Our spring break is coming up in only three weeks which means spring conferences are on the horizon. We have Thursday and Friday the 17th and 18th off from school in order to do our conferences/have some professional development. For some reason (which is kind of nice) my principal is asking us to stay later earlier in the week so we get out at noon on Friday. We have training in the morning on Friday, so we are being asked to stay until 6 on Wednesday and Thursday. I always stay after school hours for my conferences because I feel like it's very important to accommodate the parents who work and need to come in the evening. I don't think I can say I want parents to be involved and then only offer conferences during my normal working hours. Because I have class on Wed. and Thurs. I can't stay late those days, so I am doing a late day on Tuesday instead.
After school today I was going to get the note ready to send home and then decided to just call all the parents instead. Yes, that is more time consuming considering I have 41 families at this point, but each call was pretty quick and everyone I talked with was so friendly and happy to hear from me.
I did all my calls in Spanish first since that takes more mental effort and I got them all scheduled easy peasy. Then I started on the rest of the list and got about half of my families scheduled. I emailed a few more parents and then hopefully I will just have a few remaining to schedule by the end of this week.
This time instead of just talking with each family separately, we are doing student led conferences with three families at a time. The students will get a checklist and will show their parents various activities that we do in class. I will also be a station so that each parent has a chance to talk with me at some point while they are visiting. I have never done student led conferences before but I really like the idea! I think the kids will enjoy showing off for their parents and it will be more beneficial for parents to see their children in action rather than just talking to me.
I feel like as I gain more teaching experiencing calling families becomes less of a big deal. I used to take deep breaths before ever calling anyone in Spanish because it was HARD, but now it's a little easier and I don't struggle as much to understand over the phone. It was also nice to get some warm greetings when I said who was calling from many of the parents. I got a few more parents to volunteer for our Teddy Bear project (which I don't think I have posted about!) and I feel like I got a lot accomplished!
I can't believe there are only three more weeks until spring break (which means 19 days until I see Mr. Sneaker!!) He is coming to visit me and I cannot wait! I have a few more papers to do and two presentations next Wednesday. It seems like March 9th is the deadline for EVERYTHING, so once that date passes, I will be a lot less stressed.
Now, it's time for some homework....
1 comment:
It's so great that you do conferences before your break. I wish we did them in April before that break. March is really early anyway since we don't have another one at the end of the year. I usually spend Feb. break doing report cards which is an annoying way to spend a vacation (this year I planned ahead cuz I couldn't bring all the assessments to Arizona with me).
I always do morning conferences for the same reason you do night ones. I can't think at 6pm, but I'll happily do a 6:30 am conference if it works for parents (though they've never made me do before 7) haha. I still hate calling parents though. It's nothing against them I just hate the phone- I have anxiety before calling basically anyone other than my husband, mom and best friend haha.
Anyway, so excited for your visit to see Mr. Sneaker! I don't know how you guys do it.
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