Today is the start of the first of two marathon conference days. So far I've met with four parents. I have a total of 51 students in three classes. Of those 51 students, I have parents coming in for 25, a 50% turn out. The GPAs of the students whose parents are coming in are easily in the A range. Where are the parents of the D/F students (the parents I need to see the most)? I think that explains part of the problem right there.
My mom went to EVERY conference - even in the spring of the year when my grades didn't really matter. She went for two reasons - to show me how she valued my education and to see what a wonderful job she did raising me. Okay, that last reason might be a stretch, but her comments after the conferences were never lost on me. She wanted to encourage me. So many of my kids are missing that.
When I ran over to the gas station to refuel on coffee, the manager asked me how conferences were going (she has two kids in the school system here), I told her, "Slow. Really slow."
Upper management has told us to keep that quiet. Someone lipped off last year that conferences were really either a waste of time or two days 'off' since so few parents come in. I don't think they're a waste of time - I get my room cleaned, and a lot of reading, grading, and on line shopping done. But if our goal is to build relationships with the parents whose kids really need our help the most, then it most certainly is a waste of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment