On Tuesday, it was my first parent-teacher conferences as a teacher. I was excited to meet the parents of my students, find out a little more about them, and report about the progress of their child. I was surprised and excited about the turn out of the conferences- all but five student's parents came to discuss the progress and the next steps for their child. Although my mentor teacher did most of the talking, she gave me an opportunity to communicate with the parents on what I am noticing from their child.
From this experience, I was able to think about the aspects I would change for my own parent-teacher conferences next year when I have my own classroom. Next year, I would like to have a list of 5-6 things to talk about with each parent. I would like to have student work ready in portfolios for the parents to understand what their child is doing in my classroom. Many parents were interested in ways to help their child with reading. Many parents speak Spanish and said they use translators to help understand what their child is supposed to learn from the homework. Next year, I would like to plan on having a sheet with helpful websites they can use to further their child's reading and math learning. I have been sending out weekly newsletters to inform parents of the happenings in our third grade classroom. Yesterday, this seemed apparent that the parents did not read these newsletters. Next year, I may implement parent newsletters through a weekly email or class website.
These all sound like good ideas. Indeed, make a record of all these ideas you are having throughout this internship year. You can then continue to experiment with them as the year goes on, as well as make a list of recommendations for yourself to experiment with in future years. Either way, this are important additions to a professional portfolio.
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