Parent Teacher Conferences

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while...that may be due to the fact that I am currently Student Teaching and have no free time! I'm exhausted by 10:00 each night, and I'm pretty sure my roommates just love the fact that I fall asleep anytime we turn on a TV show or movie! haha! It's only been 3 weeks, yet it feels like it has been FOREVER! Part of me loves it, and the other part can't wait to be done. I'm slowly picking up a subject a week so that by March I will be teaching full time for a month. It's definitely been a crazy learning experience!

The last two nights we had parent teacher conferences. I observed for the most part, but my cooperating teacher let me run a couple of the "easier" ones, and although I was SO NERVOUS they went really great. I'm pretty sure I have the best 5th graders in the state of Utah, if not the entire nation! :) I love all 29 of them! They make all the hard work worth it!

I wanted to capture the lessons I learned the past two nights during PTC, thus the title of this blog. I've been in to lists lately, so here are the things I learned by observing and participating in parent teacher conferences.

1. Communication with parents is key! Keep in constant contact with the good news and the bad. You never want to surprise them by what you have to say in PTC.

2. If the student comes with their parents ALWAYS ask them how they think things are going.

3. Parents want to know where their students are at, especially when it comes to literacy. If you have data, share it with them!

4. Celebrate ANY and ALL growth you have seen in the students.

5. Don't sugar coat or avoid difficult topics. The students already know, the parents know, you know talking about the elephant in the room is the only way to resolve it.

6. Provide facts and don't let emotions get in the way. Especially when it comes to those difficult chats that have to happen.

7. If possible always end on a positive note. You don't want them to leave feeling hopeless.

8. Don't just present data, talk about how you are going to use it to guide your instruction.

9. Remember to not only discuss academic growth, but the personal growth you have seen in each student.

10. Make goals with the students and their parents! Goals lead to success. 

11. Tie their daily work in to data you have collected. 

This list may seem obvious, and is definitely not everything there is to know about parent teacher conferences. It was a great experience for me to be able to hold my first conferences with parents and to get to watch my cooperating teacher as she held the others. 

Although it is the HARDEST academic experience I have had I am looking forward to the lessons I will continue to learn from my experience as a student teacher. Who knows...maybe I'll blog again soon. :)