Conferences!

The time of the year has come when writing is terrible and I have to meet with the parents. This is when I will do the most writing for the children. When I write up my conference reports I need to have the understand of how far the child has progressed or digressed through out the year. The simple notes that I have taken on the child in the classroom will account for the need of proof to judge what it is the child needs to do to make a certain grade. Each child needs to have a certain point in the grade and when they meet the grade they need to achieve the grade in order to secede.

In the writing that I will be conducting for this part of the conference will be any short hand notes that are to remind me of what the parents have made comments on the different grades or things that I need to specifically remember to mention to them. This may not seem important to many people to write down what the parents say, but in reality if I have a parent saying that their child comes home every night and reads six books yet in school the child cries every time they are in reading corner I know something is not matching up. Although my notes may not be in complete sentences while I am in the conference, but after the conference is over I am going to rewrite all the notes in a conference evaluation sheet. In this sheet I will type up what was discussed, such as if there were questionable grades or if a parent does not think that their child is moving a pace that they should be. There is a place for me to make any comments I feel that are necessarily important for me to better understand each child’s home life. Some kids do not go home to a household where education is important but then there are others that go home to the house that homework must be the first thing you do once you arrive home. Since there are such varying home life styles it is very important for me to take notes and be able to understand what each child is facing when they leave me at the end of the school day.

Once I have written up both the conference sheet and the post conference sheet I make copies of both and then I place them in the child’s file folder. This folder also contains a copy of their report card and a copy of their behavior log. This behavior log is very crucial in kindergarten. Since the children are still learning in ways that they should and should not act with socializing with other students I have to use my behavior log to evaluate their social growth. This folder then is turned into the principle so that she can evaluate if there are any problems or if there is a need for another conference because the principle feels that she needs to personally talk to the parents. Usually the principle will only see the conference folders of the children who I know are having an issue.

If the principle is having a conference with the parents then I will write up another evaluation report and have this as the principle evaluation report. Again I will write down what was discussed and what they plan to achieve in the future. If there were major problems then I will also make note of that.

Conferences are a long and boring process. Each parent that walks into the classroom has so much to say and will be willing to sit all day to discuss how wonderful their child is, this is great in all but I am on a schedule. That is why it is vey important for me to have the conference reports completed and ready to go at the time that the parents walk into the door. I need to be prepared and ready to go!