The Good, The Bad and The Constructive

This year, has been a year of change for our little school! One of the big shifts has been the idea of Parent-Teacher Conferences. in years previous we've done the conservative model of long hours, short conferences and chatting about grades...forcing parents to think that we meet once a year and we only care about A's and B's and we're only concerned about D's and F's.

A new method is to have a team meeting, to allow parents to come together and hear what is happening in the classroom. We also chose to not focus on report cards and grades, considering our technology now a days allow parents to check that on a daily basis, but to focus on data that we teachers use on a daily basis to guide our teaching. What a genius idea, talk to parents about what we use to help their child! In third grade we decided to focus on an AIM's practice test and math facts fluency. We chose to focus on this because we realized that parents don't fully understand the tests that determine our school grade and their child's future, especially in 3rd grade this year.

I truly think this changed our parent's perspective on our classrooms and how they help their child. I had more meaningful conversations after this meeting with parents that I ever did with "normal" conferences. Parents were exposed to what we do and what their child does in the classroom, we were allowed to have raw conversations about what parents can be doing at home and how we can improve conversations at between the parents and I. 

I do think that these types of team meetings open ourselves up to parents asking questions that are hard and sometimes nonconstructive. I do think, though, that the more we meet as teams the less this will happen. Change is hard for everyone, and when parents are used to a certain type of conference and think that's the best for their child then it will take time to allow parents minds to shift as well.

Overall, great experience, I really believe that parent's eyes were open and that it made a lasting conversation with parents. I am excited to see what unfolds, how many more parents become involved, and how much more children will grow.