Conference Week!

Tonight is our first evening of parent teacher conferences for this year.  I must say that the first set of conferences always makes me nervous because I don't feel like I know the families very well yet.  Of my 17 students 4 are siblings of students I've had before, so that's a plus.  

I did a full post on conferences last spring, so I'm not going to go into every little detail

 {You can read that post here.}, 

but just a few short tips I have, especially if you're new to teaching.

• Have a script - I don't mean a literal script necessarily, but have an order that you will go through everything.  My students assemble folders with everything we'll cover and we put it all in order.  It really helps with pacing and I've found that a lot of the time we cover most of the questions that parents come with.  It also ensures that you don't skip anything important.
• Find out how your students are doing outside of your classroom and share this info with parents - This is actually kind of a new one for me, but I have some students with behavior issues, so I've found it important to keep in touch with the specials teachers.  (For example I found one student has lots of problems in PE and music, but is never in computer.)
• Be ready to offer some solutions - If there's a problem you don't need to be able to have plans to fix it tomorrow, but have some ideas for possible solutions that you can discuss with parents.  I brought a few concerns to our school counselor last week and talked with him so that I am better prepared for conferences.  I also keep a pad of paper at the table with me so that I can take notes on anything that I can't answer or provide with them that day.
• Be friendly - Parents are nervous about conferences too, so be friendly and welcoming.  Try not to drop any "bombs" on parents at conferences.  (If there's an issue with a student try to talk to them or send a note home beforehand and don't wait until conference week.)  I've already tried to build a relationship with the parents and guardians of my more challenging students, so conference time is more of an update for their progress and on any topics we've already discussed.

I'll try to post a bit more later  in the week and show you a glimpse of our conferences folders, but I wanted to at least share a few additional tips to what I'd posted last spring.  I really do enjoy conferences and getting to know our families a bit better, so I want to be able to help you with running effective conferences as well!

Have a great Monday!

Fashion Friday: Busy Day

Busy Friday by conolley featuring flat sandals

I'm helping out with some interviews today and had to give up one of my casual days and dress up today.  I wanted something that was dressy, but also comfortable for sitting all day, going to lunch with coworkers, and running some errands after school.  Obviously my outfit had to do some multitasking!  This isn't an exact replica of what I'm wearing, but it's pretty darn close.  (My dress is black and from Banana Republic.)  I feel like this dress was a good investment even though I already have quite a few LBDs.  (Plus I snagged it for 50% off with a coupon...  You can read that story here.)  I have a feeling it's going to be a go-to dress and I love that it's so easy to accessorize in different ways!  I've accumulated several skinny belts (all very very cheap), so they're a very easy way to change up the look and the tone of my outfit.

I'm pretty sure this dress will be making an appearance at parent-teacher conferences next fall or spring.  It's right along the lines of the comfy / dressy style I like to go for when I have to be in the same outfit for 12 hours.

What are your go-to outfits or items?  

How do you dress when your outfit has to multi-task?

How To: Conferences

I mentioned in a few earlier posts that we had conferences this past week.  I actually enjoy meeting with parents and kids and getting to know the families in our school.  I'm blessed to work in a school that has a lot of involved parents who truly care about their children and support the school.

My student teacher sat in on most of the conferences this week and I think everyone should have this opportunity before they're thrown into it on their own.  I don't run conferences exactly the way my cooperating teacher did, but I did get a lot of great ideas on how to make everything run smoothly.

I wanted to share some of my conference tips and I'd love for you all to share your own comments and suggestions on how to make parent-teacher conferences successful!

1. Be organized - I have my students create a little construction paper folder to keep of the handouts in.  That way everything for each student is in one place and I can easily stack the folders in order and have them ready to go when parents arrive.  The last thing I was is to be scrambling through papers while parents sit and wait.  The kids help me organize everything, so they get involved in the process too!
2. Let the students provide their input - In the past I've had the kids write letters to their parents telling about how the school year is going.  The parents love hearing things straight from the kids (I let parents choose if the kids come or not to conferences) and it allows the parents to see a sample of the student's writing.  This semester, I had the kids complete this awesome self-reflection that I found over at Lesson Plan SOS.    I typed up my own backside and had the students write three things they're good at and three things they would like to improve.  This was pretty much identical to the sheet I fill out on the students to share as well.  I always have the student's input be the first thing in the folder.  Usually the kids are pretty on target as far as the good and bad and it's a great way to lead into the rest of the conference.
3. Don't overwhelm - I've never been one to save a lot of work samples to share at conferences.  We do Wednesday folders each week, so graded papers and all that kinda stuff goes home on a regular basis.  I know some teachers like to share work samples with parents and that works for some, but I also know of a lot who said this seems to bore a lot parents.  I have a sheet of test scores that I go over with parents (STAR, MAPS, AIMSWeb, state assessment prep, etc.)  It really helps to pace things and gives the parents an easy and simple explanation of the tests we give the students.
4. Share the positive...  And the negative - Like I said above, I have the kids write about the things they're good at and what they need to work on.  Almost always, I end up sharing the same items.  I write out three goals for each student in my conference report.  Every student, no matter how high or how low has three goals.  Here are the most common goals I had for these most recent conferences:  Meet yearly AR goal, meet standards on state assessments, memorize multiplication and division facts, work on organization and responsibility, bring back homework each morning.  Going through these things pretty much always covers any questions or concerns that parents have.  I try not to sugar coat things (which can be hard for me sometimes), but I try to focus on how the child can improve and not focus on what they're doing wrong.
5. Call in reinforcements - By this I mean, if you're afraid of meeting with the parents alone, ask a trusted colleague ahead of time to sit in on the conference with you.  Our principal (both the old one and the new one) have always made it known that they're available to sit in on any conferences that we're nervous about.  I've only called in the principal once in my five years...  I had what may possible be my most difficult behaviorally-challenged student EVER during my first year.  Even though the parents were actually quite supportive of the me and the help the school was trying to provide, I felt it was a good idea to have someone else there just in case.  

So, there are my tips for running successful parent-teacher conferences.  If you have any of your own tips, ideas, and suggestions please share them in the comments!  I'd love to hear how the rest of you wonderful teachers run your conferences!

Fashion Friday: Dressing for Conferences

We had conferences this week, which can make for some very long work days.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we had full school days and then met with parents until 7 p.m.  The kids didn't have school Thursday, but we had parents coming in for conferences until noon.  After that, I kicked off my 4 1/2 day weekend with some errands, a nap, and some quality time with my couch and DVR.  (It's amazing how I fell behind on my shows just stay at work 'til 7 a few nights this week.)

Anyway, I've seen a few other teacher bloggers post about what to wear for conferences, so I thought I'd show some Polyvore examples of outfits that I wore (or thought of wearing) for our conferences this week.  I try to keep my conference week outfits somewhat dressy, but also very comfortable since I have to be in them ALL day long.  

(BTW...  I've been having trouble pasting the Polyvore codes so I had to pin the pics to Pinterest and link them from there to my Polyvore page.)

This first outfit is a pretty close replica of what I wore on Monday.  We ended up getting our first decent dumping of snow on Sunday night so I knew in planning my Monday outfit I needed to go for warm, easy, and comfortable.  (I'm not a morning person at all and my normally 20-25 minute commute to work has taken up to an hour and 45 minutes on snowy days.)  I bought the Bright Ponte Blazer from Gap a while back and wanted to wear it on Valentine's Day Eve.  This outfit was super comfy and kept me warm, but still looked polished for meeting with parents.

(I won't share my Tuesday outfit...  We normally wear bully shirts with jeans on Tuesdays, but I have a purple K-State Valentine's tee that says "Be My Wildcat."  Yes, I totally rocked that tee and jeans for our party and conferences.  Not dressy at all, but it was appropriate for the holiday and I'm pretty sure none of the parents thought twice about it.  They know how hardcore I am about my Wildcats.  Heck, I still wore that tee after they'd lost to nasty KU the night before!)

This wasn't my actual Wednesday outfit, but I did consider rocking this sweater with black pants.  I came across this skirt at Target the other night, but didn't have time to try it on.  It was a great thick knit material, but would be really nice for all seasons.  I don't wear a lot of skirts to work (I'm more into dresses if I do go that route and that's pretty much only when it's warm outside), but I wanted to share a comfy look that is also very polished and professional.  I read several blogs of other teachers and I'm sometimes shocked by how dressy some of them are!  I know some schools have much more strict dress codes than we do, but I can't imagine spending my day in heels and pencil skirts.  Don't get me wrong, I love that look, but it's just not really my thing.  

I have to admit something...  Pants are not my strong area as far as work apparel.  I pretty much only wear black pants.  I have a few others, but I just struggle with finding non-black pants that flatter me and fit my budget.  Since we were only working until noon on Thursday and I had errands to run in the afternoon I decided to rock one of my favorite pairs of jeans.  These are the Straight Jeans from AE and they're pretty awesome.  They're very flattering, a great price, and easy to roll up and wear cropped during warm weather.  I'm on my second pair in the dark wash because I wore the heck out of them!  I bought this "dalmation print" sweater at Old Navy last month and had only worn it once.  It's a size bigger than normal, so the first time I wore it I felt a little sloppy and awkward.  I never dry my sweaters, but I did for this one and I was super happy to see it fit much better.  I decided to tone down the print my pairing it with my beloved black AE blazer (pretty sure it was my best purchase with my employee discount) and topped it with some gold accessories and some comfy boots.  Dressy enough for conferences and comfy enough for running around later in the day!

I was once told to never dress nicer than your dressiest parent...  Has anyone else heard that?  I'm not sure what to think of that concept.  I feel like I was dressed up more than most of the parents I met with, but I'm pretty sure most of them weren't wearing their work attire.  Just normal people clothes and stuff that you throw on after work.  

What do you think?  How do your dress for conferences?  Is it any different than what you'd wear on a normal school day?