Parent Teacher Conferences

Yesterday was a long day!

It was Derek's birthday, but I didn't see him until 7:00 because of parent-teacher conferences. It was good though. In fact, I love parent-teacher conferences. It gives me a chance to tell/remember all the good things about my kids! I had some really good experiences last night. Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging.

There is one kid who was a struggle for me for about 2 weeks at the beginning of the school year. Once he figured out that I meant business and wouldn't put up with it, he has become such a different child (I wish all my kids were like that...). I was telling him mom this last night and also telling her how excited I was about all the progress he was making. (On the NWEA test, he practically reached all of the goals he set for himself to accomplish by May and it was January.) I told her that I was almost in tears as I watched him light up from the inside (because he's much too cool to show it) when he realized how much progress he had made in 4 short months. After all of this, his mom was beaming. She told me that she used to hate coming to parent-teacher conferences because all the teachers would say to her were the negative things about her son. She told me that all he needs is someone who will put their foot down with him and because I did that, he's making progress. She told me that all of his other teachers could never get a handle on him and that's why he was a behavior issue and that's why he didn't progress. She sang my praises and all I could do is say, "That's my job!" Because it is, right?

Another mom also told me about the struggles that her daughter has had in the past with teachers. Even though I knew, she told me how emotional her daughter could be and that she had been scared of all of her other teachers. When they would give her a test, she would clam up and do poorly because she was so worried about what her teachers would say to her. Her mom told me how comfortable she seems to be around me and how she can tell that she really enjoys me as a teacher (she even said that every time her daughter sees any sort of frog stuffed animal or something, she always asks if she can buy it for me. I had told my class at the beginning of the year that I loved frogs and apparently she still remembers. Even I forgot I told them that...). She told me that she wished that I could have been her son's fourth grade teacher because fourth grade was when he had fallen behind. It just made me feel so good about what I'm doing for these kids. My goal is to help them and to hear first hand that that is what I'm doing really validates me and makes me forget all the bad days I have had this year!

Another thing that I just think is really cool: I asked 2 parents what they thought about putting their children in the Advanced Learners Lab (ALL) next year and 1 parent what they thought about getting their child tested for special ed. You want to know what all three of them asked me? "Well, what do you think?" It was just so weird. They asked me because they really thought my opinion counted. And, I know it should because I am their teacher, but it just hit me like, woah, these parents who are older than me are asking my professional opinion...because I HAVE ONE. It was just funny to me because sometimes it hits me at strange times that I am a teacher...a professional...and parents are looking to me to help them know how to help their kids. It was bizarre. I told Derek this last night and said, "Derek, I'm a teacher...I do parent-teacher conferences!" And he just looked at me and said, "Courtney, you've been a teacher for 5 months. I know. It's not weird for me to know that." Well, it's still weird for me sometimes.

Just thinking that I will forever be these kids fourth grade teacher. Weird!