Last week my CT and I were talking and she had mentioned that she has conferences with the parents all week today. On Sunday, I decided to shoot her an email to see if I could attend one day of her conferences to see how it was to be on the opposite side of the conference for once and she thought it was a great idea! So, after a long day of class on Tuesday, I went to Washington Elementary at about 3:30 p.m. just in time to catch the end of her first parent teacher conference. I was a bit nervous sitting in on the first couple because I wasn't sure how the parents were going to feel having me listen in, but not one parents complained about having me there or asked if I could step outside, which really made me feel welcomed! As every parents entered the room I introduced myself because the only reason they know of me is from my letter I sent home when we started our clinical. After the first couple of conferences I started to slowly give some of my input after my CT had asked for my opinion about one of the students while that child's parents were sitting right there and she did not seem to have a problem with me stepping in here and there. One of the students is having trouble spacing out his writing and I suggested using a Popsicle stick to space out the words because that is what we used in the Kindergarten classroom last year. My teacher LOVED the idea and said, "Hey maybe we need to have you teach a lesson on that one!" Overall, I really appreciated the fact that my CT let me sit in on her conferences and made me feel a part of them and not just an outsider. It was a great experience and I am still hearing stories about the parents who don't agree with her and how she works through those problems. I can't wait to experience my first parent-teacher conference week when I am a teacher myself. It seems very overwhelming, but good to get to know the parents and make sure they are aware of their child academically and behaviorally.
I really don't notice my teacher doing very many transition, but of the ones I see she calls the students by table to either put materials away or line up at the door. This works very well and is done in an organized manner. If she told all the students to go put their books on the shelf everyone would go at once and there would probably be arguments or unnecessary talking between the students that could cause disruption. Another transition that my teacher uses is a timer. We do Math centers every Wednesday and she works with a small group while I work with a small group. One of the children sets the timer and once it goes off, that's how the students know to rotate to the next Math Center. Once they have been to all the Math centers and the timer goes off, the students know to put their materials away and be seated in their desk. There no misunderstanding when it comes to this transition because the students know exactly what is expected of them. I would use this transition because it is all student directed and the teacher does not need to be interrupted for the students to rotate to the next center. Other than those two transitions, my teacher does not really use direct transitions. She has the schedule of what the day looks like posted on the board. So, the students know that when they walk in they get their Math packets out and after Lunch and Recess, they get their Language Arts journal out to start working. Those are not really transitions, but they set the stage for a new setting/subject to be taught.
Colleen, its great that your CT let you attend the conferences and actually asked for your feedback as well! Today i was able to sit in on 4 or 5 of my teachers conferences as well, however i mainly observed. Either way, it was a good learning experience! We obviously attended them as a a child, but i never knew all the preparation that went into them. The whole day, my teacher was stressing out trying to make sure everything was ready. I helped her prepare the folders with the students' report cards, test scores, student work, and more. It was a great experience to be included in!
ReplyDeleteColleen,
ReplyDeleteYour conferences sound like they went as well as you could hope conferences to go! I love that your CT let you kinda jump in and feel like part of the conversation instead of just being a bystander. The popsicle stick idea is one I have seen before, or having the student use two fingers to create a space in their writing. These are both great tools for students to use in order to get down this concept. Eventually the student will not need a tool and will just know how big of a space to put after a word. I sat in on two conferences; however, my CT had me observe and the parents never asked my opinion on anything which was sad. Im really excited you had sun an amazing opportunity and I am excited as well for having my own parent etcher conferences in my future classroom.