4 Things I Would Like to See at My Parent - Teacher Conference

1.  Show me you know what my child is passionate about

Every student who comes to school is passionate about something.  It could be a TV Show, a video game, a sport, music, dance etc.  For my six year-old son it is Star Wars.  I'm not sure exactly when this happened but he has bought in fully to the power of the force.  He is putting together lego Star Wars, is dressing up as Luke Skywalker for Halloween, and has checked out every book possible at our library on Star Wars.  When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he does is grab a Star Wars book, look at the pictures, and begin to decipher the words that go along with them.  He has spent countless hours trying read these books on his own.  My son doesn't see reading these books as work, or an assignment, he sees them as a way to uncover the secrets about what happened ... long, long ago ... in a galaxy far, far way.  As educators we need to understand every student has a passion like this.  They have something they are so excited about they don't see it as work.  It is our job as educators to identify this passion so we can connect with our students, to show them we care about them as people.  Identifying this passion will also allow us to relate school work to them in a way they can understand, and see the importance of.   

2.  Show me you know what his strengths are

Every student has talent.  Every student is amazing before they walk through the doors of school and then somehow we lose sight of some these talents the further students go in their academic journey because they aren't reading, writing or math.  This takes some work as a teacher to identify strengths in every student.  It might require you to go to recess and watch him/her play, watch the way they interact with others, or ask them about their weekend and what they did.  For my son I know at home he works hard, is kind to others, and has a love learning.  And just like any other parent I hope to hear he has some of these same strengths at school, that they don't stop when he enters the classroom. 

3.  Show me how you think he can improve

This one can be difficult because every parent, myself included, thinks their children are the most exceptional people in the world.  Sometimes teachers fall into the trap of merely explaining what skills a student is weak in, we can do better.  At conferences bring student work to show parents what their child's current level of performance is.  It also helps to bring other student work (with the names removed) to show what a typical student is doing.  It is difficult to understand what a teacher means when they say things like, "your child's writing needs to improve" or "inferencing is a skill he needs to work at."  SHOW me through student work how you believe the student needs to improve.  This way when I discuss these issues with my son we can speak the same language.  I can say, "Remember that assignment you were working on..." and we can begin to have a conversation because I understand the types of assignments that take place in the classroom.

4.  Work with me to develop a plan

By the end of the meeting parents should have a plan of action moving forward.  As a parent I want to know what I should do more of, continue to do, or do less of when it comes to my son.  Should we be spending more time reading?  Should we alter the place he does his homework?  Do we need adjust his pencil grip and check back in a few weeks?  As a parent I need a plan of action to work as a partner with the teacher, something that works for the both of us, not just the teacher or just the parent.  Like most families, my wife and I both work but we will find the time to do whatever is necessary to help our son.  All I ask is that we develop the plan together, as partners. 

These are the four things I would like to see at my Parent - Teacher conference.  Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear what you are hoping to see. 

Do more...Continue to...Do less...

One of the most important aspects in education is developing a growth mindset.  This doesn't mean taking what you have done in the past and throwing it away for some new idea that is now suddenly in-vogue.  For me, having a growth mindset means reflecting on what you have done in the past and designing a way you can improve on past performance for the benefit of students.  So here is my list of Do more of...Continue to...Do Less of...

Do More...

Put it in Writing

This year I tried to meet with grade level teams as often as I could.  These meeting helped to gain a collective vision on writing samples, disseminate school information, develop helpful teaching strategies, listen to concerns of teachers and much more.  I tried to keep these meetings as informal as possible so teachers felt comfortable bringing up concerns or issues they might have.  As the year went on there would be occasions where grade levels would have a different interpretation of what I was saying.  This may have come from different people interpreting information in different ways, or I wasn't as clear in one meeting versus another.  This coming year I will do my best to create a paper and digital agenda for teachers to access to ensure everyone is on the 'same page' throughout the year.

Push Send

I just looked at my blogger and I have 10 blog posts stuck in 'draft'.  I wanted to come back to them and add quotes, pictures, more details etc., but never got back to these posts.  This upcoming year I will push publish and not worry as much about the details of my posts as much as sharing the learning and ideas in our school.  As much as I tell others to not allow perfect to be the enemy of great, it is clear that in this case I fell victim to that very phrase.  I just need to push publish.  Thanks Jon Harper for being an ongoing inspiration.

Highlight the Great

There are so many amazing things going on in my school!  Everyday I am amazed at the talented teachers we have who to deliver instruction in such a unique and meaningful way to their students, and I am blown away by the ideas students have to solve problems and improve their skills.  Many of these students have a schedule that is jam-packed from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep, and are still able to perform wonders both in and out of the classroom.  This year we are going to have an assembly once a month, Byram Highlight, to acknowledge their greatness.  Thanks Jimmy Cassas for showing me, we should never apologize for acknowledging greatness.

Continue to...

Visit Classrooms

In order to know more about the great things taking place at my school, and even somethings that might need to change, I need to spend more time in classrooms.  Last year I felt I did a decent job of doing this, but my goal is for my default position to be, 'In a Classroom'.  Instead of people feeling they need to find me in the office, I hope they search classrooms or the halls for me.  Thanks Patrick Larkin.

Make Positive Phone-Calls Home

Last year I called a great deal of parents to share with them something amazing their son or daughter had done at our school.  This year I have created a spread sheet with every student listed and I am crossing students off one by one every time I am able to place a positive phone call home.  My goal is to reach EVERY student in the school by the end of the year.  These students show up for 180 days of school and I don't think it is too much to ask each of them to get just one phone call from me. Thanks Tony Sinanis for this idea!

Do Less...

Allow my Schedule to be Interrupted

The clock is what runs the day of a school, it is all powerful and waits for no one.   Too often I would allow meetings to run past their allotted time, and tell others I had time to meet with them when I already had scheduled another event like a classroom observation, a walk about, or just visiting classrooms.  Of course there are always going to be emergencies and I know I cannot control when/where they pop up.  But I need to do a better job os saying things like, "I would love to meet with you could you please schedule an appointment" so I can keep myself and our school on schedule.

Be in my office

The amazing thing with laptops is they work anywhere.  I am going to try and answer emails, type reports, and other office-work outside of my office and in the halls of our school.  I'm not sure if I need a mobile desk, or one I could use while standing (that would be awesome) but I am going to start this week.

Be the Focus of Faculty Meetings

Too many times last year I stood in front of the faculty and spoke.  It doesn't matter what they subject is I need to have our staff doing more at our faculty meetings.  My short list is for teachers to:

• Be the deliverers of information
• Work in cooperative groups 
• Create lessons to improve their craft
• Collaborate and discuss with colleagues

So this is my list, and I'll work hard to try and stick to it.   I know there are many other ways I can improve, but for now this is what I'm going to focus on.  What is one thing you would Do more...Continue to do...Do less...?

Twitter in 5th Grade

I was reading through blogs that focused in on 'A Year in Review' from teachers who I respect greatly like @TechNinjaTodd, @pernillerippp, @DeliaBush and many more.  One thing they all had in common was how valuable Twitter had become to them, as a professional development tool.  I remember thinking it would be great to expose my students to something like this, however my students are only 10 years old, and I do not believe they are ready for the world of Twitter.  

When I returned to school this week my co-teacher, Dani Marangon, had a brilliant idea.  She said we should create an area outside the class where the students can post what they have learned and we can call it our class Twitter Feed.  I instantly liked it and though it would be a 'cool' idea to have serve as an exit ticket.  These were the steps we took:

1) Laminated sentence strips so the students could use dry erase markers to update their status, erase and create a new learning update.  

2) On each sentence strip we wrote with a black sharpie the students first name, last initial with an '@' to make them feel like they are part of Twitter.

3)Created a large Twitter Sign using Block Posters.  We copied and pasted images from Twitter and then printed them out over 4 pages. W taped them together, laminated and posted up on the wall.

4) After our Social Studies class we had each student post one thing they learned from class.

As I was reading through the posts I became a little disappointed.  Many of the students were just writing facts that you could look up on Google.  Things like, "Spices, silk, and customs made their way from China to Italy along the Silk Road."  It was a true statement, but it involved no higher level thinking.  

So as we started the next lesson I made sure I 'Favorited' a few posts that showed higher level thinking and then spent the next hour showing the students how to create a new idea that raises their level of thinking.  The students were asked to pull out four important facts from one section of reading and then use those four facts to develop a 'New Idea' based on what they learned.

As I was walking around the room assisting students I could see they were grappling with what they had to do.  The could identify key points easily.  But connecting ideas from different sections of the chapter to form a new idea that wasn't even in the text was difficult.  I was so happy.  They were struggling, grappling, learning, and persevering.  After about 45 minutes we had over half the class developing ideas and sharing them with people in their groups.  By the end of class everyone was able to produce a profound learning statement even if they did have help from others.  

With the Common Core emphasizing the importance of non-fiction I was so proud of what my students had produced.  They showed they could dive deep into a text, pull out was important, and re-arrange it to say something valuable and new.  I now feel as though I have a tremendous tool to teach a portion of non-fiction reading that I did not before.  It all started with an idea from my co-teacher, Dani Marangon, who brought this brilliant idea for how to bring #Twitter to 5th Grade.