I know after the VBlog I promised to give you the worksheet so you could teach your students the low-tech way to cut out letters. Then I went to Feedspot and read the Tech articles and have been pondering how I feel about the roll-out of IPads and eBooks and what it means to the education community at large. Is it going to be a battle of the haves (money for technology or grants available to poor schools) against have-nots (middle-of-the-road schools) - can it work in a classroom of 33 plus students? Are apps such as: new word a day; quote of the day; sentence diagramming in a snap, or spelling rules for goons with master controls at the teacher's finger tips workable? Do they or will they produce long-term learning?
I'll come back to this topic after I give you a quick parent conference overview when you know it is going to be horrible . . .
Since most problems are about communication,one quick thought - Does your school district provide you with a home page? If you are getting too many e-mails - take a look at your home page and be sure it is providing the necessary information to guide parents through what they need to know. If your district doesn't provide one, then consider getting setting one up for yourself and then refer your e-mailers to your homepage. Now, back to horrible conferences . . .
Rule number one: Have someone else there with you (counselor or administrator is preferred, but another teacher is acceptable) and if your school doesn't already have a conference documentation form, develop one. Also, set these bad ones up early in the school year rather than later - don't let a problem get out of hand - because you are going to love my solution.
Keep it simple: date; names of those in attendance; reason for meeting - please keep this as a positive statement or question. Meeting to determine how to increase _____'s reading comprehension ability. Meeting to determine how to increase positive attitude... meeting to determine what the next step will be to increase _________ interest in _________. This last item is for the parents or guardians who tell you their child is bored in your class and that is why he or she is misbehaving.
Rule number two: assure the guardians of the student that you are a team and are working to decide what is in the best interest of the child. As the conference progresses, be sure you have samples of the child's work and any other information that will be helpful to make positive decisions.
Start right away by writing an action plan and as the teacher do not assume responsibilities that should belong to the child!!
Explain to the parents that if you sign off on ________'s homework, you would be expected to do that for every child in your class or that if you e-mailed them the homework, you would be expected to do that for every child in your class. However, you do have buddy system in your classroom. ______student can work with another student to take the last 5 minutes of class to review homework assignments, have locker/bookbag clean outs and exchange e-mails if that is satisfactory, and since you already have a homework page, etc. this back-up system seems to help - it's kind of like having a personal assistant.
Build in a recheck date for another conference.
Tips: I learned that if I assumed responsibilities of the student and the parent was supposed to check backpacks, etc. - they never followed up on their end. I finally went to a buddy system. In my experience maybe one set of parents followed through - students who have decided to fail or not accept responsibility are the hardest ones to handle. This is because when a child tries to succeed and gets a D or an F - then he or she feels stupid. However, if a student chooses not to try and fails - it's not his or her fault - he or she didn't try.
Hopefully, the child is present and waiting outside and once the action plan is ready - then everyone goes over it quickly and signs it. Then the date for the follow-up conference is set.
If the word bored has been mentioned - then you should take this opportunity to raise the issue. _______, I understand that this class may not be challenging you and is that why you are having problems? Can you tell me a little bit about that? If he or she isn't answering, then ask the guardians or parents what they think the specific issue is. At this point, I look at those involved and say, well - there is an option - perhaps a schedule change or changing to another teacher would be best. Not every student and every teacher work well together and sometimes styles just don't match. Perhaps that is the case here, and I want what's best for ____.
This usually works wonders - it either gets the students to say - no, no - I'm fine in the class. I'd rather stay here. You take the opportunity to say: "Are you sure? I'll need to see better behavior or we'll have to consider the class change."
Amazing solution _________ student settles down. Sometimes you do get a student who wants a schedule change and he or she was not a good fit for your classroom style - so that's a win for you, too and you have stayed calm and professional throughout the process. Best of all, you have not taken on responsibilities that you don't have the time to fulfill which cause you to feel guilty. Hooray!
Tell me what you are doing with technology in your classroom? When I left - I was one of five teachers gifted with a whiteboard and I loved it. I had a computer that I had personally purchased and used at each of my 6 table groups and had routed them together. I had a laptop and video camera that could be used to create videos to be posted or viewed and this was 2001 to 2005. I streamed video clips from a library of clips that we had access to all the time as intros to historical topics or to provide context for literature. I know that things became problematical in the computer lab because kids were accessing porn and breaking through firewalls. This started happening in my classes along with vandalism and it broke my heart.
Access to power and available pipe size for streaming was an issue, too. So - I'm going to give you my low-tech stuff with some high-tech suggestions because I vowed that I would keep up with technology no matter what. I was an early adapter and even though at 64, I feel as if my head is going to fall off when I read all the articles I'm following - I still plan to research the long-term learning aspect of the use of apps in the classroom. Cheers!
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