Teachers Love Parent Teacher Conferences

Well, I just finished our first set of Parent Teacher Conferences for the school year. Let me just say. I love parent teachers conferences:} They are so valuable...everything changes for the better after parent teacher conferences...or so the parents like to think. I know there are parents and teachers out there that feel they are necessary, and I suppose they could be useful, after all I don't like it when parents come to me at the end of the school year and tell me that I wasn't doing my job correctly. That always hurts my feelings.

Since I am just a part-timer, my partner and I split up the conferences. This time I had Wednesday off, and it was Veteran's Day and so Dale had it off too. He was busy with a new project, which I will tell you all about when it is finished, and I did a little on-line Christmas shopping. Then we went to lunch together. This rarely happens, so I really enjoyed it. After lunch we went to Lowe's to buy some things for the project, and we looked into buying new carpet. We spent a lot of time there mulling over ideas and asking a few questions. Then Dale looked at his watch and said it was 2:45. He had better get back home because he and Jordan had an eye doctor appointment. No bells, whistles or warning buzzers went off at this time. I went home and took a nap while Dale and Jordan went to the Doctor, afterward I started making dinner. It was then that I realized that I had totally spaced off my own children's parent teacher conferences. Great! Now I am a bad parent and I am about to do what all teachers really hate... I am going in to visit with the teachers at an unscheduled time. Yes, I am asking them to "squeeze" me in. They have nothing better to do...no other appointments, right? Luckily Mrs. Harper, Marie's Teacher, was still waiting for her next appointment, so we snuck in for a quick 5 minute..."Oh Marie is a wonderful girl, we love having her in our class" speech. (By the way, I give that speech all of the time, but I must say I always mean it when I do.) Then we went to Mr. Barker's class for Valerie's conference. He was just finishing up, so he was able to get us right in. He talked to us for a little while, but he never really told us how Valerie was doing. He gave us her test scores from last year (which were great), but no news on how she was preforming this year. It reminded me of the time when Jessica was in 7th grade and she told me I had to go to parent teacher conferences at the Junior High. After practically begging me to go, I hauled myself over there. Every teacher we went to wanted to know why we were there. I didn't have anything to complain about and Jessica was a star student so why were we there? Needless to say I haven't been to a parent teacher conference in the secondary schools since. Anyway, Mr. Barker wasn't a whole lot of help. He went on a bit about core testing and the likes, but he never really said anything. I asked Valerie if he was always like this. She said, "Yeah, pretty much." She seems to get along with him though so whatever. The crisis was over and it turns out that I'm not such a bad mom after all (a little flaky maybe) but not bad.

On Thursday I did my half of the conferences and there is nothing bad to report. I don't like confrontation so I don't say many bad things about any student, maybe a few "He needs to settle downs," and some "She needs to get her work finisheds" but nothing serious. Even if I did tell parents the worst, nothing really changes for long. The kids will be better for a couple of days, but then they go back to their old ways. In the past, after parent teacher conferences, I have been stuck filling out daily progress reports in notebooks that go back and forth between home and school. I hate those too, because it takes time, I have to remember to do it, and I always feel like such a tattle tail. Those notebooks work for maybe a month if we are lucky. I try not to promise I will do those anymore.

I do like parent teacher conferences for a few reasons. It allows parents to ask me the questions that have been on their mind, and I get to meet the kids' parents, you can tell a lot about a kid by meeting his parents (I wonder what my kids' teachers think about me when I meet them). Most of the parents are really nice, I've never had anyone yell at me, but the possibility is still there and so I worry about parent teacher conferences every time.

So now you know the horrible teacher and parent that I am. I don't like Parent Teacher Conferences at all, but what are you going to do? Next stop...Grandparent's Day.