Not Your Parents' Parent-Teacher Conferences
In this article Mr. Fisch talks about how having parent teacher conferences are almost pointless when the parents only want to discuss their child’s grade. Many teachers agree with him because when the parents know that their child’s grades are accessible online and they can talk to their kids they still come in and discuss it with their teacher. So one teacher this year took a different approach, she decided to sit down with each of her students and ask them to do and answer the following:
- Assess your learning in class so far this semester. Look at your participation, growth in writing, comprehension, etc..
- Where, in terms of your learning, do you want to be at the end of the semester?
- How are you going to get there?
- What can I do to help?
- Write a message to your parents.
Once the student’s did this they were supposed to bring their “learning assessment” to their parents to view.
After reading this article I think about how it makes a difference of who is asking me to view my grade and tell what level I want my learning to be at by a certain time. I truly believe that having this come from someone besides a parents really shows that it isn’t just the kid’s parents that care about what’s going on with their school work. Whenever I am asked to sit down with one/any of my teachers and discuss my grade I truly never worry because I don’t have bad grades. But when I think about how others feel when they have to sit with their teacher and discuss their grade when it isn’t good, it makes me wonder what is going through their head. I also like how the teachers take successful kid’s advice and disperse it to the kid’s who may need help. In the end I think student-teacher conferences are better than parent-teahcer conferences.
7 comments:
I love the article you picked and the way you thought "outside the box". When I read your blog it got me thinking about the way my parents handle my grades. I agree with the way the teacher was organizing the student’s grades. Instead of parent teacher conferences, I think letting the student be responsible for raising their own grade and staying on top of their work is better. I think that parents are important to make sure their student is being on task and doing well in school but when it comes down to it, the kids should take the responsibility to go see teachers for help and be aware of how well they are doing.
I agree with you and Mr. Fisch. But Parent-Teacher confrences are good so parents can learn what the kids are doing in class, and how they can help them study, do homework, etc. Do you know which teacher asked these questions? They are very good questions.
I agree, I think that parents should sit down with their child, and their childs teacher. Not to find out just their grade, but to figure out what is going on and how they can help.
Interesting article, Megan. You chose a blog that I know applies to a lot of the students here at school, including myself. My math teacher actually had us write a message to our parents, not in the exact format as Mr. Fisch mentioned, but very similar. I really liked this because it got me more involved with my school work. I set goals for myself,and it gave me a chance to think through what I was having trouble with and what I felt comfortable with. I think that if more teachers ask their students to do this, they'll realize that it's not "all about the grade". That was true for me this year because I realized that my learning is so, so important. Learning something and learning something and understanding it are two different things.
Good blog, Megan!
i think grades are the kids problem and the parents should stay out of it. what if the kid has good grades and doesnt really whant their parints to know? think about it. i know i don't like my parents looking at my grades.
Mr. Fisch has some very valid point but with parent teacher confrences the teachers and parents get to bond and really talk about the concerns with the kids. I mean think about it kids arent always truthfull about there grades etc.,
i think the parents should truly know whats going on with there kids from experiance form the teacher and get there kids on a good path, i mean if there grades are bad not all students have bad grades.
forgot to add, overall good duscussion post
that really made me think =]
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