I was quite nervous when I began my preparations for Parent Teacher Conferences. I still get a bit nervous when dealing with parents in general because I feel I need to make an amazing impression. Up to this point I think I have done a good job at that. I was nervous about how some of the parents might react to their students grades, because I had a difficult time giving some students an S simply because that was the 3rd possible grade out of 4 and to some people that would seem below average even though that is “on grade level”.
As I was driving to school that morning I tried to go through what I would say to particular parents, how to say “you child constantly makes noises that disrupts the entire class” in a nice, appropriate way. I probably rehearsed what I was going to say to every one of my parents that morning. And while that may sound a little compulsive, it helped me calm down and prepare for the day. I spent the night before being “Betty Crocker” in my kitchen. I made muffins for the conferences in the morning and brownies for the conferences in the afternoon. I also had pretzels as a healthier snack option. As I was setting everything up that morning, my mind flashed to the scene from Freedom Writers when the teacher is setting up for her first parent teacher conferences. She made banners welcoming the parents and lots food, and no one showed up. I feared that would be me. When my first conference failed to show up I became nervous. In the end I had about 5 parents that didn’t show up, but that is too bad for a class of 19.
As I went through the day, I gained more and more confidence. I had prepared portfolios on all of my students and that was extremely helpful. By midday I knew exactly which pieces of writing to show, how to explain the math assessments, and how to reassume parents that although their child is struggling I can see the potential and I truly know how hard they are working. I had parents coming in with many different concerns which gave me a new insight into the students. One student’s parents came in with many questions about GT screening. That explained why their child had thanked me the day I gave the first GT test.
It is also very interesting to see how some students are EXACTLY like their parents, even at such a young age. I had scheduled 20 minute conferences for each of my parents. Some of them came in and out in 10 minutes, while others I could have talked to for days! The ones I could have talked to forever weren’t always because there was something I needed to address with them; most of those parents already knew what I was going to say and just accepted it. The ones that I could have talked with all day were the ones that were telling me stories about their child and giving me amazing insight into how they are at home. Other parents were telling me stories about how my classroom looked nothing like the one that their child came from in another country just a year before. That explained a lot to me as well. Those were the conferences that really made me sit down and think about how I could make learning better for these students and how I could adjust how I start off the year.
I have become a much more reflective teacher this year. I constantly find myself thinking, how could I have done this better or what could I have done differently. There is only so much I can do in a day to impact these children, but what I think has been even greater this year, so far, is the impact that they have made on me.