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.