Hi,
So the first Jr. High conference was last night, and I could not believe how many parents came in to see me. I had a line and talked all night. It was fabulous. I feel like this year I had more conversations about how parents and students could specific target skills to improve in English. I also felt like parents were holding their students accountable to their grades rather than holding me accountable to student effort. I am glad to see that the parents of my 7th grade class are so invested in their students' educations. But I do wish that I could more concisely move parents through a conversation. I don't like that many of the parents had to wait in a long line to talk to me. I would like to focus my conversations and try to be more brief on Tuesday, the second day of conferences.
Does anyone have ideas for how to speed up a conference? How were conferences for you? Is there a specific structure you use to discuss students when parents talk to you?
I am going into conferences this coming up week. I am worried about the timing and what to focus my time on. I found a rubric for parent conferences off of pinterest. The rubric breaks down different aspects of the classroom (understanding content, turning in work, being respectful etc.) to use as a conversation starter. At the bottom of the rubric is an action plan. I am hoping the bottom part will come in handy as a way to end the conference and to end in a way that feels like we've accomplished something. The parents can also take home the rubric/action plan to use as a conversation starter at home with their child.However, I am worried the rubric may be too elementary or not genuine enough.
ReplyDeleteI have a sort of rubric that I use as well! It's very basic. While I'm looking up the student's quarter grade, I have the student (assuming they are present) rate themselves on how well they participate, bring required materials, respect others, and things of that nature. Then at the bottom I write down my suggestions or concerns. I also explain why a student got a certain grade based on their test to homework grades.
ReplyDeleteI also started using Class Dojo to track behaviors in class. This helps remind me what behaviors I typically see in class so I'm not just speculating on what I recall but actually have data to back it up.
Hopefully my voice doesn't give out on Tuesday!