Parent Teacher Conferences

Yes, today was the first day of our parent teacher conferences and also my first ones as a teacher, ever. With two years of supply teaching I have lots of interesting experiences under my belt but am sadly lacking in some pratical ones of fulltime classroom teaching. But I can now check this off my list.

It wasn't so bad as I teach with another teacher and she took the lead. Pratically this has to happen as only on person can talk at once. At lunch she looked over and asked me if I wanted to lead in the afternoon. Listing off parents we were to see, she suggested that it was an easy, friendly group. No trouble.

Okay, no problem. First off was a family that I really like and a mother who's around lots so I know her well. So the other teacher looks over at me encouragingly and says "you might want to show them his journal and reflection, it was so interesting". So I pick up both to show (both of which were activities the other teacher did with him, not me) start to read the reflection page and at that point the other teacher and I realize there's only half a sentence on it. It's so interesting to her because she knows what he was so excited to reflect on that he had no time to write it down. How was I to know what he was intending to say. Oops! Realising this she started to explain it and everything went well. Next time, look before you leap.

At the end of the day a surprize came to the class as well - the principal with a cooler in tow. Cookies and sparkling apple cider (in real champagne flutes) to celebrate the end of the first day. Now this is civilized!

One day down, 5 more interviews to go.