Want to remember the Family Conferences

So, I want to post about some of my experiences with Family Conferences before I forget.

First of all, the student runs the show. They had work to show the parents, they had reflections on all of the work, and they had goals for the next report period. I acted as a scribe and took notes for the family as they discussed the good stuff and the areas needing improvement.

The majority of my 6th grade students goals were something about "will do all my homework." which is so typical of all students. If they do their homework, they learn the material. Although, I might go a week with no homework for my students and grade heavily on classwork. I just can't see if they understand material with homework that isn't complete or didn't get done because they just didn't do it.

Another item about the conferences is that all but one parent came for my students. I have one parent that still hasn't made it in, but I know has some meetings at school which she must attend, so family conference will be combined with these other meetings.

I could probably start a book on "What Parents should NEVER say to their children." The one thing that sticks with me from the conferences was the parent whose child is having trouble due to lying and stealing. The daughter has been mentioned in my blog before and is a self identified liar. I spoke very firmly with the student about her ability to change during this year and to control her words and her actions. Her mom, however, decided to tell her daughter that people that lie and steal in 6th grade, ... "grow up to be killers." I couldn't believe it. I talked very calmly and directly to the young girl and said that her mom was exaggerating and that young people who lie and steal, can grow up to lie and steal as adults. This young girl is so smart and has a lot of poise when she speaks. The last thing she needed was for her mom to tell her that she is a killer in her future. GEEZE! That is one I won't forget.

So Jeff was here for almost a week. I miss him. He starts his second semester Tomorrow and hopefully he'll be as successful as he was his first semester. Scott is here now and we will be celebrating his birthday with dinner out tonight. Woo Hoo! Oh... so I did see the windows at Lord & Taylor and at Macy's. Both are amazing! I love the city.