Giving and Receiving...The Stress of conferences

     This week was extremely interesting.  I attended Parent-Teacher conferences for the school that I am currently student teaching.  I have attended conferences as a parent, as an assistant in the classroom, but this was my first time purely observing.  I noticed that it was not only a stressful experience for the parent and student, but also for the teacher.  I noticed that at times there was a struggle to balance the negative with the positive.  I do not think that any teacher wants to deliver all bad news to a parent.  We do not want to tell parents that their child is struggling academically as well as socially in the classroom.  Somehow, teachers do this without making parents feel like all hope is lost.  They balance the positive with the negative, they highlight all of the wonderful attributes of a student, while still instilling in a parent the needs of the student.
      It was equally as stressful, if not more so, for the parent.  You can see the built up stress in parents' faces as they walk into the conference, praying that their child is ahead of the class. They pray that all that they have worked on at home, has translated well into the classroom.  For most parents, this seems to be the case, but for some you can see the devastation in their eyes we you deliver the message that their child is struggling.
     As a teacher, I hope to impart in my parents that we are a team.  They are not walking into a conference of judgement or disappointment.  Rather, we are always working together to make their child is the best student and thinker that they can be.

Teacher Toolbox

     Lately I have been thinking about how my time as a student teacher is coming to an end, and how I have been filling my Teacher Toolkit with tidbits that I have learned along the way.  I think more than anything, I have learned the importance in giving students instructions and directions in a way that will help them understand objectives.  The instructions that I give my students have been the ‘make’ or the ‘break’ of every lesson that I have taught.  Each time I teach something that I feel that the students have not quite grasped, I think back on the instructions that I have given my students and how they could have been more clear or said in different ways to help my students.  I think that learning how to give clear and concise directions to students will be something that will help any grade level that I teach.  Whether they are kindergartners or eighth graders students need to be able to understand what their objectives are, this also decreases the amount of misbehavior that comes with students who are confused by what their task is.  

This week in Kindergarten

    This has been a great week in Kindergarten!  After being sick for a few days the week before, I really missed being in the classroom with my students.  Since taking over the classroom, I have been planning and preparing for my lessons on a nightly basis.  Teaching goes far beyond the classroom.  What happens outside of the classroom is as important as what happens within.  Making yourself well versed in the academic language for your teaching and being prepared for the downtime and transitioning in my classroom makes our days run smoothly and helps me to ensure that my students are learning.
     In two weeks, I will experience my first parent-teacher conference as a student teacher.  I have been making notes about the students, and preparing portfolios to help my cooperating teacher speak with the parents about.  As a parent and as a instructional assistant parent-teacher conferences can be daunting.  As a parent, you pray that your children are not only doing well academically, but are also doing well socially and behaviorally.  As an assistant, I was always the 'back-up' of the opinions that the teacher has about the students.  As a teacher, you want parents to know their child's successes, challenges and next steps.  The students in my classroom are great, and I hope that each parent comes away with that.