Our district had our PT conferences this week and I had 94% attendance. I only had one parent not attend which is great! I personally love PT conferences because it gives me a chance to connect with the parents and let them know what goes on daily in the classroom. I wish I had the time to let the parents know this on a weekly basis for every student.
Parents want to help in any way that they can. It really is a brainstorming time with the teacher letting them know what they can do at home to help and to let the parent know what we are doing at school to improve scores and get their child on grade level work. Together is the only way to do this!
Of course there is always a student or two that seem like they don't care and both the teacher and parent are baffled on what to do about it. This is why these conferences are so important. Together maybe you can find a way to help their child.
Just giving the parents a call when their child has a great day or comes up with a great idea means so much to them. Last week we were learning money in Math and one student was just buzzing through the problems and I showed him how exciting learning can be. I asked him if I could call his mom and tell her how awesome he did. Of course he was excited (sometimes my excitement will do this) and said "yes".
Well, it was a really busy day and I didn't get the phone call made that evening. But, the next morning I called home and the mom told me he was waiting for my phone call last night. Both the kids and the parents love this!
Making this kind of effort is what teaching is all about to me! Trying to make these kind of connections on a weekly basis is definitely a goal that we all should make.
No comments:
Post a Comment