Responsibilities and Relationships to School
Starting out in my student teaching experience, I felt like obtaining a good relationship with the parents of my future students was imperative. I sent out this letter, just like I will send out a letter and contact information for each new school year. This gesture "develops positive relationships with parents/guardians, students, and administrators which benefits students and influences my own professional growth." I feel each teacher should have a letter ready to send out to parents on the first day of school.
For student teaching seminar, I had to video tape a lesson that would be viewed by my student teaching coordinator. Because I would be video taping myself and possibly other students, I knew I needed to ask the school if the way to go about this process was to send home a permission slip. By creating a permission slip, showed the school and parents that I am able to "uphold the State of Michigan Professional Code of Ethics and engage in meaningful self-evaluation."
Parent teacher conferences were held December 1st and 2nd, 2010. The school likes to include the students in the conferences for only half of the time. The process for every child was that we went over an “I am thankful” poster to show the writing process, their self assessment which was completed the day before, and asked a few questions like “are you happy in first grade?” and “is there anything that bothers or concerns you in school?” Many of the students were incredibly unlike themselves- the nervous factor took over their personalities. After the students left the room, we spoke with the parents about any of the issues of concern or questions. Only one student spoke up when we asked the students about their concerns in school. He said that he feels left out when he wants to play with one of the students and another student says that they cannot play with them because they made up the game. My host teacher asked the student if it would be okay to talk about this in a small group and the student agreed. Yesterday in class, I was a part of the talk and I believe that we really got through to a few of the students because we later found out that another student was having difficulties, too. That student was included in the small talk as well and we got everything out in the open. It felt like the problem was beginning to solve itself.
One of the other students came in and is always quirky and hilarious in class. When she came in with her parents, she was very vocal about how embarrassed she was and didn’t know why—it was pretty cute to see. Other than that, when she left, the parents asked us if she ever makes up extreme fibs. We had never seen this side of her and the parents said that they are not hurtful lies, but that she will make up extravagant things that have happened. When the school saw a magician on Halloween, she said that she went up to the stage and explained the steps she went through. Her older sister goes to our school, too, and she said that her sister was never up on stage. So, they’re not terrible lies, but it may be difficult to really trust her if something huge does happen in school—what if her parents do not believe her? We have not experienced anything like this, yet. She does have a very unique personality that differs from many other students, so I’m not sure what she has ‘lied’ about, but it is not malicious.
Another student’s conference was a complete surprise. He came in smiling and had a great conference with his mom-laughing and having a great time. When his mom was left in the room she said that she has the hardest time having completing his homework and that he says at least four times a week that he hates school with such passion. My host teacher and I were completely stunned. He is the absolute last child that I would ever think would have a problem with school. He is always laughing, playing with others, and excels in both math and reading. He knows a lot and has a great personality; always happy. I felt so incredibly sad for this situation, but I did not know what to do—I just knew that I wanted to give him a little extra attention—maybe he did not think he was special? I’m not too sure, but the next day, he came back to school laughing and having a blast—very confusing! We told his mom to eliminate a lot of the homework to decrease stress. Since he is farther along than most of the students, the homework given will not make him fall behind if he doesn’t do it. What a shame—but Yvette even told the mom that she has seen this happen before in only one other child, so it can happen!
The last meeting, which we knew was going to be difficult, was with one of the students that has been exhibiting a lot of frustrating moments—drawing sad faces on his paper, getting antsy and believe that he is not smart. He has had some instances in school and away from school where people tell him that he is not good at something. Thankfully, both his mom and his dad showed up for the conferences to understand what has been going on. He told me he spent the night sleeping in his dog’s cage because he did not want to be in his room, then he did not get enough sleep some nights and sneaks downstairs to watch TV instead of sleeping. The child is clever and he is smart. He is making a lot of progress in reading, so I’m not sure what happens after these conferences, but the parents understand what they need to do since they are good parents. Overall, I felt the process of parent-teacher conferences was easier than I thought—maybe because I only had to present the student side of the conference and not some of the hard topics discussed when the child leaves, but it was a neat experience to have had.
