This week was the week of parent teacher conferences and the preparation of those. I must say, after seeing elementary school conferences last semester…middle school ones are even MORE chaotic!
In preparation for P/T conferences each week during team planning period and personal planning period my coop, the rest of the 6th grade teachers, and I made a priority list of students who each teacher wanted to most definitely conference with. This list was comprised of students who either needed a lot more support behavioral wise or academic wise (at risk of retention). That list, at the end would come down to about 20 students (out of 150) and we would make contact with those parents and create time for a team conference. A team conference is when all the 6th grade teachers of that student meet, still during P/T conferences, and would discuss what was going on, the next steps, and how to best support to see that student succeed. I’d never seen conferences done this way so it really stuck out to me, and as far as I could tell only the 6th grade teachers had the idea to complete those conferences in this manor. With all the teachers there in the same room, it allowed all teachers and the parents to discuss together and have everyone be on the same page. Another thing that stuck out to me, and that I thought was handled very well, was that my coop and most of the other teachers did a great job at sandwiching the good bad and the ugly. Regardless of how much you want that student to be the best and do the best, you have to state the facts and data (some that parents do not want to hear whether academic or behavioral wise). The teachers all did great with including as much positive in-between the more support areas the student needed to work on. For every comment that was not the best to hear, the teachers would counter it immediately with good parts (student always turning in homework, student participating in class, student working great with others, etc.) to encourage that student. We came to find out at the end of one conference that the student really just wanted to fit in with his friends, who needed more academic support, and so he began to purposefully flunk his exams and homework assignments because he did not want to seem like a “nerd” to his friends. That incident was handled very well, reminding the student that there is nothing wrong with being smart and succeeding.
Another thing that stuck out to me was how organized you need to be even more the conferences happen, and how quickly you need to move around from room to room. You have 15 minutes to kind of word vomit, but allow enough time to ask questions, answer questions, and discuss anything with the parents and it usually is not enough. There are so many things a parent does not know about (i.e. AIMES web testing, PARCC testing, and other assignments) so the teachers almost need to catch up the parent on the content, then explain the students final grade (as of now) and what is comprised of it. Then after the 15 minutes, there is another parent waiting so the teacher must run around to the next open room to repeat that process again. I’ve learned that some parents really like to chat, and you have to find a balance of making them feel comfortable and not rushed, but you as a teacher need to attend all your conferences scheduled so some must be cut short. I noticed that most of the teachers handled situations like that by going “if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me by email or phone anytime” (which were provided on a handout they gave to parents), so that parents still felt connected with what was going on and not as rushed.
Ms. P