Journal for 10/28/09 PT Conferences

Domain 7 Communication

One of the parents today said that she told her student, “It doesn’t matter what you know; it’s what you put on the paper.” This crushed me. To think that we have even warped parents’ minds to believe that the grade is all that matters. This particular student rushes through his work, and so a lot of what we talked about at his conference had to do with the fact that he knows it; he just doesn’t take his time to think through the questions or what he is doing. My teacher agreed with her for the purpose of ISTEP, but there has to be a better way. I would hope that I would be fostering ways to show what this student knows, truly reflecting his knowledge…not just taking a grade on his work. I think I am going to have to set up some kind of plan for him to slow down, and I am really going to have to work on his comprehension skills. Perhaps I should create folders for them of things they can do when they finish their work…individual folders so that we can work on things such as that. His mom did say we could send home extra stuff on which to work and that she would work with him. She is very active and supportive and is doing a lot for her son.

I forgot to mention yesterday, my teacher had two parent teacher conferences last night, but she didn’t mention anything about them until yesterday. My evening was already full; I don’t think she realized that I needed to be there, so she wasn’t thinking along those lines. When I asked her, she said I didn’t need to be there, so I didn’t go. I just wanted to make sure you knew thisJ!

I think PT conferences should be all positive, all strengths and parents’ concerns. Let them bring up the issues. I feel like some parents left today feeling kind of defeated and burdened.

My teacher referred to the students’ “problems” a lot, which I was not really pleased with. I don’t like that term, and I don’t think it helped to make the parents feel any better. I was just trying to think of how they were feeling walking in there expecting the worse or just to come in prepared to have stuff dumped upon them.

It was neat when my teacher told one mom that her son received the highest grade on something; she was trying to hide it, but I could tell she was smiling! I thought that was so cool how something so small and SPECIFIC made her so proud of her child!

I learned so much and piped in when I thought it was helpful. I’m so glad I got to experience these! I learned so much about my students and about how to conduct myself. I can’t wait for the chance to do them myself! So much can be fostered through these conferences!

P.S. I also got to sit in on an RTI meeting and meet the special ed coordinator! That was a worthwhile experience too!