents a copy of their child's DRA2 summary (the one we printed out on Tuesday) for their own records.

     If there was any time left, we let the parents ask us questions and tell us their concerns. In our VLM we also discussed having a form for parents to fill out before the conferences in the future so teachers can know how to structure each conference and how best to address parents concerns and topic they would like to discuss. We are hoping to have this ready for the second set of P-T Conferences this year.

     Most of the conferences were in English, so I was able to dully participate in them. However, a handful were in Spanish and since I don't speak much Spanish (or understand much), my teacher took the lead on them. Even so, I was able to read parents faces and the emotion in their voices, allowing me to follow the conversations.

    The most touching moment of the conferences for me was one with a mother we have gotten to know very well over the past few months. Her son has had some difficulty in our classroom and she has been concerned about his performance and behavior in school. Before she left the conference, I read to her something her son wrote for one of my lessons. The students were asked to write one thing they were thankful for and put them on turkey feathers. Her son worked on it independently, and wrote "I am thankful for my school. I am getting better at listening." When I read his work the mother started to cry. She told me hearing that made her so proud and happy. It was a touching moment that will stay with me.

Parent Teacher Conferences11/29/12

On Thursday night, I attended Parent/Teacher Conferences or report card night as they call it. One thing that I really like about Abington (or maybe Newark in general) is that they require parents to come in in order to get their child's report card. One thing that I do not like is that conferences are only 10 minutes. What can you really get accomplished in 10 minutes?! I remember when I was in school, we would at least have 2 days of parent teacher conferences with longer time slots, but that may be indicative of the level of parental involvement and attendance that you tend to hear about in Newark. 

Thursday was an interesting day. Out of 24 students, we had 22 parents come in for conferences and out of those 22, 18 were in Spanish. I was not as lost as I thought I would be however. I actually picked  up a lot of what was being said and my mentor was really surprised when we would debrief after each conference and I would tell her I already knew. The most difficult part was not being able to directly communicate with the parents. She would turn to me at certain parts and asked me if I understood and if I did not, she would tell me what was being said and if I had anything to say, she would translate it for me, but I would have rathered to be able to do it myself. Needless to say, Rosetta Stone and/or Spanish classes are at the top of my list right now. If I ever have a class like this, then I want to be prepared. 

Besides that though, conferences ran smoothly and for the most part on time. I noticed that with higher achieving students, those conferences went quickly than the ones where the grades were lower. That helped though as we needed more time to talk to the parents of the ones who needed more help. For example, we had a longer conference with one of our failing students whose mom does not want to acknowledge or admit that he is struggling. Even with the conference being in Spanish, it was not hard to tell that she did not want to hear that. We are going to work with him more and see if he improves, but if not then we have to start taking other measures, so we will see how that goes. 

In some of the conferences, my mentor and a parent would discuss the student's struggles and how we can work on them and fix them. It was great because I saw her put them in place the next day. For example, we changed Ivelys' seat because we found out that she needs glasses, but lost them. We also changed Katie's seat around because her dad told us that she can process better when she hears from the right side. Those are the kinds of things that make conferences worthwhile because we never would have known that otherwise. 

Dinner was an interesting and fun part of the night. I love the social committee at Abington and the lunches/dinners that they put together. It really is a wonderful thing to see everybody sitting and eating together and having a good time. They even had a ring toss and a station to take pictures. The dinner was all Hispanic food and pretty amazing. The best part is that it is not just the teachers. Even the administrators come and take part in the festivities. It was a good way to relax and unwind before going back to conferences. I hope that whatever school that I get placed in has a pretty tight knit community like the one at Abington. I think that that makes the whole teaching thing easier at times. 

The sessions after dinner tended to go more quickly than the ones earlier in the afternoon. There were two parents that we specifically wanted to see that did not show up. One sent an older brother and the other just did not show up. On our down time, we talked about future lessons and past conferences and debriefed about the conferences that we just had. I felt really important because my input and feedback was valued and taken into consideration. It is great having a mentor that I can both get along with and learn from. As a whole, it was a success. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

On 11/29/12, I attended the parent Teacher conferences for Ms. Lepore’s 3^rd grade class. The day began promptly at 1, with parents beginning to ask questions about their children immediately when picking them up. I was told that his may be the case, and advised to kindly assure parents that they would receive all information they need and desire during their individual conferences. This year’s experience was quite different from last year’s experience in several ways. This year, I was an active member of the discussions that were being had with parents, and I felt like my input was valued and appreciated by both my mentor and the parents. We had 22 parents show up for their scheduled appointments, as opposed to the 6 that showed last year.  This seemed indicative of the culture of the Abington community. Parental involvement is a priority for the administration.

In order for parents to receive their children’s report cards, they had to physically come in for conference. Some of the student’s report card grades were surprising, and not quite what I expected. I realized how important tests were to final grades. Several students who I felt were active members of the class and seemed to do well on homework and classwork assignments received lower grades than I thought they would, primarily due to their test scores. Along with that, 50% of the students Literacy grade was based on their DRA reading levels. This was a school wide practice, and one that I didn’t necessarily agree with. It reflects that thought that regardless of how hard the students work, if their ability doesn’t meet benchmarks for third grade, they will not have the opportunity to come close to an A. I think it would be fair to place some value on the DRA level, however, 50% I feel like 50% is excessive.

While there was much discussion about areas where each student could improve, I found myself searching for more positive things to say about the children in the class to their parents. Each parent came in with eager eyes, waiting to hear whether their child was meeting the benchmarks, or not. I found it to be intense at times, having to tell parents that there child wasn’t meeting third grade expectations. As a parent, I know that feeling…wanting to know that your child is on the right path and excelling in their academic and social lives. I realized how much power a teacher holds, and how much trust parents place in teacher’s words and advice. Teachers essentially make the decisions and hold the knowledge to guide children in to their academic futures. That’s an extremely tall order.

The downtime between conferences was spent holding conversations with my mentor about parental interactions, and how there is a lot that you can tell about a child’s needs based on meeting their parents. Several of the children’s parents couldn’t write well, if at all. Others came in with parents herding 5 children, all below the age of 10. Other students parents requested separate conferences, one for the mother and one for the father, so that they wouldn’t have to be in the same room together. These elements were all indicative of what the child’s zone of proximal development is at home versus in the classroom.

Dinner was in the art room. Abington’s social committee put together a wonderful feast for the teachers and staff in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The food was fabulous, the music was festive, and it was a great opportunity to mingle with other teachers, and leisurely trade stories about how our afternoons went. The festivities made me realize how important it is to have a sense of community amongst teachers and staff. Wherever I end up working, I would like to become a member of the social committee, or form one of there is none, to provide that sense of camaraderie within the teaching community. It definitely makes work a positive and enlightening place.

Something that I may incorporate into my own parent teacher conference that I did not see evidence of was having more diverse student work samples available for parents. There was a writing sample on each student’s desk, but nothing more to show student ability or strengths/weaknesses. I would perhaps have the students write a letter directly to their parents indicating what they felt their strengths and weaknesses were, and a goal for the upcoming semester. This would serve as something that held them accountable for their academic progress.

Moments that I will always remember:

-          Seeing Kevin’s face drop when his parents were told first that he had all A’s and B’s, and then that he didn’t make honor roll because of his behavior. I could tell how badly he wanted it, and how disappointed he was in himself that he did not make the cut.

-          Seeing Ashley’s dad cry when he heard how well she was doing, and that she was an excellent role model and leader for her peers

-          Taking Jonathan in the hallway to practice his multiplication facts when the discussion began with his mother about beginning the intervention process

-          Melvin’s mom, thanking both my mentor and I repeatedly for treating her son like one of our own children, and telling us how secure she feels knowing that he is in our care this year.

-          The huge hug that I got received from Valencia’s father when we told him that her reading level had increased from an 18 to a 26.

-          Watching Alexis’s grandfather struggle to write his own name on the sign in sheet.

-          Jimmy hopping up and down outside of the door during his mom’s conference, begging me to come in the hallway so I could listen to him recite his 8’s multiplication facts

-          Time spent with my mentor chatting over coffee

-          Playing Ring Toss in the break room with the Vice Principal during dinner J